Today in Voter Suppression: Husted Ruling Made Permanent

You may remember one of my favorite cases from last election cycle was OFA v. Husted because of the clever legal angle and the fact that Husted was just so blatantly a jerk about it. This ruling simply says that the decision (in OFA's favor) remains in place for this November.

"The Obama Campaign sued Husted and the state of Ohio in 2012, alleging the change violated Ohioans rights to participate equally in elections. The courts sided with the plaintiffs, concluding it was wrong to treat some voters (non-military) different than others (military). The Ohio Supreme Court rejected a request for an emergency stay, and Husted released new hours including the weekend voting days.

The 2012 case remained open and Wednesday's summary judgment makes the ruling permanent. The decision does not change cuts made earlier this year on the front end of Ohio's early voting period."

So...yay! I just wanted to share some good voting news.

RIP Jason Chambers

"The idea of eating horse doesn't really bother me. They would do it to you. Horses are assholes."

How could I not want to help honor the author of this quote? Within minutes of reading about Jason Chambers, a 27 year-old OFA Virginia alum who died of cancer this month, I was crying at my desk at work. He sounds so much like someone I would have been friends with. I keep imagining him having the experiences that every organizer has; getting told that making phone calls doesn’t make a difference and doing it anyway, staying up until the middle of the night making walk packets,never imagining that that would be his last job. So many of us justify giving up our 20’s to campaigns with the knowledge that when we are older with steady paychecks and families we will get to look back on a youth without regrets. Jason never got that opportunity.

Below is a tribute to Jason written by one of his friends from the Obama campaign, Justin Spees. Please help honor his memory by taking a moment to read it and contributing to his funeral expenses if you can.

On the night of Thursday, December 19th, Jason Chambers passed away after a months’ long struggle with Ewing’s sarcoma, a rare and very lethal type of bone cancer. He was 27 years old, and like so many readers of this blog, a 2012 OFA field organizer.

Jason started as an intern for OFA in January 2012 in his hometown of Danville, Virginia. He was hired that summer to take over a large, rural part of southern Virginia called Pittsylvania County. He was quiet, and naturally acclimated to the hard work of a campaign. He was also ferociously intelligent and jaw-droppingly funny. He was the kind of guy who would offer you his coat and then tell you he was only doing it to get you to stop complaining about the cold—-someone who was so humble about his decency that he’d pretend it was something else. If you ask anybody who met him, even if it was just once, they’d tell you a story about how selfless he was, and how kind. They’d also tell you about how he’d mask that kindness with an acid sense of humor you envied as you were laughing your ass off.

Two quotes, that give a sense of what he was like:

1.“You know what a Mitt Romney Presidency would be like? ‘Hi, I’m Mitt Romney, welcome to the first day of the Republican congress. We’re going to talk about jobs, jobs, jobs….No just kidding, more anti-abortion stuff.’” [followed by a half hour of the rest of us laughing]

2.[After our intern Laura telling us that the first word she ever spoke was “duck.”]
Jason: “God damnit.”
Laura: “What?!”
Jason: “That’s fucking adorable.”

Jason and I worked side by side in the Danville field office. I’ve lost count of the amount of times he had my back, or the amount of times he talked me down when I thought I was going to lose my mind. He and I singlehandedly kept half the bars in town open that year, just talking about sports, or girls, or the job we recognized even then was changing our lives.

Being a campaign person is a lot like being in a fraternity. Losing Jason feels like losing a member of the family. Most of us who do it for a living know what it’s like to have your life changed in a badly air-conditioned field office with a scrappy group of overfed, underfucked kindred spirits. Jason was one of the best of us. His story deserves to be told.

Jason’s family is currently raising money to help with funeral expenses. If you’d like to make a donation to help them, you can do so at

https://www.giveforward.com/fundraiser/07p3/jason-s-funeral-expenses?utm_source=facebook&utm_medium=fb_share_stream.share&utm_campaign=BA_FBshare&og_action=hug&t=3&fb_ref=1690937

My deepest sympathies to his friends and family.

