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What Happened to Organizing for America?
It doesn’t matter who you are, the Obama campaign in 2008 was impressive. His fund-raising ROI was phenomenal; it was a machine to put it lightly. In the latter days the campaign morphed into Organizing for America. This DNC affiliate dedicated itself to policies of Barack Obama, as well as for those politicians who believed in the same. However, after Obama’s first stimulus package, Organizing for America seemed to dissolve. Even Time Magazine wondered what happened; discovering that there is not much left of its former self — even with the White House bankroll.
What happened to Barack Obama’s once vaunted political machine? The outfit that put upwards of 8 million volunteers on the street in 2008 — known as Organizing for America — is a ghost of its former self. Its staff has shrunk from 6,000 to 300, and its donors are depressed: receipts are a fraction of what they were in 2008. Virtually no one in politics believes it will turn many contests this fall. “There’s no chance that OFA is going to have the slightest impact on the midterms,” says Charlie Cook, who tracks congressional races.
Organizing for America
Neglect is to blame. After Obama was elected, his political aides ignored the army he had created until it eventually disappeared. No one was in charge; decisions were often deferred but rarely made. By the time they realized they needed more troops, says longtime consultant Joe Trippi, “their supporters had taken a vacation from politics.”
I can see neglect as part of the picture, but the entire one. Where are the driven supporters we saw in 2008? Are they no longer engaged in what they so adamantly believed in? Obama promised them an end to the war, an end to Gitmo, and I am sure that he will get to those eventually. Is all hope lost?
However, I still have one question. Where did all of the money go?
It’s Working: Reuters Predicts Lower Growth in 2010-2011
“It’s Working!” Proclaims President Barack Obama. However, a survey of economists by Reuters say otherwise.
Stubbornly high unemployment and signs of persistent weakness in the housing market have prompted economists to further cut their outlook for U.S. growth in the second half of the year, a Reuters poll showed on Wednesday.
Summer of Recovery 2010
The September poll marked the third consecutive month economists had scaled back expectations for gross domestic product in the second half, and followed the U.S. government’s announcement on Friday that unemployment ticked up to 9.6 percent in August.
Any Democrats that were hoping for good news before the midterm elections should start looking for other employment. They can get a taste of what the real world is going through. Of course, the Harry Reid is claiming he had nothing to do with our situation. I suppose when the “blame bush” tactics fail, the denial stage kicks in.
What is worse is that the 2011 predictions are actually worse. With a growth rate of ~2.4% for the entire year will equate to high unemployment rates. We need growth around the ~5% range to start replacing jobs lost from 2008. If unemployment rates stay the same, or higher, Obama is going to have a hard presidential primary.
Obama Rules out Bush Era Tax Cuts
We can see through your veil, this is a ploy. Being that the Bush tax cuts were widely seen as cuts for the “rich.” If anyone from the GOP opposes this, they are branded. They will go back to the mudslinging declaring that the GOP is the party of the rich. My I am curious to see how this plays out in the long run. Is his party sparing him a veto? Anyone with a little brains knows that cutting taxes will in fact stimulate growth, especially compared to the billions in spending the Democrats are proposing.
President Obama will rule out on Wednesday any compromise that would extend the Bush-era tax cuts for the wealthy beyond this year, officials said, adding a populist twist to an election-season economic package that is otherwise designed to entice support from big businesses and their Republican allies.
Barack Obama: No Tax Cuts
Mr. Obama’s opposition to allowing the high-end tax cuts to remain in place for even another year or two would be the signal many Congressional Democrats have been awaiting as they prepare for a showdown with Republicans on the issue and ends speculation that the White House might be open to an extension. Democrats say only the president can rally wavering lawmakers who, amid the party’s weakened poll numbers, feel increasingly vulnerable to Republican attacks if they let the top rates lapse at the end of this year as scheduled.
It is not clear that Mr. Obama can prevail given his own diminished popularity, the tepid nature of the economic recovery and the divisions within his party. But by proposing to extend the rates for the 98 percent of households with income below $250,000 for couples and $200,000 for individuals — and insisting that federal income tax rates in 2011 go back to their 2001 levels for income above those cutoffs — he intends to cast the issue as a choice between supporting the middle class or giving breaks to the wealthy.
