According to the Pew Research Center, the recent survey they conducted shows that 71% of voters that make under $30,000 each year really like and approve President Obama’s actions concerning the economy. During the campaign he struck even with McCain seizing more voters that make $75,000 yearly than his previous Democratic presidential candidate John Kerry whom sunk under while losing most of those votes. Six percent of the voters making $200,000 voted for Obama. He gained all of the richest states in the election.

A recent poll by Allstate and National Journal presented Obama as quite approved as president by education personnel, the self-employed, and senior business management. Amongst the self-employed 58% approve, the educational personnel approve by 55%, and senior business manager approval rating is 53%.

The Gallup Poll shows that upon ending his initial one hundred days as President 65% of the U.S citizenry approve his work so far. The poll also found that 96% of African American, 85% of the Hispanics, and 57% of the Caucasians approve of his performance. It found there isn’t a big gender gap as 62% of men and 67% of women think his work as the President thus far is approvable.

The Gallup Poll also calculates that the majority of young adults, Post-Grads, and Easterners give Obama a huge approval shot in the arm. Amongst the 18-29 year olds three-quarters are happy with his performance. The reasons that many younger people like him is that he is a younger President that they can relate to easier. Plus, he did grass roots campaigning aimed at the youth and encouraged them to join in. They liked his talk about change. He utilized Internet tools in his campaign like blogs, chat rooms, and YouTube videos.

Many people like him because he disagreed with the Iraq war. Many people like it because he wants to make the government be more accountable for its actions and more accessible to people. Many people of the Arabic ethnicity like him because of what he said during his speech at he 2004 Democratic Convention: “If there’s an Arab-American family being rounded up without benefit of an attorney or due process, that threatens my civil liberties.”

It seems that President Obama is greatly approved of by many Americans from different racial heritages, by youth, and by more than half of the senior level business managers. This alone spans a large variety of people and backgrounds. But many in education and a lot of the self-employed folks like him quite a bit too.

The recent WSJ/NBC News polls found that a huge majority of U.S. citizens like president Obama as a person. Eighty-one percent liked him the day before his 100-day in office. Thirty-one percent like him but don’t like his policies and fifty-one percent like him along with his policies.

All in all he has a high approval rating and more people in the U.S. like him than don’t like him. Obama is basically a well-liked President.

Tristan Andrews is a freelance author who writes articles about Political Games and Obama.

[tags]political games,politics,democrat,obama[/tags]

Amongst the people that disapprove of President Obama’s policies are those that believe in free enterprise. They are looking at what he has done to attack the shareholders’ and bondholders’ private property concerning GM and Chrysler. They deplore the idea of being too soft in dealings and discussions with South Americans leaders that blatantly smear the United States. The heartily disagree with his stance on abortion the killing of the innocent.

Many people that disapprove of his performance hate his huge spending actions of approving to spend America into financial oblivion. Where is any basic business sense in that scenario? People that don’t like him don’t like a patty cake attitude towards how we handle terrorists. And they can’t stand his action of signing to close the Guantanamo Bay detention facility. And Said Ali al-Shihri was a Guantanamo prisoner and now guess what? He is now the second in command in the Al Qaeda in Yemen. He was let lose on the world again after going through some mumbo-jumbo Saudi rehabilitation program. What? Like that was going to work. Can you really plan people with that opinion?

Other people that don’t approve of President Obama are 60% of those 65 years of age or more because they don’t like his stance on terrorism or the economy either. Many people and even some Democrats think that his ideas about great change are vague. A lot of people look at his so called qualifications to be President and still say his resume for the office is lacking.

Some people thought his political tactics were cheap. An example is the way he compared Ms. Clinton to Bush. Give people a break will you? He also pandered false dichotomies like change against experience and tried to say that judgment and experience have no relationship in so many words.

Think about the fact that he said he didn’t like big government versus the big spending and big government policies he is pushing. He said in a speech that he didn’t like meddling with the private sector but what has he really done? Consider the automobile industry.

