Obama Needs to Come to the Liberty Bowl
What is up with the local Obama Campaign? Where are the yard signs and bumper stickers? Kerry didn't give us any money 4 years ago but we still had bumper stickers! Where's the GOTV?
Ok, now that we've established that the local Obama campaign is a mess, let's talk about what can be done to fit that. I say shot for the stars! Memphis is the only metropolitian area with over a million people that is majority African American. We really are a unique city. We also have a historical legacy that still weighs us down. ( the MLK assasination). We need to excerise some of the weight of that legacy, bring a positive event to the city that will make us proud, and fix the GOTV campaign.
I propose having Obama speak at the Liberty Bowl. Do it the day before or the day after the debate in Nashville or Oxford. I'm pretty sure Herenton and Wharton could open the stadium up. You could charge $5 bucks to get in to cover the cost and give the money to a charity or the Obama campaign. Imagine 60,000 people in the seats and another 15,000 on the floor of the stadium. Obama could ask every person there to text message the campaign. You suddenly have a huge voter database to help with GOTV. On election day, you just text every person and tell to ask 10 other people to vote. You want 70%+ turnout in Memphis and a good chance to help Tuke beat Alexander, that's how you do it. Let's do something cool for change here. Mayors Wharton and Herenton, please ask Obama to speak at the Liberty Bowl. Memphis could use some inspiring.
Ok, now that we've established that the local Obama campaign is a mess, let's talk about what can be done to fit that. I say shot for the stars! Memphis is the only metropolitian area with over a million people that is majority African American. We really are a unique city. We also have a historical legacy that still weighs us down. ( the MLK assasination). We need to excerise some of the weight of that legacy, bring a positive event to the city that will make us proud, and fix the GOTV campaign.
I propose having Obama speak at the Liberty Bowl. Do it the day before or the day after the debate in Nashville or Oxford. I'm pretty sure Herenton and Wharton could open the stadium up. You could charge $5 bucks to get in to cover the cost and give the money to a charity or the Obama campaign. Imagine 60,000 people in the seats and another 15,000 on the floor of the stadium. Obama could ask every person there to text message the campaign. You suddenly have a huge voter database to help with GOTV. On election day, you just text every person and tell to ask 10 other people to vote. You want 70%+ turnout in Memphis and a good chance to help Tuke beat Alexander, that's how you do it. Let's do something cool for change here. Mayors Wharton and Herenton, please ask Obama to speak at the Liberty Bowl. Memphis could use some inspiring.
posted by polar donkey at 2:36 PM
5 Comments:
This post was incredibly upsetting to me. A few myths to swat back...
MEMPHIS FOR OBAMA is a volunteer effort that has been working diligently in this community for MONTHS. I am sorry that we don't have all the money in the world for yard signs and bumper stickers. Clearly everybody likes to have campaign-branded swag that they can use to show their support for their candidate. We are doing our best to bring as much of this stuff in as we can, but believe it or not, it goes pretty quick! The fact that you haven't seen any of it around town tells me that you don't get out very much--I can think of five houses on my street along that have Obama or Obama/Biden yard signs right now.
(The Kerry/Edwards signs that you saw during the last election were printed locally by the Shelby County Democratic Party--they were NOT from the DNC or national Kerry campaign. Let's be very clear on that point. Local printing still takes money, which requires contributions. If you haven't made a donation to MEMPHIS FOR OBAMA, I strongly encourage you to visit our volunteer office at 5026 this week and do so.)
However, the fact that we are short on campaign materials doesn't mean that we aren't working and working hard. Week after week, we are welcoming literally dozens of new volunteers who are registering voters all over the city. Last weekend we had teams at the Cooper Young Festival, Southern Heritage Classic, Central Library, Whitehaven Plaza, Bellevue/McLemore, Getwell/Park, Lamar/Park, and other locations in Raleigh, Frayser, and Hickory Hill. As a result, we are bringing THOUSANDS of new Democrats to the voter rolls in this city.