-N

Morning After

Shortly after I began writing CampaignSick, I did a brief stint on a coordinated campaign. Although we won all of our races and I got to work with some operatives who I love and admire, I did not particularly respect the candidate and did not feel respected by many members of the staff, nor did I find the parts of the operation particularly well run. The day after the election, amidst celebration in our headquarters, I sat on an nationwide conference call and burst into tears every time a friend's losing Senate or Congressional race was mentioned. 2010 was a difficult year for Democrats and I was glad to be part of the anomaly that elected several new ones, but I could not fully enjoy my victory disconnected from my compatriots who were hurting all over the country.

I know what it is to give your heart to a race and a candidate, to lose health, wealth and relationships in pursuit of a cause and still come up empty. Although that candidate has been since discredited, I will never forget the sense of loss and disillusionment I felt waking up the day after losing the Iowa caucuses, nor do I really want to.

Today, I experience the exact opposite of the emotions I felt in 2010. For the majority of you who won, I am so, so proud. I hope it's not presumptuous to feel that I share in your victory and take genuine pride in our efforts and your accomplishments. I started crying last night (while still keeping voters on line at the polls) when I read a tweet that Missouri was projecting for McCaskill and have not stopped for more than a full hour since. Every celebratory facebook post, tweet and text message makes me tear up with affection for this special community and for my friends, many of whom have worked tirelessly for our cause for years and are only now experiencing the victories they so richly deserve. I cannot wait to celebrate with you over the coming weeks, at Rootscamp, on the internet, and back in New York City.

A lot has changed in the two years since I started this blog. Given the blessing of my readership it would be hard for me to argue that I am disconnected from anyone this morning. Also given that blessing, I would have been welcomed to spend these last two weeks on a number of races across the country, and indeed received several offers. As you probably know by now, I came to Texas to work as the GOTV Director for Nick Lampson's unsuccessful Congressional bid.

Nick would have been a superlative Congressman, and in fact already was. He is a genuine, warm, intelligent person, experienced politician, and a sincere and passionate advocate for his community. However in fairness, I did not know that when I accepted this position. I came down because a campaign manager I liked and respected asked me to. I had already resolved to leave on the first decent race that offered to pay me and said yes before he had even finished offering me a job. But unlike 2010, I immediately fell in love with the candidate and his campaign staff. Those of you who have worked with me in the past can attest to my high standards, work ethic, and lack of regard for those I find incompetent. Every other time I have come in this late to an operation, I have had to overhaul the field plan, pull a coup d'etat or single handedly recruit an entire campaign's worth of volunteers. Not so here.

There is nothing else these guys could have done, and nothing I would have done differently. They had a campaign and a candidate that were ten times better than the opposition and operated at a level befitting five times the resources they were given. Their field director graciously and without ego welcomed me into his operation and in two weeks he and I have developed the kind of mutual respect and friendship that only comes from shared passion and talent and often takes years to form. His organizers left it all on the field and their enthusiasm and instincts reaffirmed my passion for campaigning and reasons for writing this blog. Working for the Lampson campaign reminded me that there are still truly great candidates and truly wonderful people for me to work with when I finish school. My experience here has left me infinitely more energized and optimistic than when I came down. The only negative emotion I feel is my empathy for my coworkers, knowing the pain that comes with giving it your all and still not reaping the reward. There is no campaign staff in the country with whom I would have rather spent election night, regardless of outcome.

I am going to celebrate with them for a couple of days and then head back to my temporary real/fake life in New York. Won or lost, I am incredibly proud of all of you and I look forward to many celebratory emails and posts in the days to come.

Get some whiskey and sleep!

Nancy

Your Official CampaignSick Pep Talk (TM)

I'm laying on my stomach on my bed at the Red Roof Inn. My comforter has a cigarette burn in it. I was supposed to go out with my coworkers, but I got stuck in 30 mins of traffic, so instead I ordered pizza hut because it is the only food that delivers here. In fact, I have not seen a vegetable that was not deep fried or covered in cheese since I arrived. My first day here, I was awake for 22 hrs during which time I left the office once to get coffee and once to get toothpaste since I had not brushed my teeth in that long...but Goddamnit if I don't love my job.

I've been thinking a lot about what to write in this pep talk, which has been requested multiple times over the last few weeks. It wasn't that I couldn't think of anything inspirational to share with you. It was that I couldn't narrow it down.