People that believe in free enterprise don’t like meddling in its progress and propping up banks that wasted people’s money, which he continued to do after Bush started that baloney.

The Tea Party people probably don’t like the fact that Obama said he wasn’t even aware of their movement. Since it is a grass roots movement rooted in the best traditions of protesting high taxes or tariffs as they were historically called; it seems that the President would get aware of this movement. He is supposed to be the tax cut President. But some people against high taxes are fooled by his rhetoric because they realize that all of these social programs he wants to boost and start need money for funding, which will surprise! come from taxes.

Many people don’t like him for many conservative and patriotic reasons and that isn’t going to change.

Tristan Andrews is a freelance author who writes articles about Political Games and Obama.

[tags]political games,politics,democrat,obama[/tags]

Back in 2007 Bill O’Reilly asked his listeners why they didn’t like Hillary Clinton, he came to the conclusion that there were three main reasons.

- A lot of women think she compromised by making a pact with Bill to dismiss his marital faithlessness, if he would help her in politics.
- A lot of men dislike her political ideology
- Other people think she is aloof and manipulative

Some liberal women don’t like Hillary Clinton because she knows how and does play the big boys game. But then how is she supposed to succeed in politics if she doesn’t? They think she rose to the top with her husbands help and dismiss her own record of achievement.

Some Democrats dislike her for her vote on the Iraq war and they disapprove of her shifting her political ideology to the center.

Conservatives dislike her too because they say she doesn’t relate to the needs and views of mainstream America. Social conservatives say she undermines family values and some people think she dismantled the icon of what the American woman stands for and should be and act like. Some people probably dislike her because an ambitious woman that is brainy messes with their idea of womanhood.

The political analysis of Thomas Schaller of the University of Maryland, Baltimore County in the BNET article ‘Conservatives Can’t Stand Hillary’ is ‘A lot of people have a certain issue with strong, accomplished women.” (Dessert News (Salt Lake City), August 13, 2006, John Machacek’Garnett News Service.) Schaller explains that though usually ambition is admired that it is many times reserve for males; he says it is a gender problem.

Some people didn’t like her comment about fulfilling her profession as opposed to being at home baking and having teatime. They think it insulted women that stay home. And the not staying at home standing by her man remark galled many and the fury arose against her. People that don’t like Hillary tend to say that various scandals haven’t been cleared up like commodities trading and not releasing tax returns.

She struggled with a big disapproval rating during the presidential campaign; the night before the presidential primary it was 48%. It rose beyond any disapproval rating for anyone that more recently won the Democratic parties nomination.

Out of 900 registered voters across the nation in a Fox News/Opinion Dynamics Poll conducted between 3/31 and 4/1 of 2009 23% disapprove of the way she is doing her job as secretary of State. The CNN Opinion Research Poll found that again 23% of 1,019 of adults in the U.S. disapprove of her performance as Secretary of State.

According to the Harris Interactive Poll of 2007 a lot of people 52% think Hillary can’t link with people in a personal way. In a breakdown of this percentage 53 % of espoused women, males 56%, matures 68%, and republicans 73%.

It seems the reasons that people dislike Hillary Clinton range from the personal to the political and that some people would really like to mind her business for her. The old prejudice of accomplished and intelligent women being taboo rides high in the negative reactions to her and people taking comments out of context or maybe too seriously sometimes is another problem she has faced.

Tristan Andrews is a freelance author who writes articles about Political Games and Obama.

[tags]political games,politics,democrat,hillary,clinton[/tags]

Biden is liked by people that want to be tough on crime, if they know that he wrote the Violent Crime control and Law Enforcement Act of 1994. The bill enlarged the span of crimes that are punishable by the death penalty. Though they would like him even more if he hadn’t voted contrary to limiting appeals for capitol cases. People that agree that drug offenders shouldn’t be put in prison find his stance appealing. These are usually people that think marijuana smokers shouldn’t be put in jail.

