I would not be running for President if I didn’t believe with all my heart that this is what the vast majority of Americans want for this country. This union may never be perfect, but generation after generation has shown that it can always be perfected. And today, whenever I find myself feeling doubtful or cynical about this possibility, what gives me the most hope is the next generation – the young people whose attitudes and beliefs and openness to change have already made history in this election.
I've quoted at length because I know that this is now THE campaign. If this message is accepted by a majority then the work of the campaign is done. If it is not then the retrograde opportunism of the Clinton campaign, which should be supportive rather than tearing down, will triumph -- for another long and dismal season.
2. Pennsylvania. I am going to make a monumental proposal for Pennsylvania. That Barack Obama deliver an address not to a few hundred but to millions and that he CONTINUE his race speech by turning it into a Political Platform for A More Perfect Union. That he collapse his 194 specific intents for what he would do as President into ten shining diamonds of a progressive platform.
That he use this occasion to set the Pennsylvania contest in epochal terms, as a contest between the vision that perished on a balcony in Memphis and in a hotel in LA in 1968 and the reductionist and truncated politics of the succeeding forty years. I believe this address should be seen as an echo of Lincoln's Gettysburg Address. Its venue should perhaps be Harrisburg or some other place, maybe Pittsburg. It might be in a stadium.
It would cast Pennsylvania as a do or die moment. By then inflation will have bitten deeply into the national consciousness so an evocation of the New Deal would be in order and of FDR. A hammering of the economic issue tied to the unity message.
There can be no letup or giving up of Pennsylvania. It needs to be tackled with all the effort that was initially brought to bear in Iowa. There should be Obama Unity Parades. There should be broadcast appeals of younger supporters to their elders. There should be underlining of the future of democracy.
The gap today is 26 points according to Public Policy Polling. We need to see a reduction of this grim statistic by a point a day.
There should NOT be saturation calling or advertising. The campaign should spare no expense in ensuring that people are not saturated by calls or by media.
Every effort should be geared toward those who can be identified as UNDECIDED. Every campaign appearance should be geared toward eliciting decisions. Ads should be people who have decided who represent constituencies thought to be AGAINST Barack.
A narrow defeat. A miracle victory. Anything less than one of these is a major blow that cannot be allowed to occur.
3. Total Vote.
The current Real Clear Politics Totals are Obama 13,281,132 (49.5%) and Clinton 2,577,409 (46.9%)
This is less than a million difference. The goal should be at least a full million. This simply underlines the need for attention to Pennsylvania and then to the large population states of Indiana and North Carolina.
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The following from Adam Nagourney may be seen as a sort of silver lining, but should in no way diminish the importance of achieving goals 1-3 above.
I've quoted at length because I know that this is now THE campaign. If this message is accepted by a majority then the work of the campaign is done. If it is not then the retrograde opportunism of the Clinton campaign, which should be supportive rather than tearing down, will triumph -- for another long and dismal season.
2. Pennsylvania. I am going to make a monumental proposal for Pennsylvania. That Barack Obama deliver an address not to a few hundred but to millions and that he CONTINUE his race speech by turning it into a Political Platform for A More Perfect Union. That he collapse his 194 specific intents for what he would do as President into ten shining diamonds of a progressive platform.
That he use this occasion to set the Pennsylvania contest in epochal terms, as a contest between the vision that perished on a balcony in Memphis and in a hotel in LA in 1968 and the reductionist and truncated politics of the succeeding forty years. I believe this address should be seen as an echo of Lincoln's Gettysburg Address. Its venue should perhaps be Harrisburg or some other place, maybe Pittsburg. It might be in a stadium.
There can be no letup or giving up of Pennsylvania. It needs to be tackled with all the effort that was initially brought to bear in Iowa. There should be Obama Unity Parades. There should be broadcast appeals of younger supporters to their elders. There should be underlining of the future of democracy.
The gap today is 26 points according to Public Policy Polling. We need to see a reduction of this grim statistic by a point a day.
There should NOT be saturation calling or advertising. The campaign should spare no expense in ensuring that people are not saturated by calls or by media.
Every effort should be geared toward those who can be identified as UNDECIDED. Every campaign appearance should be geared toward eliciting decisions. Ads should be people who have decided who represent constituencies thought to be AGAINST Barack.
A narrow defeat. A miracle victory. Anything less than one of these is a major blow that cannot be allowed to occur.
3. Total Vote.
The current Real Clear Politics Totals are Obama 13,281,132 (49.5%) and Clinton 2,577,409 (46.9%)
This is less than a million difference. The goal should be at least a full million. This simply underlines the need for attention to Pennsylvania and then to the large population states of Indiana and North Carolina.
+
The following from Adam Nagourney may be seen as a sort of silver lining, but should in no way diminish the importance of achieving goals 1-3 above.
Despite Mrs. Clinton’s last-minute trip to Michigan on Wednesday, Democrats there signaled that they are unlikely to hold a new primary. That apparently dashed Mrs. Clinton’s hopes of a new showdown in a state she feels she could win, and it left the state’s delegates in limbo.(Note: You can view every article as one long page if you sign up as an Advocate Member, or higher).