Do you realize how amazing our job is? With all the money, and the negativity and the minsinformation that goes into campaigns, it still comes down to neighbors talking to neighbors. Field is the purest expression of democracy, and it's what's going to win this campaign. Sure it can be maddening when people don't seem to give a shit, but you don't have to do this, you get to. You get to spend your days empowering people and helping them believe in what's great about our country. You get to wake up every morning albeit on 4 hrs sleep and know that what you do at work today absolutely makes a difference. And you get to believe in the power of democracy, and in your own ability to effect change, more so than the average American, because you see it every day first hand.

These are not trivial issues we're dealing with. We're talking about health care, war and civil liberties. You do your job for the people who ACTUALLY can't because they are sick in the hospital because their insurance wouldn't let them go to the doctor on time. Do your job for a 15 year old who is bullied in school for being effeminate and whose teachers have no recourse to protect him. Do your job for a 16 year old who was molested by her cousin and is afraid to seek abortion counseling because her rape might not be considered "legitmate."

If you are lucky enough to have a candidate in whom you truly believe, do your job for him. But even if you aren't, that's not always what it's about. Volunteers come into the office for the candidate, but they stay for you. You join the campaign for the candidate, but you do it for each other. No matter how crazy your boss or your co-workers might be driving you right now, there is someone on this campaign you love. You know how she takes her coffee, you mock each other's taste in music and you could pick her volunteer ask out of a line up. And you should, because campaign people are incredible. No offense to my wonderful classmates, but I feel more comfortable out for drinks with the people I've known here for three days than with the people I've spent time with for over a year. We get each other. We've dealt with yard sign activists, we've built 10,000 person events on 24 hrs notice, we've knocked on doors, looked strangers in the eye and promised them that their vote can make a difference. We are all willing to dial a phone until our fingers break if that's what it takes, because this is just that important. In what other world can I wear sweatpants to work, curse like a sailor, and have a beer with a Congressman? It's an incredibly special community that you're a part of.

And what of those volunteers? I tell candidates that when they ask donors for money that they're making an implicit promise to do everything they can to get elected in exchange for that support. It's the same bond between you and your volunteers. Everyone has that one volunteer whose story they tell over and over again, who offered to do your laundry, who cooked you dinner when you were dragging on the floor, who wheeled her chemo bag into the office to make calls. For all of the frustration that some activists can bring, I've had volunteers I met as an organizer who to this day follow me in my heart to every campaign office.

Finally, I wanted to share something that a now prominent member of the Obama campaign once shared with me.

State Director: Everyone raise your hands!
Field Staff: (Raises hands)
State Director: As high as you can!
Field Staff: (Raises hands higher)
State Director: Higher!
Field Staff: (Raises hands higher)
State Director: Higher!
Field Staff: (Raises hands higher)
State Director: Liars.

You are capable of more than you believe. It is a great a lesson that campaigns have taught me, and a good one to remember during these last couple days. This work is too important to give up now and your bosses wouldn't let you do it if they didn't know that you could. You can sleep, shower and eat on Novermber 7th. As Muhammad Ali says "suffer now and live the rest of your life as a champion."

I can't tell you how proud I am of you all and how grateful I am that you let me into your offices each day. I know you are working just as hard for me as I am for you and I promise you, win lose or draw it will be worth it.

Now go! Leave it all on the field!

Campaign Love,
Nancy

My Favorite Mistake- Why I am Way More Excited to Vote for Barack Obama in 2012 than I Was in 2008

I want to share you guys on a little secret: I actively disliked Barack Obama when he ran for President in 2008. As a Democratic operative for a Senate candidate in a swing state, I even turned out voters for him, but I didn't like the guy. Don't get me wrong, I still voted for him. I'm not a self/poor/gay-hating feminist. But unlike the vast majority of my contemporaries, I was the proverbial voter holding her nose in the voting booth.

I'll be the first to admit, some of my reasons for disliking now President Obama were petty. I had spent 11 months in Iowa working for his opponent (John Edwards) in the caucuses. To work those kind of hours in that kind of climate (particularly for that kind of candidate) you have to believe that anyone else securing the nomination is tantamount to armageddon. In part because of the attitude and inexperience of certain staff members with whom I interacted, and in part because of my lingering sadness and confusion over John Edwards losing the primary and the subsequent scandal, I found his campaign condescending and difficult to work with.

