Yes We Can

The real Story of August

Organizing for America

Rudolf J. --

At the beginning of August, President Obama wrote to the OFA community to challenge us to work hard, break through the noise and give the American people a voice in the fight for health insurance reform.

It wasn't easy: With Congress back home, special interests and partisan attack groups went into overdrive spreading lies, and the media seemed to broadcast any story of conflict or division they could find.

But you accepted the President's challenge -- and delivered.

See it for yourself: Check out the latest photos and stories from around the country.

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Our strategy for the month was simple: engage the millions of individuals who know we need change to fight the lies and tell the truth, build support for reform, and ensure that support is highly visible while members of Congress are home gauging public opinion. We continued our methodical, battle-tested approach of volunteers reaching out online and offline in every part of the country. We offered the facts, answered questions and engaged those who were ready to get involved.

And the results were extraordinary. OFA supporters like you came together in an unprecedented way over the past four weeks -- and it couldn't have happened without the individual volunteers who make it all possible:

  • Folks like Rebecca E. in Santa Fe, New Mexico, who voted for the first time last year -- and collected more than 1,800 health care declarations this summer. Across the country, we've collected more than 1 million signatures in support of the President's core principles for health insurance reform.
  • Supporters like Nita L. in Longmont, Colorado, who organized hundreds of supporters in her town to come with her to talk with their member of Congress about how much this fight means to them. They were among the more than 70,000 folks who showed up at 350 town halls -- where supporters of reform at times outnumbered opponents by 10-1 -- and volunteers who made 65,000 trips to local congressional offices.
  • It's the people who made more than 100,000 calls to Congress to thank representatives fighting for change -- like Nancy T. in Hendersonville, North Carolina, who hosted a health care phone booth because, after her heart transplant, she knows that no American should have to choose between financial ruin and getting the care they need.
  • It's the 1,500 supporters who filled a local recreation center in Kansas City, Missouri, at a town hall meeting with Senator Claire McCaskill, and the 2,500 people who jammed the streets to hear from Senator Sherrod Brown in Ohio -- just two of the more than 4,000 events where folks gathered to show their support across all 50 states in August.

All of these signatures, calls, office drop-bys, conversations, gatherings, and town hall meetings, all of the late nights, homemade signs, long hours in the sun, and tireless volunteers who make it happen -- totaling more than 1.5 million people who've taken part in this campaign for real reform -- it all adds up to one incredible movement for change.
Check out the latest photos and stories from the field to see this movement in action:

As Congress returns to D.C. and we roll up our sleeves for the final push toward reform, we know the hardest work may yet lie ahead. The special interests and those in Congress who have pledged to oppose the President no matter what will stoop even lower in the weeks ahead.

But you should never doubt that we face the coming challenges together, as part of something far larger than any of us alone -- and far stronger than the old broken politics that have preserved the status quo for long enough.

Our strategy is working. We are going to win this thing. Americans will finally get the health insurance reform we all need.

Thank you for making it possible,

Mitch

Mitch Stewart
Director
Organizing for America

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Healthcare Reform: Ready to go

Organizing for America
Rudolf J. --

The fight to fix America's healthcare system is here. Monday, President Obama laid out his roadmap by announcing three principles for healthcare reform and calling on Congress to act this year. Hundreds of thousands of us joined that call online. Then -- yesterday morning -- Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi responded, pledging to bring real healthcare reform to a vote by July 31st!

Special interest lobbyists and partisan ideologues will now go into overdrive, spreading distortions and twisting arms in D.C. to water down the final plan -- or stop it entirely. They did it before, and they're betting they can do it again. But they're forgetting something: you.

(....)


With your support, we can train volunteers, hire organizers, place ads, hold local educational events, bring constituent voices straight to Congress, and make sure your real life stories are heard louder than the lobbyists' spin. But executing this plan will require a lot of resources, and with just 78 days or less before the first crucial vote, we can't wait another minute to begin.

Last November, Americans sent a strong message that we are ready to take the serious steps we need for change. Obama laid out those steps on health care this week with his three core principles: reduce costs, guarantee choice, and ensure every American has quality, affordable health care.

But special interests will spend millions making sure politicians and the Washington establishment forget that message. They'll say reforming health care is too difficult and too costly. And they'll say it's too much change all at one time. They'll say it simply can't be done. But we know the answer to that: yes we can.

For every distortion they put on the airwaves, we must immediately broadcast the facts. For every deceptive pamphlet they send in the mail, we must have a volunteer going door to door, ready to have a real conversation and break through the spin. For every lobbyist cutting deals in the back rooms of DC, we need a thousand calls, letters, stories, and visits from regular Americans who will settle for nothing less than the real healthcare reform this country needs.

This challenge is what Organizing for America was designed for. Together, we can transform the way change is made in this country -- but we can't wait another day to begin.

Your contribution to our healthcare campaign is the vital first step that will enable us to hire the staff, open the local offices, train the volunteers, design and place the ads, and put all the other pieces in place we need to execute this urgent plan. Please chip in $25 today:

(....)


