Surge in younger voters seen favoring Obama

Interesting article in Reuters (the title is the link): "Surge in younger voters seen favoring Obama"

My thoughts: Young people are critical in this election. They are critical because they are more true to America's ideals and values than their elders.

It is a sad but true element of this election that older voters (60+) grew up in an era when it was inconceivable for a black man to be President of the United States. And, we are seeing, many of them are unable to move past that belief.

Younger voters, in contrast, are much less affected by such perceptions, and are better able to evaluate the two candidates dispassionately and objectively.

This election really comes down to a choice -- who will decide the near-term future of this country: the voices of the past, or the voices of the present and the future?

God bless the young people for speaking up.

Obama leads in 15 of the 16 battleground states!

Here's a great link to a map that shows who's ahead in every state, according to all the latest polls. The best thing about this map? Of the 16 states the Washington Post identifies as "battleground" states... Obama is ahead in 15 of them! Yahoo!

I've been through enough of these races to know anything can happen, so we have to keep working our butts off. But it's nice to see something so encouraging.

(It's also good to know, so we can start swinging some resources to support our great Governor, Chris Gregoire. I was planning to go to one of the swing states to campaign for Barack all during October, but now I'm planning to stay home and work on our joint Obama/Gregoire Get-Out-The-Vote effort, at least until the last week or so.)

Here's the link: Cool map

Thank You to Obama Supporters

Here's the text of a letter I just sent to the Editor of our local paper, The Olympian:

On behalf of Olympia for Obama, I want to thank the 800 community participants and over 100 volunteers who made our "Thurston County is the Well" fundraiser such a success last Sunday.

While we missed our audacious goal of raising $100,000 in one night, we're claiming victory for several reasons: 1) We still raised nearly $62,000 -- an amazing feat; 2) over 50 people signed up as volunteers for the Obama and Gregoire campaigns for these critical final weeks; and 3) it was a ton of fun!

People were excited to get together and see the grass-roots support that Barack Obama's campaign has generated. We understand government in Olympia, and we know that our country, our economy, our Constitution, and our international reputation cannot stand four more years of Republican mismanagement.

As we announced Sunday, we are not giving up on our $100,000 goal. People can still donate on-line at www.OlympiaforObama.com, or drop off checks at the Thurston County Democratic Party Headquarters, 2120 Pacific NE (just up from Ralph's Thriftway).

We'll have updates and further suggestions on how you can make a difference this year both on that site and on my blog (Stew4Obama.blogspot.com).

Again, thank you , Olympia, for standing up for what you believe in. What's different about this election is not that we believe in Barack Obama -- what's different is that we have a candidate who believes in us.

We can get our country back on track. And if we work as hard as we did last Sunday, we're going to win.

[For a link to the article on the event in the local paper, click here: Obama backers raise $61,702]

A vet who's still serving his country

Major Matthew J. Parkinson wanted help getting his word out. He's the brother of a friend of my friend Sima Sarrafan, one of the Obama national delegates for Washington. I know that guys like him can really catch get some flack for speaking up like this, and I'm very grateful they do it.

There's more than one way to serve your country. Bless these men and women who don't stop serving when they come home.

Follow the link, too, to read views from other vets.

Everything that follows is straight from him:

I am a veteran. I have served in the Army National Guard and Army Reserve since 4 April 1989. I was mobilized in November of 2003 with the Army National Guard and served in Iraq from March 2004 to February 2005. While in Iraq, I was the operations officer of an infantry task force. One of the mission we had as a task force was securing seven polling sites in East Mosul during the 2005 election.

I would like to point out that being pro war is very different from being pro troops.

Supporting the troops is supporting policies that:
Deploy the troops to the right mission at the right time.
Ensure the troops are deployed with the right equipment to do the job.
Taking the advice of senior military leadership about the number of troops needed to do the job.

Supporting the troops is taking care of soldiers by:
Ensuring when wounded they have world class care.
Ensuring that their families and loved one are taken care of when they pay the ultimate price.

Supporting the troops is NOT:
A yellow ribbon magnet on an SUV.
An American Flag lapel pin.
E-mailing heart wrenching stories about the sacrifices of soldiers.

I serve to protect and defend to Constitution of the United States of America, the country I love, from all enemies foreign and domestic. As a soldier in a volunteer army, I choose to serve. I do not feel you owe me anything. If you choose to honor and appreciate the service of soldiers, please make it real. Don't buy the lip service and photo ops.

As we enter this election cycle, if you want to truly honor the troops, please look at the policies of the candidates that really support the troops and protect America and then join me in voting for Barack Obama. http://vetsforobama.org/our-stories/

MAJ Parkinson, Matthew J

Palin -- Beyond the Pale

I haven't joined in with the anti-Palin attacks that are very popular on the left right now. A lot of them actually have a very arrogant, elitist streak to them, in my opinion. How can we build a progressive movement that can win a majority if we let ourselves make fun of ordinary Americans?

More importantly, from a political perspective, I think Palin is just a distraction. We need to keep our eyes on the prize: We have a great candidate for president, who is right on the war, right on the economy, right on taxes.... And they have McCain, a one-time "maverick" who's now peddling "more of the same," when it becomes more obvious with every passing day (and every daily crisis) that we need CHANGE!

However, I think it is both legitimate and important to highlight Palin's politics. If people want to elect an extremist, fine. But I don't think people have any idea what an extremist Palin really is. It's one thing to oppose abortion... but to oppose abortion in cases of rape and incest?

What about this piece from Robert F. Kennedy, Jr., about someone Palin admiringly quoted in her big speech at the convention? Here's Kennedy's comment:

Fascist writer Westbrook Pegler, an avowed racist who Sarah Palin approvingly quoted in her acceptance speech for the moral superiority of small town values, expressed his fervent hope about my father, Robert F. Kennedy, as he contemplated his own run for the presidency in 1965, that "some white patriot of the Southern tier will spatter his spoonful of brains in public premises before the snow flies."

It might be worth asking Governor Palin for a tally of the other favorites from her reading list.

link

Will America stand up to the lies?

Several people have been asking me, "When is Barack going to get tough?" They'll probably like the latest ad, called Honor. Here's the link: Watch "Honor."

I think the McCain people are digging themselves a hole. They are flat out lying (about things like Obama voting for sex education for kindergartners), and people are calling them on it, and they won't back down. Sarah Palin is still claiming she opposed the Bridge to Nowhere and earmarks, when she's clearly on the record, over and over again, supporting the one and asking for the other.

I think this is a real turning point for our country. Can people just lie and get away with it? Does the Press not serve any purpose anymore? It's like we've drifted into some form of McCarthyism. Who's going to be the one to say, "Sir, have you no decency?"

[Reference: "Joseph Welch confronts McCarthy"]

Just Before Obama Stepped on That Stage

Denny Heck passed along this "cartoon" from Denver. He said he couldn't recall an editorial cartoon that made him cry. (Click on the title above for the link.)