Even after Obama's inauguration, I remained skeptical of his liberal credentials and his penchant for compromise. I was worried that he was more smoke than substance. I’ve always been more of an LBJ than JFK kinda girl.

But there was another reason I was wary of Obama’s 2008 campaign, and the candidate himself: Hope. The fervor and enthusiasm that accompanied Obama’s 2008 campaign is the stuff of legends. Hordes of activists my age and younger knocked doors, made phone calls and attended rock concert-esque rallies with the belief that this man could single-handedly change the way we do business. As a career Democratic operative, I worried that Obama could not live up to this promise and that the result would be a generation of disappointed and disenfranchised voters.

Despite having missed out on the fun (and career opportunities) of supporting the President in 2008, I view my former skepticism as a tremendous gift. I can look with clear eyes (and full heart) over the past four years and say this President has met and exceeded my wildest expectations.

I could talk about 800,000 jobs created and 32 consecutive months of private sector job growth, and all of that would be true. But I don’t really work in the private sector, and by dint of what I do, any Democratic nominee would contribute to my job opportunities. Let’s talk about what matters to me, as a voter.

1) Health Care. Devotees will remember that I’ve had a rare life threatening illness since I was 17. Had I not been on my parents’ insurance when I started feeling symptoms, I very easily could have died. Without quick diagnosis and access to specialists, I could have lost my vision, had a stroke or needed to have a limb amputated by the time they figured out what was wrong with me. I know this because there are people in my Takayasu’s Arteritis facebook group who were diagnosed too late because they couldn’t afford to go to the doctor or their HMOs didn’t provide them access to tests and doctors familiar with my disease, knowledge that is never far from my mind. Needless to say, this is an intensely personal issue for me. My President has successfully passed the first meaningful health care legislation in my lifetime, ensuring that no little Nancy is afraid to go to the doctor because her family won’t be able to afford ensuing health care costs.

2) Equal Rights. My first internship in politics was at Gay Men’s Health Crisis, an AIDS advocacy organization in New York City. It was the summer after John Kerry lost the 2004 election and spirits were extremely low. Every day I would go up to the lunch line (we served free lunch to clients who could not afford both food and the rising costs of medication) and try to get our clients to call the Speaker of the New York State Senate asking him to block a bill that cut funding for Medicare, a program on which many of our clients relied. Every day my requests were met with the same responses. “I'm sick and I'm gay. The government doesn't care about me.” or “It won't make a difference. There's nothing I can do.” It was there that I first fell in love with organizing. When I finally convinced a client to make a phone call, a light went off in my mind. He would not have made that call without me. I wasn't just giving him the opportunity to speak out on one issue, I was showing him that there was someone listening on the other end of the phone. I thought about my clients when Barack Obama made history by coming out in support of equal marriage. I thought, “See? Your President sees you, he cares about you.” I wept. It wasn’t just because some of the most important people in my world are gay and I want them to be able to get married (although they are and I do.) This could be any group. Gay marriage is a civil rights issue and my President is on the right side of it. I feel safer and prouder to be an American knowing I have a President who takes the concepts of equality, liberty and the pursuit of happiness seriously.

3) Meritocracy. There’s this myth that liberals want to move toward a socialist society where everyone’s the same and makes the same amount of money. Nothing could be further from the truth. I am a huge advocate for personal responsibility and frankly,a snob. I firmly believe that there are people who are smarter, more talented and more driven than most of society and they deserve to have more, better stuff. What I don’t believe is that all of these people are magically rich, white, cis-gendered men. Meritocracy means equality of opportunity, not equality of result. My President passed the Lilly Ledbetter Fair Pay Act, doubled funding for pell grants and established a college tax credit to ensure that the true cream rises to the top and our country can continue to lead and innovate.