America has been wrestling with our spiraling healthcare crisis for a long time. But with your help, this time will be different. This time, the people will be heard. And when the dust settles before the end of this year, every American will finally have the quality, affordable health care we need and deserve.

Thanks for making it possible,

Mitch

Mitch Stewart
Director
Organizing for America

 

(edited by Rudolf J. Osler; die Linx sind teilweise nicht mehr aktuell)

First Americans can make the difference

Obama for America


First Americans have been stepping up across the nation to help bring the change we need.

They know Barack Obama wants tribal nations to be a part of shaping our shared future -- to have a voice in rebuilding our economy, responsibly ending the war in Iraq, and changing the way business is done in Washington.

With only days left until Election Day, your support is more important than ever.

We've put together a video about First Americans getting involved to help Barack.

Watch the video, then sign up to help in the final push.

Watch the video and get involved

Everything will come down to these last few days. No matter what anyone says, this election will be decided on the ground by dedicated people helping to get out the vote.

We're almost there. And we need you to take us over the finish line.

Watch the video and take action to make sure we bring the change we need:

http://my.barackobama.com/FAMgetinvolved

With your help, we can make history and change our country.

Thank you for all that you're doing,

First Americans for Obama

 

 

(edited by Rudolf J. Osler; die Linx sind teilweise nicht mehr aktuell)

What they don't want to talk about

Rudolf J. -- Watch the video

Over the weekend, John McCain's top adviser announced their plan to stop engaging in a debate over the economy and "turn the page" to more direct, personal attacks on Barack Obama.

In the middle of the worst economic crisis since the Great Depression, they want to change the subject from the central question of this election. Perhaps because the policies McCain supported these past eight years and wants to continue are pretty hard to defend.

But it's not just McCain's role in the current crisis that they're avoiding. The backward economic philosophy and culture of corruption that helped create the current crisis are looking more and more like the other major financial crisis of our time.

During the savings and loan crisis of the late '80s and early '90s, McCain's political favors and aggressive support for deregulation put him at the center of the fall of Lincoln Savings and Loan, one of the largest in the country. More than 23,000 investors lost their savings. Overall, the savings and loan crisis required the federal government to bail out the savings of hundreds of thousands of families and ultimately cost American taxpayers $124 billion.

Sound familiar?

In that crisis, John McCain and his political patron, Charles Keating, played central roles that ultimately landed Keating in jail for fraud and McCain in front of the Senate Ethics Committee. The McCain campaign has tried to avoid talking about the scandal, but with so many parallels to the current crisis, McCain's Keating history is relevant and voters deserve to know the facts -- and see for themselves the pattern of poor judgment by John McCain.

So at noon Eastern on Monday, October 6th, we're releasing a 13-minute documentary about the scandal called "Keating Economics: John McCain and the Making of a Financial Crisis" -- it will be available at KeatingEconomics.com, along with background information that every voter should know.

Watch a preview right now and share it with your friends.

The point of the film and the web site is that John McCain still hasn't learned his lesson.

And this time, McCain's bankrupt economic philosophy has put our economy at the brink of collapse and put millions of Americans at risk of losing their homes.

Watch the video to see why John McCain's failed philosophy and poor judgment is a recipe for deepening the crisis:

http://my.barackobama.com/keatingvideo

It's no wonder John McCain would rather spend the last month of this election smearing Barack's character instead of talking about the top priority issue for voters.

But if we work together, we can make sure the focus stays on the economy -- and how to fix it.

Please forward this email to everyone you know.

Thanks,

David

David Plouffe
Campaign Manager
Obama for America

P.S. -- The documentary will be live at noon Eastern on Monday, October 6th at www.KeatingEconomics.com.

 

(edited by Rudolf J. Osler; die Linx sind teilweise nicht mehr aktuell)

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Dieser Bereich beschäftigt sich mit den politischen und gesellschaftlichen Veränderungen in den Vereinigten Staaten von Amerika. Insbesondere finden Sie hier:

Texte,
Reden,
allgemeine Informationen zu,
Original Podcasts und Organizing for Health Care
Original Videomaterial

von und über Barack Obama.

Dieser Bereich ist der aktuellen Politik Barack Obamas ab seiner Amtseinführung im Januar 2009 vorbehalten. Informationen zu den Zeiträumen seiner Wahlkampagne und zu den Präsidentschaftswahlen finden Sie in den entsprechenden Bereichen 'Election', 'Pre-election' und 'Election Campaign'.

Dieser Bereich beschäftigt sich mit den politischen und gesellschaftlichen Veränderungen in den Vereinigten Staaten von Amerika zu den Zeiträumen seiner Wahlkampagne und zu den Präsidentschaftswahlen. Insbesondere finden Sie hier:

Texte,
Reden,
allgemeine Informationen zu,
Original Podcasts und 
Original Videomaterial

von und über Barack Obama.

Entsprechende Informationen über die aktuelle Politik Barack Obamas ab seiner Amtseinführung im Januar 2009 erhalten Sie im Bereich 'Current Policies'.

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