some thoughts on the day before the biggest election of our time
Three years ago tomorrow, I went to my midwives’ office for my 35 week maternity wellness appointment only to find that my blood pressure was 260 over 210, and that I had a serious case of preeclampsia.
I was put on this horrid drug - the Mag drip (really just IV Epsom Salts that turned me into a lump of bloated pregnant person - I couldn’t even lift my arms) so that I wouldn’t seize and, well, die. They told me I was not going to leave the hospital without my baby because childbirth is the only cure.
And, even still, as they were wheeling me into my hospital room from the ambulance. I said, “Wait! What’s the date?” Someone said, “Novemeber 4th.”
“I can’t have my baby on November 4th!” I exclaimed. “George Bush was elected on Novemeber 4th!” Seriously, that was my thought in the middle of my life or death situation. The wounds from the 2004 election were still painful and oozing. And, luckily, she wasn’t born that day. I had Sophie two days later on November 6th.
But, now I’ve been thinking. There’s an outstanding chance that if I had delivered my baby girl on the 4th, I could have said from tomorrow onto forever, that, “Barack Obama was elected on November 4th!” And that would have been an incredible day for a birthday. Just incredible.
Some other random thoughts:
1. Once the election ends, will I still feel the need to ask (directly or indirectly) who people I connect with online and in person voted for? Up to this point, I have been because I want them to know up front what they’ll get in my communications and where I stand…and I don’t want any surprises from them. Or I want to be ready for the conversation.
Also, I saw that Starbucks’ ad - and we can’t only care now. Change will only happen if we stay this engaged - so won’t it be important for me to know who I’m talking to and engage them in further discussion or find ways to work together to make good things happen?
2. What are we going to talk about after the election? And the answer really brings me back to the point above. We need to keep talking about change, we need to stay engaged on the ground and in our communities. We need to ‘act like grownups’ and do our part to make this country and world better. This election will be won in huge part because of the phone calls, the blogs, the conversations, the door to door - the grassroots, community-based work that we have all done.
When this election is over, we will keep working, we’ll pay attention. We won’t just let government do whatever they want. We’ve tried that, going about our daily lives and figuring it was okay because we live in a democracy, and it didn’t work. Now, we’ll have a voice, we’ll use it and we’ll be heard.
Please VOTE!!! Every single vote counts. And, if you have neighbors that might need help going to the polls, please take them with you…we can only make this happen if we work together.
Filed under Politics | Tags: 2004 election, 2008 presidential election, Barack Obama, George W. Bush, John McCain, Politics | Comments (6)Is it November 5th yet?
It’s PMS! It’s bipolar disorder! It’s being mom to two 2 year-olds!
NOPE, it’s this damn election. The stress is killing me.
When I hear that Obama is going to win in a landslide, I feel like I can conquer the world.
When I hear that the Republicans are engaging in unethical tactics to keep poor and minority people away from the polls, I become furious.
When I read that MoveOn’s call parties made a whopping 373,000 calls to get volunteers active in swing states, my heart sings.
When I read that with a small margin, the Republican party can easily steal this election, just like they did in 2000 and 2004, I want to rip out my hair from the fury.
I’m up… when we hosted a MoveOn call party last weekend and I talked to so many people excited to volunteer, so many people already volunteering who told me about the change they see in their community as a result of their work. Thrilled that they got 50 people registered to vote…
I’m down…But, then one of those calls was a McCain/Palin supporter. And she told me, and I quote, “You people are being terribly mislead.” US? We’re being mislead????? Left me utterly distraught by the injustice of it all. The murderous irony.
I’m ready for November 5th. I’m ready to wake up in the morning and jump up and down, thrilled beyond belief that Barack Obama is the 44th President of the United States…
Filed under Politics | Tags: 2008 presidential election, Barack Obama, Biden, McCain, Obama, Palin | Comments (13)It’s 10:30pm, do you know where your 5 month-old son is?
It’s minutes after the Vice Presidential debate between Sarah Palin and Joe Biden, I’m watching Sarah Palin walk the rope line, flashes everywhere, the lights couldn’t be brighter. Then, she’s at the after debate party. People are yelling and screaming. It’s 10:3pm, St. Louis time.