4) 9/11. I didn’t realize how much September 11th had affected to me until I spent a September across the country from New York. While seeing a plane crash into the twin towers was shocking and terrifying to anyone watching, New Yorkers experienced the immediate fear that we knew someone who was down there. I was a Senior at High School at the time and I remember comforting a girl I had never met before who was sobbing hysterically because her father worked downtown and cell phone towers were down so she couldn’t get in touch with him. Where were our parents and grandparents? My father, who grew up in the city, couldn’t bear to hear it discussed in public for weeks afterwards. While I found it crass to celebrate Osama Bin Laden’s assassination, especially with the knowledge that it could never bring people back who had died, his death settled something in me that I hadn’t even know was unsettled. It reaffirmed American supremacy in a way I found deeply comforting. My President shot the boogy man and signed the First Responders bill.

5) The war in Iraq. Have we all forgotten that this President ended the war in Iraq? A war that should never have been started in the first place? A war that was an international embarrassment? My President followed through on his commitment to end the war, saving countless lives to say nothing of money that could be spent on education and health care.

As you can imagine, its very difficult for me to relate to someone who is not excited about voting, and this year in particular. If you are one of those people who was fired up about the President in 2008 and isn't feeling it this year, I urge you to show up at a campaign office and see if you don't get inspired. I could scare you by asking you to consider what a President Romney would mean for women, gay people, and the working class, but the truth is I shouldn't have to. Our President has done so much in these past 4 years to move our country forward that his record stands on it's own even without comparison.

If after all that you still resent our President for not living up to whatever ill defined expectations you may have set for him 4 years ago, I'll make you a deal: I voted for him when you were guzzling kool aid, even though I was dragging my heels to the voting booth and the sounds of the man's voice made me viscerally nauseous- so please return the favor. I'm confident that gamble will work out just as satisfyingly for you as it has for me.

Fired Up and Ready to Go,

Nancy

Get Outta My Dreams, And Into My Binder

By now, most marginally politically savvy people are aware of Mitt Romney's bizarre comment that he had "binders full of women" when he was Governor of Massachusetts. For the record, if I were not going out on the trail to do GOTV, I would totally be a binder for Halloween.

As you may or may not know, in addition to my MPA, I am getting a Certificate in Gender Policy (because I want to be Amy Gardner when I grow up.) When considering any public policy, I can't help but view it through a gender policy lens and Tuesday's debate was a doozy. Audience member, Katerine Fenton, asked this question about workplace inequality, “In what new ways do you intend to rectify inequalities in the workplace? Specifically regarding females making only 72 percent of what their male counterparts earn.” Interestingly, Fenton has outspokenly rejected the label of 'feminist' and remains undecided, but I'll let you unpack that kettle of fish on your own.

Let's discuss the Lilly Ledbetter Fair Pay Act. Lilly Ledbetter itself is not what gives women the right to equal pay, that would be the Civil Rights Act of 1964. Lilly Ledbetter states that the statute of limitations "for filing an equal-pay lawsuit regarding pay discrimination resets with each new paycheck affected by that discriminatory action." In other words, it doesn't make it illegal to pay men and women differently for the same job, it makes it more feasible to do something about it.

Right now in the United States, women make 77 cents for every dollar that men make. "But," you may argue, "some women choose to take time off to care for children. Women are less ambitious than men. Women choose to work in different fields." I would challenge some of those assumptions. How do you define ambition? How are women socialized not to exhibit ambitious behaviors, or to choose alternate fields? Most concretely, even when women do try to fit in the male model they are not rewarded in the same ways as men. (Brilliant catalyst study that I highly recommend to anyone interested in these things.)

Second,they can adjust for these differences. (Don't worry they got a man to do the math.) Even when every single discrepancy is accounted for; race, class, children, education, job title, job function, etc, women still make 5% less than men across the board. So, not supporting or being non-committal about legislation that allows women to do something about this (like say, Mitt Romney is) is pretty ludicrous. (LUDA!)

Now, let's talk about something that Mitt Romney said about women in the workplace, that, hold on to your underpanties, I actually sort of agree with:

"I recognized that if you're going to have women in the workforce that sometimes you need to be more flexible. My chief of staff, for instance, had two kids that were still in school. She said, I can't be here until 7 or 8 o'clock at night. I need to be able to get home at 5 o'clock so I can be there for making dinner for my kids and being with them when they get home from school. So we said fine. Let's have a flexible schedule so you can have hours that work for you."

