'stina has Hope
Pretty interesting article on the advisors that Barack Obama has working for him.
I never got around to talking about the weekend. Which may have been one of the most beautiful weekends in the history of weekends. No clouds, no humidity, temperatures in the 70s. A slight breeze.
On Saturday morning, after lounging around the house for awhile, Graham and I wandered over to the Breakfast Klub to figure out whether or not the line was worth standing in. We decided it was too long, but we saw that there was activity at the Barack Obama storefront across the street that the owner of the Breakfast Klub had donated to the campaign. It looks like the campaign has moved it's main office from the Southmore location to that location, which makes sense.
About a week ago, a local collective of street artists Aerosol Warfare painted a Shephard Fairy (see new userpic) mural on the side of the building:
and it's gotten a lot of attention. The building is bright yellow, and there are Barack Obama signs everywhere around it. It's a pretty big building, too, and it seemed like there was a lot of activity going on over at the phone banks, though we couldn't see all the way in. People were coming in and out and it just looked really busy. Graham signed up to volunteer on election day, and I asked the person at the front desk if there were any bumper stickers. He apologized that he didn't have any, but he said that they were handing out swag at a rally in front of City Hall at 1:30, so maybe we could get something there. A woman who was passing by as we were asking, though, said that she had a few but they were a dollar each, but she assured me that the campaign would get the money. For some reason, we had to do the transaction outside, but we left with two bumperstickers (one of which was immediately put on my car) and directions to the rally.
We went to breakfast at the Buffalo Grille, and then wandered over to downtown at around one o'clock.
There weren't many people quite there yet. There was someone setting up a sound system by the steps, and other groups were trying to figure out signs. At either entrance to the area, there was a table where you could exchange your name and contact info for either a tee shirt or a 2 x 3 poster with the same Shephard Fairy image. Graham opted for the tee shirt, and I grabbed the poster. We waited around a little while, and people, especially a lot of media people, did start to show up. It wasn't a huge turnout, though. Both Graham and I'd been to the Obama website within 24 hours looking for events, and the City Hall thing wasn't listed. I'd say maybe 75ish people showed up.
When they got started, a 12 year old kid performed a rap song he said he'd written about Barack Obama, which was really cute, especially when he got to the policy verse. After that, there were a number of speeches from a variety of college students, and we realized that this was some sort of Students for Obama rally. Someone gave me some rally signs that said "Tejanos for Obama". I saved one for my dad. At the end of the rally, which seemed to take only 25 or so minutes, they organized a march to an early voting area. I want to vote on election day, so we passed on that.
The rest of the weekend was spent gloriously outside. When we got home, I taped the new poster to the front of my house, which will eventually get destroyed by the weather, but hopefully we'll get a yard sign or two before that happens. My next door neighbor asked me where I got the poster and expressed extreme jealousy that I'm the first on our block to have signs out. Then, we took Crianza (who acts like nothing happened) to the dog park on Saturday for over an hour. She spent most of the time defending me from the rest of the unruly mob, but she did interact a little bit with the other doggies. We cooked dinner on the grill on Saturday, and invited my dad over, since my mom and Jose had been at the ranch. My dad early voted at Fiesta that day, and he exchanged his GBLT Political Caucus endorsement list for the Tejanos sign.
Sunday, Graham and I spent as much time as we could outside. We lingered on the back patio for hours after breakfast. And after running an errand, we went back to the dog park to enjoy the weather with four footed types, even though our own dogs were at home.
Graham wore his new Obama shirt to an Oscar party we went to that night, and it seemed like everyone there except for one lone Hillary supporter (who wore his Hillary 06 shirt) was a Obama supporter. Graham got a lot of questions about where he'd gotten his shirt.
I have to say, I've NEVER seen this much excitement about an election before. Part of it is that Texas hasn't had something like this sort of attention on it in 30 years. But I think it's more than that, I think people really do believe that this Hope and Change and all of those optimistic words that get shot down as too romantic or naive actually are taking on a life of their own. People are responding to it, connecting to it.