A "GOTV" operation won't begin until the voter registration phase is over. The voter registration deadline is October 6 at 5:00pm, and we will be turning in forms and adding new voters every millisecond until that moment. Once voter registration is done, obviously we will turn our focus to mobilizing ALL Democrats through canvassing, phone banking, providing transportation to the polls, etc. THE REASON WE ARE NOT FOCUSING ON GOTV RIGHT NOW IS BECAUSE THERE IS NO VOTING UNDERWAY. Early voting begins on October 15, and we plan on making use of every possible resource to help any and every Memphian who wants to vote for Barack Obama get to the polls to cast their vote.
In my experience as a volunteer, I have heard every conceivable excuse for not helping with the local Obama effort. First it was because he hadn't clinched the nomination. Then it was because he hadn't chosen a running mate. Then people wanted to wait until after the convention. Then it was because we didn't have a local office (which we do, 5026 Park Avenue.) Now you call for a rally at the Liberty Bowl as the cure-all for voter apathy. Whatever. Until you have joined us for one of our Saturday city-wide voter registration drives, or at the very least contributed monetarily to our efforts, I have a difficult time understanding how you are in a position to offer such needless, irresponsible, ill-informed criticism of other peoples' belief and hard work.
Harold Ford Jr. lost his Senate race by 50,000 votes in a year when 100,000 REGISTERED DEMOCRATS didn't vote in his hometown. We cannot and will not let that happen again. Every day that you are not working to be part of the solution you might as well be helping John McCain and Sarah Palin measure the drapes in the White House.
I invite EVERYBODY to join us this Saturday at 9am at the Memphis For Obama Volunteer Office at 5026 Park Avenue for a day of voter registration. We can win this--but we need YOUR HELP.
My name is Kerry Hayes and my email address is kerry.hayes@gmail.com if anybody has any further questions or comments about our efforts.
6:32 AM
Hey Man,
You could have printed up 4 yard signs and charged $5 per sign in the time it took to type your comment.
But here's the brass tacks about not having a way to distribute Obama gear. In this bad economy, Obama is already helping, except it ain't benefitting his campaign. There are wildcatters out there making their own t-shirts and selling them. That's money your local campaign could be using to help pay for voter registration efforts.
I already gave $100 to Obama Friday and yes, an Obama rally at the Liberty Bowl would greatly reduce voter apathy.
100,000 registered democrats didn't vote for Junior because he sucked.
I had people from a local news organization ask me where to get Obama gear yesterday. Members of the news media must not get out much either.
In all sincerity, good luck with voter registration, but it is true that Obama is underperforming in Tennessee right now. Voters for the most part don't spontaneously show up to the polls. The national Obama campaign has made the decision on how they want to run a campaign in non battle ground states. It just gives democrats pause that we can't even get a bumpersticker or yardsign. Is it like this in other non battleground states or are we just special here in Tennessee.
Finally, you can beat up on me, but taking a swipe at the Shelby County Democratic Party and the leadership of Party chairman Norman is too much. Are you implying that the SCDP is not doing it's fair share to support the ticket and that the local Party should be helping to print yard signs and bumperstickers. I realize there may be some hard feelings about the fact that the SCDP doesn't have a headquaters and the Obama campaign had to get their own.
1:50 PM
You're right. I've taken the wrong approach here and used an unnecessarily strident tone that I doubt my mother would approve of.
We'll be registering voters again this Saturday morning at 9am, meeting at 5026 Park Ave before we break into teams and cover the city. I sincerely hope you and your readers will join us.
My email address is above for anybody who has questions about our local efforts. Thank you.
4:24 AM
I just want to know why the headquarters are NEVER open.
7:41 AM
I just got an email from Cohen HQ saying they have new Cohen-Obama signs available.
I ordered my Obama sign & bumperstickers weeks ago from the Obama website :-)
12:49 PM
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