Other people will approve of his belief that voluntary prayer in schools should be allowed and those that support abstinence-only sex educations naturally find him likeable, if they believe he really means it. The National Education Association definitely likes Biden. Some of the reasons for their support are he wants smaller class rooms, he wants a program that appeals to the smartest students to get them in Education, and he voted for Educational Savings Accounts. The American Education Association supported him in votes by 91%.

Environmentalists like his politics concerning global warming. He would like a treaty focused on developing countries so that their emission would be reduced. He is on board for technologies that would create new eco-friendly fuels such as bio-diesel-fuels. And he believes in generating technologies that would reduce greenhouse emissions. He is also against drilling in the Artic Wildlife Refuge.

Those people against guns like Biden because he wants a law to stop people from having a way to buy a gun easier at gun shows than at gun stores or pawn shops.

The American Health Association is on his bandwagon by 100% because he wants some form of nationalized health insurance. He supports ways to make health care accessible to everyone.

Illegal immigrants that have knowledge of his stance on their being in the country naturally like Biden. He believes in guest worker visa and supplying Social Security illegal aliens. He also is in favor of making a way for them to become citizens.

Farmers probably favor him to some degree because he voted for the Farm Bill. This bill is a continuation of farm subsidy and it has provisions to develop rural areas, conservation, nutrition, and energy. It is also called the Food Conservation Act of 2008. Some of the things that it focuses on are ways to reduce pests and diseases.

Folks that think personal bankruptcy should be limited will like that he voted in favor of that. That seems to be congenial to debt collectors and businesses.

Those that think that corporations shouldn’t outsource jobs found his vote on repealing tax subsidies for such companies approvable. They believe those corporations shouldn’t have outsourced in the first place.

In a nutshell people with strict conservative ideals and those with a liberal bent can find things to like about Vice President Joe Biden. Many will appreciate his nature of thinking out issues individually instead of voting party line every time.

Tristan Andrews is a freelance author who writes articles about Political Games and Obama.

[tags]political games,politics,democrat,biden[/tags]

A recent poll by Pew Research Center determined that Joe Biden isn’t as popular as Cheney during July of 2001. Of those surveyed 49% stated they had gotten a bad impression of Biden.

Some people don’t care for Vice President Biden because he has made numerous blundering statements. There is a list of these at Fox News. Here is a Biden comment that will live on in infamy “When the stock market crashed, Franklin D. Roosevelt got on the television and didn’t just talk about the, you know, the princes of greed. He said, ‘Look, here’s what happened.’

What’s wrong with that comment? It has two errors in it. First, Herbert Hoover sat in the oval office in 1929 and President Hoover was aired on radio because TV didn’t exist then. Should people not like or disapprove of him as Vice President for not knowing his historical facts concerning one of the presidents of the United States? Well, yes people should want a vice president that has a grasp on America history and especially the presidents. Not knowing TV wasn’t around then would show a grasp of social history too. Not liking him on a personal level is another matter.

American citizens that defend their right to have guns don’t like Biden because he has voted against gun owners during his 30 years as a Senator. Actually, he has voted against the Second Amendment right to bear arms. In consistently voting this way, he has been opposed to the rights of citizens that uphold the Second Amendment. By trying to pander to them in Virginia, he managed to insult all American gun owners. He maligned their intelligence.

‘Senator Biden must think America’s gun owners are dumber than rocks,’ stated CCRKBA Chairman Alan Gottlieb on 09/22/2008 in an article at their site. CCRKBA stand for Citizens Committee for the Right to Keep and Bear Arms.

The people who believe in their Second Amendment right are a large group to be insulting. They are also on the side of the founding fathers that wrote the constitution.

Being pro-choice and a Catholic haven’t made Biden popular with the Catholic Church in general or with many Catholics. Of course, conservatives heavily disapprove of this stance too. Many people can’t agree with killing babies. What is hard to understand about that? There are people without any religious affiliation that are against abortion.