Romney has gotten a lot of flack for the implication that women's first responsibility is in the home, but flexible schedules and job share are actually recognized and respectable policies to help patch the "leaky pipeline" of women in the workplace. It's something I could imagine myself taking advantage of when I become the world's most politically active housewife (move over, Bill Clinton.) Can men or childless women take advantage of these policies? Sure. But let's call a cat a cat. It is mostly women with familial obligations requesting these policies and mostly those women taking advantage of them. It would be fabulous if more men were to take advantage of these policies in dual earner households, since as one of my Professors is fond of saying "it's not going to be 50/50 at the top until it's 50/50 at the bottom." But, it is not a Governor's place to tell families how to divide household responsibilities (after all, we're talking about the party of small government) nor do I think it is healthy to expect him to deny the societal pressures that hinder women's ability to advance in their careers. So while he phrased his answer and explained the policy ectremely poorly, I'm going to go ahead and assert that the policy in and of itself is not sexist.

What I loved about President Obama's answer was that in addition to addressing the Lily Ledbetter Act (which he signed) he pointed out that healthcare and birth control are economic issues for women. (Killed it.) Speaking of birth control, let's address Mitt Romney's ridiculous solution to gun violence in our country:

But let me mention another thing, and that is parents. We need moms and dads helping raise kids. Wherever possible, the — the benefit of having two parents in the home — and that’s not always possible. A lot of great single moms, single dads. But gosh, to tell our kids that before they have babies, they ought to think about getting married to someone — that’s a great idea because if there’s a two-parent family, the prospect of living in poverty goes down dramatically. The opportunities that the child will — will be able to achieve increase dramatically.

So we can make changes in the way our culture works to help bring people away from violence and give them opportunity and bring them in the American system.

I don't care that he mentioned "parents," this was like the world's biggest dog whistle for those trampy, irresponsible unwed mothers, particularly black ones. (For more on Romney's dog whistle strategy, click here.) Let's pretend for the moment that this was not a contemptible attempt to evade the fact that Romney does not support laws addressing gun ownership for the mentally ill, which it totally was. You know what would reduce the number of single parent households, Governor Romney? Subsidized birth control, sex education, safe and legal abortion, and adoption for gay couples. So I'm assuming you must support all of those, right?

As a post-script, I want to talk about one more thing that did not happen at the debate but did happen of the debate and made me want to unsubscribe from society. @5hannnnnon (who has since deleted her account) tweeted: "Obama shut up you nigger. You're a liar. Your brother lives in Kenya where you were born. #Romney2012” and somehow of all the hate-filled ignorant tweets taking place that night, this one got retweeted all up and in the internet. Later she clarified "Omg people calm down I'm not racist. I just hate Obama.” Oh, okay, I didn't realize that ASS OUT BIGOTRY was how we dealt with discourse in our country, good note. So clearly, this girl is a horrible person (although you have to applaud her correct usage of your/re.) But then I go on her twitter page and there is a SLEW of tweets saying things like "I WILL RAPE YOU!!!!!," like A LOT OF THEM. WHAT? So we deal with policy arguments with racism and racism with sexual violence? These are America's voters, kids.

Paul Ryan Forces His Way Into a Soup Kitchen Like It's a Stranger's Uterus

How is this story not getting more attention?

Washington Post:

The head of a northeast Ohio charity says that the Romney campaign last week “ramrodded their way” into the group’s Youngstown soup kitchen so that GOP vice presidential candidate Paul Ryan could get his picture taken washing dishes in the dining hall...

“We’re a faith-based organization; we are apolitical because the majority of our funding is from private donations,” Antal said in a phone interview Monday afternoon. “It’s strictly in our bylaws not to do it. They showed up there, and they did not have permission. They got one of the volunteers to open up the doors.”

He added: “The photo-op they did wasn’t even accurate. He did nothing. He just came in here to get his picture taken at the dining hall...”

Had they asked for permission, it wouldn’t have been granted. … But I certainly wouldn’t have let him wash clean pans, and then take a picture,” Antal said.