And behind her? Her 5 month old, Down Syndrome son. Being held by her daughters - at one point her very young daughter, who could hardly hold him up, he’s almost as big as her.
This is being a good mother? I think it’s using your kids to get votes. I think this special needs and highly sensitive child should be in bed, somewhere quiet and peaceful. Infants don’t have defenses, they depend on their caretakers to protect them. Infants are extra-sensitive to light, noise, touch, taste, smell. Down Syndrome children even more so.
I’m appalled. I’m furious. I want to go help that child.
(Oh, and Biden clearly won the debate and McCain pulled his campaign on Michigan.)
Filed under Politics | Tags: 2008 presidential election, Biden, Down's Syndrome, mother, Palin, Politics, vice president | Comments (5)politics on a copywriting blog
Last night, an internet/social networking colleague asked me the following question:
“Are you at all concerned that your political views may cost you business opportunities? That is a concern of mine. I’m totally in your corner, but I stay in the political closet professionally.”
This was my answer:
“I thought about it a lot, and, in the end, I decided that this election (and its outcome) is way too important to my family for me to worry about that. I certainly haven’t lost any clients. And while it’s quite possible that I’ve lost some blog readers, my traffic has actually risen quite sharply - and I’ve made some amazing connections because of my rhetoric.
To be honest, I don’t want the business of someone who doesn’t believe in women’s rights, choice, gay rights, peace and the environment enough to vote for a Democrat (or for a black man).
I live in a very blue state and on a very blue island, I feel like it’s my civic duty to do whatever I can to spread the word….
Great question - I’m so glad you asked.”
And, I am glad she asked, glad that she got me to think about my reasons again - because I feel so good about them.
You know what else this made me think about? Copywriting and marketing are also topics rife with debate and conflict. Not everyone is going to agree with my thoughts on why blogging is essential to business or the top marketing collateral items you must have. I may have lost some business opportunities when I wrote about using a blog for a portfolio/website, but I know that I gained some business from that post. This industry has fierce competition. It has good guys and it has bad guys. My blog is my space to voice my opinions.
It’s like my dad (and Abe Lincoln) always says, you can please some of the people all of the time and all of the people some of the time, but you can’t please all of the people all of the time. But, no matter what, you’ve got to please yourself. Feel good about what you’re doing and stand strong.
Filed under Blogging, Politics | Tags: 2008 presidential election, Blogging, copywriting blog, Julie Roads, political blogging, Writing Roads | Comments (5)Barbra Streisand on McCain, Palin, Smart Women
Babs is all set to perform at a huge fundraiser for Obama on Sept. 16 - tickets are reportedly $28,500 a pop. This letter was originally posted on her website:
McCain Doesn’t Get It: Women are not that stupid.
Maybe he was sick of the lack of media attention…maybe he had enough of the late night talk show hosts poking fun at his age…maybe he realized that belonging to a party that has been associated with rich, white men was not going to connect with voters in this historical election year. Or maybe he was just ready to take back some of the spotlight that has shined so brightly on Barack Obama and the Democrats since the beginning of the Democratic convention. Desperation can motivate people to make some pretty cynical and hypocritical decisions. Whatever the reason, John McCain’s Hail Mary– in the form of Vice Presidential pick Governor Sarah Palin–sent a very clear message to America about how he views female voters. Women, he thinks, will vote another woman into office regardless of the candidate’s values, experience and political positions.
No one can dispute that this decision was micro-targeted to the small percentage of Independent and Democratic women residing in the Rocky Mountain West, who strongly supported Hillary Clinton in the primary and still find themselves undecided as we move into the general election. Unfortunately, what John McCain failed to realize is that after eight long and destructive years of George W. Bush, Dick Cheney and their cronies, American voters will not fall prey to political ploys once again.
For months, John McCain and the Republicans went after Barack Obama for lacking the experience they felt was necessary in order to be commander in chief. Yet, on this day, an aging John McCain, who is the oldest Presidential nominee in history, chose a running mate—a person that is just a heart beat away from the Presidency—that has no foreign policy experience, no national experience and limited state government experience…. a virtual unknown who has only been Governor for a less than 2 years of a state with a population of fewer than 680,000 people…a woman who condemns a woman’s right to choose.