He does uphold Roe vs. Wade, though he is against later term abortions, which has upset people that are totally pro-choice. So this stance has alienated that group.

People that think he should know history generally dislike Vice President Joe Biden; many people disrespect him for numerous verbal blunders. He is disliked by people that defend their right to be arms, and people that are pro-life; he has managed to gain the dislike or disapproval of folks from diverse political and religious views. When viewed from the basis of traditional American values he falls short of standing up and people that believe in them will never approve of him.

Tristan Andrews is a freelance author who writes articles about Political Games and Obama.

[tags]political games,politics,democrat,biden[/tags]

Many people like Hillary Clinton because she is a strong minded, educated, and intelligent politician. A lot of feminists like her because she is a female politician that is liberal. Others respect her long history of working for the disenfranchised as a lawyer and politician.

The Jewish Republican coalition likes Hillary Clinton because she said that Obama was naive in stating he would talk with leaders of countries like North Korea Syria, Iran, Venezuela, and Cuba. Indeed, their support of Hillary makes sense since their people personally know what being oppressed is all about.

Some people like Clinton because she is ambitious and understands the hard world of politics. Thus, she doesn’t agree with the whining that Democrats do concerning the way Republicans campaign. Some people find this a good turn in the way Democrats campaign.

Others like her because they distrust the media crowd that denounces her and likes Obama. Many like her because her supporters don’t come from the media and because that same media cuts them down as drinkers of six packs. Many people that dislike this cutting down of Middle America like Hillary.

People that don’t care for the elitist crowd in the Democratic Party like Hillary because she is proud of her Middle class roots; just what is wrong with being Middle Class is her question and theirs. The mass media isn’t in touch with a lot of American citizens and their lives and views.

Some of the reasons that even some conservatives like Hillary Clinton as Secretary of State are that she is a strong-minded woman that will back the United States on foreign policy. She has a bulldog tenacity that is needed in that position. Others like the fact that as the Secretary of State she isn’t using her following and tenacity to influence the senate because she is a liberal. Though a liberal, she is one that believes in America and will fight for the U.S.

The same people like her being Secretary of State because she isn’t in Congress influencing domestic policy. At least these people see her strengths and admire them, while not liking her domestic ideas.

Those that like Hillary detest the fact that the flaws of the other candidates are mostly brushed aside, but the same people that do this brushing put a microscope to Hillary’s flaws.

People that appreciate knowing a topic when you discuss it like Hillary because she is very well informed. Others appreciate that she has experience in such battles as universal health care. Experience has made her wiser and having a wiser person in any government position is a good thing.

The folks that like Hillary appreciate a politician that can articulate their position and has experience in the trenches. Many Middle Class people like her because she doesn’t disparage them but believes in them. If experience counts for anything in people’s minds then her extensive experience in law and politics is one reason why those that understand how important experience is like Hillary Clinton.

Tristan Andrews is a freelance author who writes articles about Political Games and Obama.

[tags]political games,politics,democrat,hillary,clinton[/tags]

Thanks to the media, no one is exempt from the dismal news of the economic collapse of Wall Street.

All of us have a pretty good idea of the succession of events that got us to this place. But how did it really happen? How could such a thing blindside the best minds of the financial world? And, who is really to blame? Is the very notion of holding anyone accountable outdated? Such are the questions on all our minds today.

I believe it was not a freak occurrence; it was not an unforeseeable consequence of a perfect storm of global factors which just happened to converge at one single time.

On the contrary, beneath the surface of this crisis lies a set of dynamics concealed from public view that made it not so much happenstance as the inevitable and predictable outcome of a sinister choreography I prefer to call the game.

In reality, this game has been around for millennia. It rises and falls with the fluctuations of circumstance. Like the phoenix, out of the ashes of one game comes another, different in form, but remarkably identical in substance. A deeper examination of the latest incarnation, the consumption bubble which led to the collapse on Wall Street, reveals the necessary clues to how this hidden game is played out right before our eyes.