I was sent this link today, and I'm not quibbling with the analysis at all: Paul Burka of Texas Monthly is not, or at least has not been, an Obama fan. That makes his take on early voting in Texas that much more interesting. He reports on the tidal wave of early voting, and concludes:Barack Obama's personality and his message are dominating politics nationwide. The last candidate to stir this kind of feeling was Ronald Reagan in 1980 and before him Bobby Kennedy in 1968. Veteran political observers like me can roll our eyes over someone running for president on a platform of "Hope" and "Change," but nothing is so powerful as an idea, even a vague one, whose time has come. Obama is riding the whirlwind, and if he can make the moment last until November, it is going to sweep out the Republicans, even in Texas.
These numbers are so overwhelming, and the fifteen counties have such a large fraction of the state's registered voters -- 7,815,906 of 12,607,466, or 62% -- that what happens in other 239 counties is unlikely to alter the trend. These numbers have made me a believer. Rick Noriega could defeat John Cornyn. The Democrats can win a majority in the Texas House of Representatives. The consummate irony is that George W. Bush, who made Texas a Republican state on his way in to the presidency, may make it a Democratic state on his way out.
Rasmussen Reports
shows HRC still with a one-point lead in Texas. But it also reports that 29% (!) of the people likely to vote in the primary have already done so, and that Obama is winning that group "handily." Recall that HRC won in California entirely on the basis of early voting; among those who voted on Election Day, Obama probably had a small edge. If Obama is winning the early voters an tied overall with a week to go, there's good reason for confidence.
Graham and I were talking yesterday about how we need to just focus on this primary until March 4, and then afterwards, we need to throw all of the momentum we've built up on the Rick Noriega campaign. Democrats in Texas are rising up, in huge numbers, and I actually am beginning to harbor a Hope that not only are we going to see a beautiful change in the White House, but that my Senator may actually be someone I'm proud to send to Washington. And it's this momentum that Obama is building that's causing this.
I've been trying very hard to stay relatively neutral in this primary, mostly because I want to support whichever candidate wins wholeheartedly. I was burned by throwing my love on Howard Dean last time around, and I didn't want to end up doing that this time. I like Hillary Clinton, I think she'd be a fine President. But Barack Obama's campaign inspires me, and it seems to inspire other people. I get the feeling that the support he has from the people will help propel us into a new, better world. And that's something that's been missing for a long, long time.
I never got around to talking about the weekend. Which may have been one of the most beautiful weekends in the history of weekends. No clouds, no humidity, temperatures in the 70s. A slight breeze.
On Saturday morning, after lounging around the house for awhile, Graham and I wandered over to the Breakfast Klub to figure out whether or not the line was worth standing in. We decided it was too long, but we saw that there was activity at the Barack Obama storefront across the street that the owner of the Breakfast Klub had donated to the campaign. It looks like the campaign has moved it's main office from the Southmore location to that location, which makes sense.
About a week ago, a local collective of street artists Aerosol Warfare painted a Shephard Fairy (see new userpic) mural on the side of the building:
Click to viewand it's gotten a lot of attention. The building is bright yellow, and there are Barack Obama signs everywhere around it. It's a pretty big building, too, and it seemed like there was a lot of activity going on over at the phone banks, though we couldn't see all the way in. People were coming in and out and it just looked really busy. Graham signed up to volunteer on election day, and I asked the person at the front desk if there were any bumper stickers. He apologized that he didn't have any, but he said that they were handing out swag at a rally in front of City Hall at 1:30, so maybe we could get something there. A woman who was passing by as we were asking, though, said that she had a few but they were a dollar each, but she assured me that the campaign would get the money. For some reason, we had to do the transaction outside, but we left with two bumperstickers (one of which was immediately put on my car) and directions to the rally.
We went to breakfast at the Buffalo Grille, and then wandered over to downtown at around one o'clock.
There weren't many people quite there yet. There was someone setting up a sound system by the steps, and other groups were trying to figure out signs. At either entrance to the area, there was a table where you could exchange your name and contact info for either a tee shirt or a 2 x 3 poster with the same Shephard Fairy image. Graham opted for the tee shirt, and I grabbed the poster. We waited around a little while, and people, especially a lot of media people, did start to show up. It wasn't a huge turnout, though. Both Graham and I'd been to the Obama website within 24 hours looking for events, and the City Hall thing wasn't listed. I'd say maybe 75ish people showed up.