This story is shocking and unsurprising at the same time. Paul Ryan thinks poverty (not to mention health care and civil liberties) is a political game. He has no respect for the wishes or privacy of individuals or organizations. By forcing his way in for a photo op, he is trivializing the work that this organization does AND the conditions that make that work necessary. It doesn't register for him that these are real peoples lives. WHO IS VOTING FOR THIS MAN? Beyond despicable.

Obama Big Bird Ad

I am the acme of business lately and I apologize for not updating as regularly as I would like. However, I had to share this ad with you. As you may remember Mitt Romney made the comment "I love Big Bird" during the debate to defend his policy of cutting funding to PBS.

What Your Beer Says About Your Vote

We've all heard the old adage that people vote for the candidate they'd most like to sit down and have a beer with, but what exactly would that beer be? The National Journal analyzed the beer preferences of 200,000 American adults and came up with the chart above. According to my beer preferences, I am a likely voting Republican or really, an Independent because I am a huge beer snob and there are only like four beers up there that I would allow to graze my delicate partisan lips.

The article was sparked by Dos Equis' Most Interesting Man in the World -whose real name is Jonathan Goldsmith (Jew!) and who is actually an extremely interesting dude-'s decision to host a fundraiser for Obama. Both the company and apparently consumers of its beer do not have an official political stance.

Wake the Fuck Up!!

If you haven't seen this, good because that means I am not the last one, but you need to watch this right now then you need to share it with all your friends. Not only is it clever and hilarious but it so accurately captures the problem with voter apathy this season. Do people not see that this election is actually more important than the last one? And yes, fellow nerds, I mean 2008 not like last week or 2010.

So this is amazing and it is sponsored by the Jewish Education and Research Council, which also brought us The Great Schlep and Sarah Silverman's latest Voter ID piece. Can't think of two groups I am prouder to be a part of. I'm kvelling!!!

Website Here.
Safe for Work version here.

Simpsons: Homer Votes

Hat tip to my frientist, Joshie for bringing this to my attention. I promise you the blog is not becoming a video repository, but I want to at least keep you amused until I have to time to write again.

SNL Undecided Voters

This is so spot on.

Obama is on the ballot in Kansas (and other things that should not be news)

NYT: "Citing a wave of angry backlash, a Kansas man on Friday withdrew a petition in which he argued that President Obama should be removed from the state’s election ballot because he did not meet citizenship requirements."

But here's the amazing part: "The state will continue to try to obtain the birth certificate...But without the petition, Mr. Obama will remain on the ballot, Secretary of State Kris W. Kobach told The Associated Press."

Need I ask the question, "What's the Matter With Kansas?"

Racist.

Who Else Is Running for President?

On Thursday, I went to vote in our local Democratic primaries to choose between two career politician hacks for State Senate. I thought "this is what those GDI third party types must feel like all the time." Don't get me wrong, I don't agree with President Obama on everything, but I do feel incredibly lucky that there is a major party candidate whom I am actually excited to vote for. Still, it prompted my interest to see what the third parties had to offer this Presidential season.

Please check out these candidates' websites for more information. You can see who is on the ballot where with this handy chart. I recognize that the left-right spectrum is a little simplistic and that one of the things that a third parties have to offer is nuance, but I wanted to give you a shortcut to figuring out where these candidates stand. Also note that candidates who did not have a website were not represented and that Peta Lindsay of the Socialism and Liberation party is not included because she is too young to Constitutionally qualify. Roseanne Barr's candidacy will get its own post.

President: Jill Stein
Vice President: Cheri Honkala
Affiliation: Green Party
Left-Right Spectrum: Left of Obama
Website: JillStein.org
Background: "Dr. Jill Stein is a mother, physician, longtime teacher of internal medicine, and pioneering environmental-health advocate."
Issues: The Green New Deal, Workers' Rights
Quote/Slogan: "Another US is Possible. Another Party is Necessary"

President: Virgil Goode
Vice President: Jim Clymer
Affiliation: Constit ution Party
Left-Right Spectrum:Right of Romney
Website: Goodeforpresident2012.com
Background:Former member of the Army National Guard, Democrat-turned-Republican Congressman from 1997-2009
Issues: Immigration, Deficit
Quote/Slogan: "Save America. Citizenship Matters."