First, we know what goes up must come down, so it is no surprise that the enormous bubble created by the sales-driven economy would burst. Nonetheless, when it did, its brutal reality of chaos and carnage shocked every last one of us.

How that bubble grew is simple, really. Over the last several decades myriad products were foisted upon the public who drifted into a buying trance. As needs gave way to wants, specific wants gave way to addicts buying for the sake of buying. Consumption became rapacious, driven by slick advertising and enabled by easy credit. A population of shopaholics became so habituated to shopping that even when the money ran out last fall, penniless people carrying maxed out credit cards filled the malls coast-to-coast.

Because humans are driven by emotion and not reason, effective salesmen know that more can be achieved by a manipulative appeal to our emotional weaknesses than by the most cogent, brilliant argument. Being a master manipulator then, is their goal.

Manipulation is the art of managing impressions. It stands to reason then that through the process of natural selection those who are the most talented at impression management rise to the top of the organizational hierarchy. These are the players.

Manipulative players are born, not made. Their art requires a degree of congruence in presentation that is simply not sustainable for those who are not naturally inclined to manipulate. The defining element in the character profile of a player is narcissism. But they are not merely narcissistic; they are narcissists to their very core.

The narcissist is a predator. Their motivation is power, status, and instant gratification. Lacking conscience, they exist without barriers; they hold no regard for the law or any social norm. They execute their plans without question to the methods and means they employ to achieve their goals.

Despite being supremely self-serving, players, like wolves, form a type of tribe, or pack. They share a common worldview and instinctively draw to one another, seeking each other out in the crowd. Once this tribe gains control of an environment, all others are barred from the upper ranks and so the game begins.

A contra-selection takes place wherein the best and the brightest are pushed aside to make way for the players and their loyal followers. Since excellence is the natural enemy of mediocrity, and people of excellence have a conscious, it stands to reason that over time the players exclusively occupy the upper ranks. Their challenge then is to create a game which looks fair and open on the surface, but whose outcome is fully predetermined. No matter what the role of the dice, players come out on top.

How do they do this? Hypnosis!
I am not talking about the kind you see practiced by mentalists and stage magicians, no, players are much more covert. They disguise their game far better and are far more successful than mere actors.

The game itself is in reality nothing more than a trance induced by the players and is only sustained by our collective belief in the fabricated reality we are duped into believing. Once we wake up, it evaporates and in very short order becomes a vague and distant memory; the way we shake off a nightmare when we rise in the morning.

John Berling Hardy is author of the e-book “Have We Been
Played?- The Hidden Game Revealed.” The insights contained in
this series give you the Edge. To find out more about the carefully
guarded secret shared by all those who enjoy power and prestige visit
Have We Been Played.com.

[tags]Secret, hidden, game, player, manipulation, competitive edge, freedom, authentic relationship, recla[/tags]

I’m really not the sort of person who’s interested enough in politics to be compelled to take time out of my busy schedule to help a political candidate. If I have any free time, I’d rather be working on my little art projects. However, something very interesting happened recently. Somehow, a few months before the presidential election, I got inspired to help Obama.

Like many others, I’d been freaked out about the state of our country and our world. At one point, all the bad news just kept piling up. The economy has been going downhill for a long time, but only recently did people start noticing; and I was worrying about what will happen when China decides to stop buying our debt.

With gasoline at $4 per gallon and rising at the time, our fuel and energy situation clearly didn’t look sustainable. Weird climate changes and strong hurricanes were making the global warming problem a little harder to ignore. I was worried about having no health insurance…

And of course I’d been upset about the war. As far as I’m concerned, there is no good reason to start a war. Most Americans have no understanding of the horrors of war on a deep level. It’s just all so abstract when it’s half way across the world. Now there are two wars to be upset about.