Really though, it all goes back to the 80/20 principle. 80% of the effort is done by 20% of the masses. By cutting taxes for those of higher income. They in turn are more willing to spend that income. Since they are the ones who drive the economy, it would boost the economy.
Quote of the Day: They talk about me like a dog
Just what “powerful interests” have you taken on President Obama? Your party controls congress, I am a little confused. Will someone please help me out?
L.A. School Named After Al Gore Built on Toxic Soil
I coulnd’t decide if I should write about the ~$75.5M Carson-Gore Academy of Environmental Sciences. Then I thought about it for a minute, and it falls into the irony that is Al Gore, so I must. The schools namesake is obviously the global warming nut Al Gore, as well as Rachel Carson.
The schools opening could possibly be delayed due to the fact it was built on toxic soil.
Construction crews were working at the campus up to the Labor Day weekend, replacing toxic soil with clean fill. All told, workers removed dirt from two 3,800-square-foot plots to a depth of 45 feet [what's the carbon footprint of this excavation & refill? - DP], space enough to hold a four-story building. The soil had contained more than a dozen underground storage tanks serving light industrial businesses.
Al Gore
Additional contamination may have come from the underground tanks of an adjacent gas station. A barrier will stretch 45 feet down from ground level to limit future possible fuel leakage.
An oil well operates across the street, but officials said they’ve found no associated risks. Like many local campuses, this school also sits above an oil field, but no oil field-related methane has been detected.
Groundwater about 45 feet below the surface remains contaminated but also poses no risk, officials said.
Some eco-nuts are not too happy though:
“Renaming this terribly contaminated school after famous environmental advocates is an affront to the great work that these individuals have done to protect the public’s health from harm,” an environmental coalition wrote in a letter to the Los Angeles Unified School District. Making sure the school is safe “would be an even better way to honor their contribution to society.”
I think the following statement sums it up quite well:
All in all, I’d say that putting Al Gore’s name on a contaminated school is just about the most intellectually honest thing to come from any educational institution in the history of the United States. Potayto, potahto.
Can’t you just wait to try the fresh organic vegetables that will be produced here? My palate has never fancied something so — toxic.
Petraeus Condemns U.S. Church’s Plan to Burn Qurans
I am glad that someone at the level of Petraeus is speaking out against this repugnant act.
KABUL—The top U.S. commander in Afghanistan said the planned burning of Qurans on Sept. 11 by a small Florida church could put the lives of American troops in danger and damage the war effort.
Gen. David Petraeus said the Taliban would exploit the demonstration for propaganda purposes, drumming up anger toward the U.S. and making it harder for allied troops to carry out their mission of protecting Afghan civilians.
If you haven’t read about it already, you can read about the Florida church than plans to burn the Qur’an on September 11. I highly recommend if you have the time to use their contact page to let them know what you think.
Democratic Donors From 2008 Going GOP in 2010
It’s no secret that the Democrats will have difficulty in fundraising after their appalling record over the past two years. Is it really a surprise that Wall Street donors have shifted their money to the right? This trend started about a year ago and has only accelerated since. The real astonishing fact is that Tony Podesta’s lobbyists have begun speculating a GOP takeover in the Senate.
The majority party often faces the ire of the population-at-large (and businesses) during the midterm election cycle of a new president. Democrats lost seats during the first term of President Bill Clinton.
But even the firm controlled by the brother of Clinton’s former chief of staff is shifting their donations in a conservative direction.
“Tony Podesta is one of the best-connected rainmakers in the nation’s capital, with a web of personal contacts stretching back 42 years and six Democratic presidential candidates. His brother John was Bill Clinton’s White House chief of staff and an adviser on President Barack Obama’s transition team,” the Chronicle reporters note. “But in an uncharacteristic twist this year, people at Tony Podesta’s powerhouse lobbying firm have chosen to donate $32,000 to the National Republican Senatorial Committee to help its chairman, Sen. John Cornyn of Texas, wrest control of the Senate from the Democrats.”
Cornyn and his allies have convinced a quarter of the 478 active political action committees that gave to the DSCC in 2008 to cut or eliminate donations to Democrats this year.