I believe John McCain chose Gov. Palin because he truly believes that women who supported Hillary—an experienced, brilliant, life-long public servant–would vote for him because his Vice President has two x chromosomes. McCain’s selection of Governor Palin is a transparent and irresponsible decision all in the name of trying to win this election.
John McCain has served this country. No one in this election is denying him that. But his selection of Governor Palin has demonstrated that he is willing to put his desperation to win this election above the welfare of the American people. As someone who has spent over 40 years advocating on behalf of women both politically and philanthropically, as someone who was a strong supporter of Hillary Clinton and as someone who cares deeply about the health and welfare of all women, hear me Senator McCain: “This calculated, cynical ploy to pull away a small percentage of Hillary’s women voters from Barack Obama will not work. We are not that stupid!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!”
You said it, Sister.
Filed under News, Politics | Tags: 2008 presidential election, Barbra Streisand, Biden, McCain, Obama, Palin, political celebs, RNC | Comments (14)what you just saw: the Obama response to last night’s RNC
I wasn’t planning on sending you something tonight. But if you saw what I saw from the Republican convention, you know that it demands a response.
I saw John McCain’s attack squad of negative, cynical politicians. They lied about Barack Obama and Joe Biden, and they attacked you for being a part of this campaign.
But worst of all — and this deserves to be noted — they insulted the very idea that ordinary people have a role to play in our political process.
You know that despite what John McCain and his attack squad say, everyday people have the power to build something extraordinary when we come together.
Both Rudy Giuliani and Sarah Palin specifically mocked Barack’s experience as a community organizer on the South Side of Chicago more than two decades ago, where he worked with people who had lost jobs and been left behind when the local steel plants closed.
Let’s clarify something for them right now.
Community organizing is how ordinary people respond to out-of-touch politicians and their failed policies.
And it’s no surprise that, after eight years of George Bush, millions of people have found that by coming together in their local communities they can change the course of history. That promise is what our campaign has been about from the beginning.
Throughout our history, ordinary people have made good on America’s promise by organizing for change from the bottom up. Community organizing is the foundation of the civil rights movement, the women’s suffrage movement, labor rights, and the 40-hour workweek. And it’s happening today in church basements and community centers and living rooms across America.
Meanwhile, we still haven’t gotten a single idea during the entire Republican convention about the economy and how to lift a middle class so harmed by the Bush-McCain policies.
It’s now clear that John McCain’s campaign has decided that desperate lies and personal attacks — on Barack Obama and on you — are the only way they can earn a third term for the Bush policies that McCain has supported more than 90 percent of the time.
But you can send a crystal clear message.
Enough is enough. Make your voice heard loud and clear by making a $25 donation right now.
Thank you for joining more than 2 million ordinary Americans who refuse to be silenced.
Filed under News | Tags: 2008 presidential election, Biden, McCain, Obama, Palin, RNC | Comment (0)Obama-Kennedy ticket…Caroline, not Edward
Michael Moore’s open letter to Caroline Kennedy:
Tuesday, August 19th, 2008
“Caroline: Pull a Cheney!” An Open Letter to Caroline Kennedy (head of the Obama VP search team) from Michael Moore
Dear Caroline,
We’ve never met, so I hope you don’t find this letter too presumptuous or inappropriate. As its contents involve the public’s business, I am sending this to you via the public on the Internet. I knew your brother John. He was a great guy, and I know he would’ve had a ball during this thrilling and historic election year. We all miss him dearly.
Barack Obama selected you to head up his search for a vice presidential candidate. It appears we may be just days (hours?) away from learning who that choice will be.
The media is reporting that Senator Obama has narrowed his alternatives to three men: Joe Biden, Evan Bayh and Tim Kaine. They’re all decent fellows, but they are far from the core of what the Obama campaign has been about: Change. Real change. Out with the old. And don’t invade countries that pose no threat to us.