When they got started, a 12 year old kid performed a rap song he said he'd written about Barack Obama, which was really cute, especially when he got to the policy verse. After that, there were a number of speeches from a variety of college students, and we realized that this was some sort of Students for Obama rally. Someone gave me some rally signs that said "Tejanos for Obama". I saved one for my dad. At the end of the rally, which seemed to take only 25 or so minutes, they organized a march to an early voting area. I want to vote on election day, so we passed on that.
The rest of the weekend was spent gloriously outside. When we got home, I taped the new poster to the front of my house, which will eventually get destroyed by the weather, but hopefully we'll get a yard sign or two before that happens. My next door neighbor asked me where I got the poster and expressed extreme jealousy that I'm the first on our block to have signs out. Then, we took Crianza (who acts like nothing happened) to the dog park on Saturday for over an hour. She spent most of the time defending me from the rest of the unruly mob, but she did interact a little bit with the other doggies. We cooked dinner on the grill on Saturday, and invited my dad over, since my mom and Jose had been at the ranch. My dad early voted at Fiesta that day, and he exchanged his GBLT Political Caucus endorsement list for the Tejanos sign.
Sunday, Graham and I spent as much time as we could outside. We lingered on the back patio for hours after breakfast. And after running an errand, we went back to the dog park to enjoy the weather with four footed types, even though our own dogs were at home.
Graham wore his new Obama shirt to an Oscar party we went to that night, and it seemed like everyone there except for one lone Hillary supporter (who wore his Hillary 06 shirt) was a Obama supporter. Graham got a lot of questions about where he'd gotten his shirt.
I have to say, I've NEVER seen this much excitement about an election before. Part of it is that Texas hasn't had something like this sort of attention on it in 30 years. But I think it's more than that, I think people really do believe that this Hope and Change and all of those optimistic words that get shot down as too romantic or naive actually are taking on a life of their own. People are responding to it, connecting to it.
I was sent this link today, and I'm not quibbling with the analysis at all: Paul Burka of Texas Monthly is not, or at least has not been, an Obama fan. That makes his take on early voting in Texas that much more interesting. He reports on the tidal wave of early voting, and concludes:Barack Obama's personality and his message are dominating politics nationwide. The last candidate to stir this kind of feeling was Ronald Reagan in 1980 and before him Bobby Kennedy in 1968. Veteran political observers like me can roll our eyes over someone running for president on a platform of "Hope" and "Change," but nothing is so powerful as an idea, even a vague one, whose time has come. Obama is riding the whirlwind, and if he can make the moment last until November, it is going to sweep out the Republicans, even in Texas.
These numbers are so overwhelming, and the fifteen counties have such a large fraction of the state's registered voters -- 7,815,906 of 12,607,466, or 62% -- that what happens in other 239 counties is unlikely to alter the trend. These numbers have made me a believer. Rick Noriega could defeat John Cornyn. The Democrats can win a majority in the Texas House of Representatives. The consummate irony is that George W. Bush, who made Texas a Republican state on his way in to the presidency, may make it a Democratic state on his way out.
Rasmussen Reports
shows HRC still with a one-point lead in Texas. But it also reports that 29% (!) of the people likely to vote in the primary have already done so, and that Obama is winning that group "handily." Recall that HRC won in California entirely on the basis of early voting; among those who voted on Election Day, Obama probably had a small edge. If Obama is winning the early voters an tied overall with a week to go, there's good reason for confidence.
Graham and I were talking yesterday about how we need to just focus on this primary until March 4, and then afterwards, we need to throw all of the momentum we've built up on the Rick Noriega campaign. Democrats in Texas are rising up, in huge numbers, and I actually am beginning to harbor a Hope that not only are we going to see a beautiful change in the White House, but that my Senator may actually be someone I'm proud to send to Washington. And it's this momentum that Obama is building that's causing this.
I've been trying very hard to stay relatively neutral in this primary, mostly because I want to support whichever candidate wins wholeheartedly. I was burned by throwing my love on Howard Dean last time around, and I didn't want to end up doing that this time. I like Hillary Clinton, I think she'd be a fine President. But Barack Obama's campaign inspires me, and it seems to inspire other people. I get the feeling that the support he has from the people will help propel us into a new, better world. And that's something that's been missing for a long, long time.