President Obama has just sent a brand new email to folks in the 20th urging them to get out and vote for Scott Murphy and even providing a polling place finder link. The message was sent to those residents of the 20th who are on the Organizing for America and DNC lists.
Tomorrow, Tuesday, is the day to vote in New York's 20th Congressional District special election, and I need you to go vote.
I wrote to you last week to announce my endorsement of Scott Murphy because we need his kind of leadership and experience in Washington. It's going to be a very close race, and your vote could make all the difference.
Our movement for change has come this far because supporters like you stood up and made your voices heard every time it mattered.
With Scott in Congress, we'll work together to bring about solutions to our economic challenges and create new jobs in Upstate New York and across the country.
Having created over 1,000 jobs by starting successful businesses in clean energy and high-tech industries, Scott understands the potential we have to rebuild our economy and create a new foundation for prosperity.
That's the kind of partner I need in Washington. Please look up your polling place and vote tomorrow:
The Democratic National Committee is waging a last minute injection of as much as $20 million into state legislative races in key states, hoping to take advantage of Democratic momentum this cycle.
(snip)
In 2006, a last minute injection of $35 million from the DNC into House, Senate and state legislative races helped the party gain eight state legislative chambers.
Some of this year's cash could be sent to U.S. House races; most would be earmarked for races further down the ballot.
This year, having plucked the low-hanging fruit, Democrats have set their sights on tougher pulls, like New York's state senate. "It's the biggest toss-up on the map," says Matt Compton, a spokesperson for the Democratic Legislative Campaign Committee.
(emphasis mine)
Lets hope the DNC makes good on this possibility. The DNC knows that control of statehouses is important for the congressional redistricting that will happen in 2012. Although I am personally against gerrymandering, if it's going to be partisan, I'd rather it be Democrat-favored.
In related news, stateline.org has rated New York's State Senate as "leaning Democratic," reflecting a growing consensus in the national media that New York is finally going to get the Democratic Senate we all deserve. I highly recommend reading the whole article (and cool maps) about hot statehouse races across the country and the great opportunity grassroots progressives have to make unprecedented gains in our local governments across the country.
I'll soon be posting plenty of pictures from last Thursday night and I wanted to share this one first. As I listen to Fred Thompson harp and hawk POW porn to a nationwide audience, I keep thinking of this young girl I encountered on the field at Mile High. She is the daughter of someone in the New York delegation and she seemed to embody the very essence of the night. That night was about the way forward, about the future, about what we owe our children, about what those not yet born deserve from us.
Contrast that with what we are hearing right now from Grandpa Fred.
It's been an exhausting week and I've yet to post tons of stuff from Denver. That will change over the next day or so as I wind down from the experience back home in Brooklyn. That said, I thought I'd share this right away. This landed in my inbox recently.
To Whom It May Concern:
The United States Library of Congress has selected your Web site for inclusion in its historic collections of Internet materials related to Election 2008. The Library's traditional functions, acquiring, cataloging, preserving and serving collection materials of historical importance to the Congress and to the American people to foster education and scholarship, extend to digital materials, including Web sites. We request your permission to collect your web site and add it to the Library's research collections. We also ask that we be allowed to display the archived version(s) of your web site.
The following URL has been selected:
thealbanyproject.com
With your permission, the Library of Congress or its agent will engage in the collection of content from your Web site at regular intervals over time. The Library will make this collection available to researchers onsite at Library facilities. The Library also wishes to make the collection available to offsite researchers by hosting the collection on the Library's public access Web site. The Library hopes that you share its vision of preserving Internet materials and permitting researchers from across the world to access them...
For several years, the Library of Congress has collected Web sites within certain themes or topics, such as elections, for which we were required to seek permission for each new collection developed by the Library, even if permission had been granted in the past. As our collections have grown, we have had to contact some Web site producers repeatedly. To reduce this duplication and to save site owners from having to respond to multiple requests for information, we are now requesting permissions for the Library to collect, over time and in varying frequency, sites of research interest. Your site has been identified as a Web site of interest related to Election 2008. If you grant this permission, we will capture your site for inclusion in our Election 2008 Web Archive and may also include it in our future collections related to national elections. If you grant this permission, and in the future you no longer wish to be included in the Library's Web archives, please contact us and we will cease collection of your Web site.
Our Election Web archives are important because they contribute to the historical record of our national elections, capturing information that could otherwise be lost. With the growing role of the Web as an influential medium, records of historic events could be considered incomplete without materials that were "born digital" and never printed on paper. The Library has developed three previous Election Web Archives, in 2000, 2002 and 2004. These Election Archives are available along with our other Web Archive collections through the Library's Web site (http://www.loc.gov/webcapture/). For more information about these and other Web Archive collections please visit our Web site.
...
Thank You,
Web Capture Team
Library of Congress
Washington, D.C.
9:47: Obama CO chair Ray Rivera says that in the past hour, they've had over 30,000 text message sign-ups. Ladies and gentlemen, Obama is waging the first truly 21st-century campaign.
9:40: Barney Smith, who lost his job of 30 years to outsourcing. Money quote:
Republicans talk about putting country first... we need a President who puts Barney Smith before Smith Barney!
9:38: Pamela Cash-Roper is now speaking. She is talking about how medical bills have bankrupted her. Money quote:
I'm a lifelong Republican who voted for Nixon, Ford, Bush and Bush, but I can't afford 4 more years of this.
9:35: Teresa Asenap is now hitting the "anti-education Republicans" theme.
9:33: Janet Lynn Monacco from Long Island is now speaking- perhaps we can snag her for an interview on TAP before the election?