President: Stewart Alexander
Vice President: Alex Mendoza
Affiliation: Socialist Party
Left-Right Spectrum: Left of Obama
Wesbite: Stewartalexanderforpresident2012.org
Background: Political Activist
Issues: Socialism, Equality
Quote/Slogan: "Take the power back!"

President: Rocky Anderson
Vice President: Luis Rodriguez
Affiliation: Justice Party
Left-Right Spectrum: Left of Obama
Website: Voterocky.org
Background: Former Mayor of Salt Lake City
Issues: Transparency, Rule of Law
Quote/Slogan: "Replacing private interest corruption with public interest solutions"

President: Tom Hoefling
Vice President: J.D. Ellis
Affiliation: America's Independent Party
Left-Right Spectrum: Right of Romney
Website: Tomhoefling.com
Background: Conservative Activist
Issues: Religion, Anti-Choice
Quote/Slogan: "Who represents you?"

Where's the Money?

Thanks to the National Journal you can see who's spending the most money in ads in battleground states where and the latest thing they've put on TV. (See one of my fav's above.) Pretty cool!

Infographics to Motivate II: Jobs and Vaginas

A friend (an undecided absentee swing voter in Ohio friend, go get 'em guys) posted a question on his facebook wall about the Democratic plan for job growth and I just happened to have the above info graphic from Center for American Progress handy. Pretty impressive and a pretty stark contrast, no?

The New York Times offers a really awesome interactive tool analyzing which words were used at the conventions and how many times by each party. Important words that were used more by Democrats? "Jobs," "Economy" and most dramatically, "Women." Neither convention made use of the word "Doody." You're welcome, I checked. You can access the tool by clicking here.

From the nerve.com an "if you don't laugh you'll cry" diagram of a woman's body based on right-wing Republican rhetoric. If that's not enough to get you motivated, check out this quiz from Planned Parenthood Action Fund. I'm sure they've reached their fundraising goal by now but it's a good wake up call for anyone who is not yet livid over the Republican War on Women. Talk about, if you're not outraged you're not paying attention.

Electronic Commitment Cards!

Oh God bless the OFA New Media team! They've done it again!

Back in the day (the same day in which I had to canvass uphill in the snow both ways) we used to collect commitment cards and then enter them into our database (known to campaign folk as "votebuilder" or "the VAN.") These commitments counted toward goals set for us by our Field Director (and probably a number of consultants) and were calculated based on the estimated turnout we would need in our respective regions.

But NOW you can skip the middleman and the data entry and put your commitment straight into the database! (To be fair, I don't know for a fact that that's how this works. I am just assuming.) If you live in a swing state and are supporting the President this is a great help to the campaign because it means the staff can focus their efforts on undecided voters who need an extra touch. As a bonus to you, the campaign is less likely to call you during dinner if you've already told them who you're voting for...unless they call to ask you to volunteer, but that's another story. You can also publish your commitment on facebook to let your friends and family know that you can't stop Barack.

DO IT HERE!!!

Republican Women For Obama

New Obama campaign commercial that I LOVE.

Note to RNC: There are more women like this than you think. Anti-women is a losing platform. Adapt or watch your party become irrelevant.

Today in Voter Suppression

Yesterday in Pennsylvania "A state judge has refused to block a new Pennsylvania law that requires voters to display a current government-issued photo identification at the polls, upholding a Republican-backed measure that Democrats say may prevent tens of thousands of low-income and elderly voters from casting ballots."

To quote Penda Hair, co-director of the public policy group Advancement Project, the decision is ""a huge setback for the right to vote. It's contrary to core American values and sadly takes us back to a dark place in our country's history."

Based on current data, the law could disenfranchise 9% of the state's voters and 18% of Democratic Philadelphia.

I don't want to sound like a conspiracy theorist, who thinks these laws are only aimed at suppressing Democratic voters so I'll just let this guy, Republican House Leader, Mike Turzai do it for me:

This is not good news.

According to Obama for America Pennsylvania Press Secretary Jennifer Austin, the campaign will continue to train voters on the law and requirements to voting.

Fun with Electoral Maps!

Wanna see which states are considered swing states? How about how many different combinations Democrats could win with in the fall? 270 to Win has every possible combination of electoral outcome you could want to see. Check it out!