Senators Biden and Bayh voted for that invasion and that war, the war Barack ran against, the war Barack reminded us was the big difference between him and Senator Clinton because she voted for the war and he spoke out against it while running for Senate (a brave and bold thing to do back in 2002).
For Obama to place either of these senators on the ticket would be a huge blow to the millions that chose him in the primaries over Hillary. He will undercut one of the strongest advantages he has over the Hundred-Year War senator, Mr. McCain. By anointing a VP who did what McCain did in throwing us into this war, Mr. Obama will lose the moral high ground in the debates.
As for Governor Kaine of Virginia, his big problem is, well, Obama’s big problem — who is he? The toughest thing Barack has had to overcome — and it will continue to be his biggest obstacle — is that too many of the voters simply don’t know him well enough to vote for him. The fact that Obama is new to the scene is both one of his most attractive qualities AND his biggest drawback. Too many Americans, who on the surface seem to like Barack Obama, just don’t feel comfortable voting for someone who hasn’t been on the national scene very long. It’s a comfort level thing, and it may be just what keeps Obama from winning in November (”I’d rather vote for the devil I know than the devil I don’t know”).
What Obama needs is a vice presidential candidate who is NOT a professional politician, but someone who is well-known and beloved by people across the political spectrum; someone who, like Obama, spoke out against the war; someone who has a good and generous heart, who will be cheered by the rest of the world; someone whom we’ve known and loved and admired all our lives and who has dedicated her life to public service and to the greater good for all.
That person, Caroline, is you.
I cannot think of a more winning ticket than one that reads: “OBAMA-KENNEDY.”
Caroline, I know that nominating yourself is the furthest idea from your mind and not consistent with who you are, but there would be some poetic justice to such an action. Just think, eight years after the last head of a vice presidential search team looked far and wide for a VP — and then picked himself (a move topped only by his hubris to then lead the country to near ruin while in office) — along comes Caroline Kennedy to return the favor with far different results, a vice president who helps restore America to its goodness and greatness.
Caroline, you are one of the most beloved and respected women in this country, and you have been so admired throughout your life. You chose a life outside of politics, to work for charities and schools, to write and lecture, to raise a wonderful family. But you did not choose to lead a private life. You have traveled the world and met with its leaders, giving you much experience on the world stage, a stage you have been on since you were a little girl.
The nation has, remarkably (considering our fascination with celebrity), left you alone and let you live your life in peace. (It’s like, long ago, we all collectively agreed that, with her father tragically gone, a man who died because he wanted to serve his country, we would look out for her, we would wish for her to be happy and well, and we would have her back. But we would let her be.)
Now, I am breaking this unwritten code and asking you to come forward and help us in our hour of need. So many families are hurting, losing their homes, going bankrupt with health care bills, seeing their public schools in shambles and living with this war without end. This is a historic year for women, from Hillary’s candidacy to the numerous women running for the House and Senate. This is the year that a woman should be on the Democratic ticket. This is the year that both names on that ticket should be people OUTSIDE the party machine. This is the year millions of independents and, yes, millions of Republicans are looking for something new and fresh and bold (and you are the Kennedy Republicans would vote for!).
This is the moment, Caroline. Seize it! And Barack, if you’re reading this, you probably know that she is far too humble and decent to nominate herself. So step up and surprise us again. Step up and be different than every politician we have witnessed in our lifetime. Keep the passion burning amongst the young people and others who have been energized by your unexpected, unpredicted, against-all-odds candidacy that has ignited and inspired a nation. Do it for all those reasons. Make Caroline Kennedy your VP. “Obama-Kennedy.” Wow, does that sound so cool.
Caroline, thanks for letting me intrude on your life. How wonderful it will be to have a vice president who will respect the Constitution, who will support (instead of control) her president, who will never let her staff out a CIA agent, and who will never tell her country that she is “currently residing in an undisclosed location.”
Say it one more time: “OBAMA-KENNEDY.” A move like that might send a message to the country that the Democrats would actually like to win an election for once.
Yours,
Michael Moore
MMFlint@aol.com
MichaelMoore.com
Filed under News | Tags: 2008 presidential election, Caroline Kennedy, Obama, Obama's VP | Comments (4)