9:31: Early says Ohio is home to 4 of the fastest-dying cities in America. I feel NY might also share that dubious distinction.
9:31: Monica Early, Akron grandma, is now debunking the anti-Obama smears.
9:30: American Voices program begins- first up, Teamster Roy Gross.
9:23: Biden returns! Also, I got into the lottery, so I WILL be covering Obama's speech!
9:21: Gration lost 18 men in the Khobar Towers bombing. So sad.
9:17: Air Force Maj. General Scott Gration is now talking about breifing Obama on a trip to Africa in 2006. I wonder how many Generals just can't wait to have a boss who actually knows anything about foreign policy.
9:15: The military brass is now coming on stage- great to see Wesley Clark there- I heard his an Obama's camps had a falling-out, but good to see that's been worked out. He also got a great hand.
9:12: Susan Eisenhower is now speaking- perhaps not-coincidentally, she is the granddaughter of the last non-evil Republican to occupy the White House.
9:05: They just did the wave at Invesco- I don't know if that's ever been done at a political convention before.
Barack Obama is John McCain as Jay-Z is to Vanilla Ice.
8:22: Richardson just really pumped this place up.
8:19: Is anybody going to miss Dick Cheney? Perhaps the staff at the Onion.
8:18: Looking over excerpts of Obama's prepared remarks, and let me tell you right now folks- there is a LOT of red meat in this speech. Bush and McSame will be hurting tomorrow.
8:16: McCain wears $500 shoes, but we don't know how much he spends on his flip-flops.
8:14: Bill Richardson speaks Spanish better.
8:10: Tim Kaine speaks Spanish pretty well.
8:06: Tim Kaine takes the stage. I was lucky enough to meet a blogger from Raising Kaine jsut now.
During the performances and down-time, I will use this diary for recap commentary on the past days of the convention.
Bill Clinton: One of the most compelling lines he said was that since 2001 has been the only time the GOP has had unchecked power in America. It was great that he drew a contrast with conservative ideas that often sound unoffensive in the abstract sense, and what happens when those ideas are actually put into practice.
As this decade has shown, unchecked conservative power has resulted in a disasterous war, an energy crisis, a severely depressed economy, and terrorists gaining power in areas like Pakistan and Afghanistan because republicans decided to wage a war of choice and ignore the war of necessity.
If there is any silver lining to the Bush years, it's that we have once and for all settled the debate on conservatism- it is an ideology of complete failure.
John Kerry: Kerry delivered the speech I think we all wish he had done at any time during his 2004 campaign. In 2004, he unbelievably thought not going negative in his convention was a good idea, although as a challenger, he should have known that every election with an incumbent is a referendum on that incumbent, and no amount of positive portrayal of the challenger will get a victory unless you kneecap the incumbent first.
There is no incumbent in this election, but there is an incumbent party, and Kerry kneecapped the GOP last night:
How insulting to suggest that those who question the mission, question the troops. How pathetic to suggest that those who question a failed policy, doubt America itself. How desperate to tell the son of a single mother who chose community service over money and privilege that he doesn't put America first.
Even though it's too late, Kerry seems to have learned the lessons of 2004. I look forward to him getting upwards of 90% in his re-election bid for senate this year.
8:46: Extolling the 50-state strategy- says we are going to win Alaska and Virginia, talks about the special elections we've won in deep red districts this year. Personally, I thought the 50SS would take at least 10 years to bear fruit, but I guess having the right candidate helps out a lot.
Just got into the blogger area in the Invesco Press Box. Because there are way more bloggers than there is space, everybody is working in half-hour shifts, rotating every 90 minutues, so that is why there will be some downtime tonight. I will try to blog from my iphone when my rotation is off, but I can't make any promises.
Here's the view:
UPDATE: Here's some highlights from the revised schedule tonight:
5-6 PM: Howard Dean, video tribute to Martin Luther King Jr., followed by Rep. John Lewis and MLK's daughter and son, Bernice and Martin Luther King III. Then there is some musical performances by will.i.am and John legend, then Obama's CO director, and Sheryl Crow.
6-7: Mark Udall, Tim Kaine, Bill Richardson, Stevie Wonder, and Al Gore.
7-8: Micharl McDonald performs, then Susan Eisenhower, daughter of Ike, retired generals (hope Wes Clark is one of them), then a lineup of "real people" whose personal stories seem quite compelling
8-9: Obama bio video, introduction by Dick Durbin, then Obama speaks, followed by a benediction and adjournment by Nancy Pelosi.
UPDATE 2: Because of the limited blogger space, there is a lottery for who gets to cover Obama's speech. I will know if I get in around 7:45. If I don't get it, it won't be the end of the world because it would be nice to view it as a spectator, but I would still prefer to bring it to y'all.
Our Senior Senator just visited the Big Tent here in Denver. Chuck Schumer just left after spending about half an hour mixing with the crowd. He took a number of questions, some friendly, some less so. Video later today.
The police police secured the street in front of the Big Tent about half an hour ago. It looked as if they were preparing for a motorcade. Now we know why. That motorcade just sped by us with a certain Senator from Illinois in tow.
I just got handed the text of the speech that John Kerry is about to deliver here in Denver. It's a devastating, take no prisoners take down of Bush and McSame. If you aren't tuned in to the convention right now, you might want to turn the TV on. This one should be good.
I'll admit it. I'm just a huge fan of Senator Jon Tester (D-MT). We don't agree on everything, but I just really, really like the guy. He just stopped by the Big tent to say hello and I'm proud to say I got to shake his hand again and share a minute with him.