And here was a presidential candidate who was saying all the things we all wanted to hear, with real, coherent ideas and plans. I actually heard a calling. I somehow felt compelled to help Obama win, and the feeling was too strong to ignore.

What’s interesting to me is that so many others heard the calling, and like me, many of them were not the activist types. It was like a large number of people woke up at the same time. We all realized that if things keep going in the same direction, things could get very ugly very quickly.

Many of the volunteers I met have never worked on a political campaign before either. Some of them took months out from their busy lives, flocking to the swing states, just to help the cause, which was pretty amazing in itself. There were busloads of college kids from New York, here to help in the final weeks.

There were so many volunteers here in Pittsburgh, PA, that we needed many local headquarters locations, and more were being added all the time, to have more space for phone banking, and getting the canvassing shifts started.

My friend Lance, who’s the Outreach/Student Coordinator for the Santa Clara, CA election board, said, “Our county had an almost 90% voter turnout. Everything about the election was unusual and amazing - even months ago. We are a non partisan organization, and offer the same services to all political parties and campaigns. During the summer, I was training Obama precinct captains on voter registration, and their foot soldiers - 15 and 16 year old teenagers - would show up at our office every week for more voter registration forms. I received 1900 applications to work in this election from the high school student program - usually we get about 600.”
I wasn’t really aware of the extent of what was happening until I too decided to help. I just walked into one of the local headquarters, and asked how I can be helpful.

Again, something interesting happened. I got on the Obama email list, and started getting a couple of emails every day. These emails kept me posted on what was going on, encouraged me to get involved and most had a donate button, so that people could donate to the campaign.

The whole campaign was funded by regular people like me, without taking any money from special interests. Most other political candidates can be bought, but not this one. Even the brokest of the broke in this country, can afford to chip in a few bucks for a cause they believe in. With everyone giving whatever they could, apparently these contributions did add up and did the job.

This campaign used email and the internet like no other political campaign I’m aware of. I’ve been saving these emails.

I have emails from James Fogarty, the team leader from my local headquarters; from Barack Obama; Joe Biden; Michelle Obama; David Plouffe - the brilliant campaign manager for Obama for America; Craig Schirmer, Pennsylvania State Director, Obama for America; Eric Greenwald, Voter Protection Director, Pennsylvania Campaign for Change; Al Gore; Marianne Markowitz, Chief Financial Officer, Obama for America. There’s certainly some direct communication going on, making me feel like I’m in the loop, like I’m being treated like an intelligent adult.

I’m recognizing all the internet marketing strategies used in business, employed in this brilliant campaign. Marketing research shows that you usually need to make at least 7 contacts with a prospect before he or she decides to work with you. Hence the repetition with emails, phone calls and home visits in the campaign. Many people were annoyed that we pestered them so often, but you can’t argue with results. We had unprecedented voter turnouts here in PA, not to mention all the volunteers and donors.

There are YouTube videos put out by the campaign, designed to inform and involve the public. I got lots of these videos in the emails from the campaign. You can watch any speech or debate that you missed, as well as a wide variety of campaign related videos posted by a wide variety of people. Surely, the media has normally been a very powerful catalyst in politics, but media + internet takes it to a whole new level. Not only can we watch the videos any time, and as often as we want, but anyone can make their own campaign related videos and post them on YouTube, therefore truly having an uncensored voice.

I’ve been blown away by the extent to which every American has had an opportunity to be informed and involved in this campaign. While the US has been fighting wars in the name of democracy in far away lands, our own democracy has been lagging to say the least. You can’t have democracy when no one is paying attention; democracy requires involvement and participation. Americans got too comfortable and too distracted by their televisions, video games, pro sports, and other fun distractions.

On November 5th, I got a very gracious thank you email from Barack Obama:

Emilie —

I’m about to head to Grant Park to talk to everyone gathered there, but I wanted to write to you first.

We just made history.

And I don’t want you to forget how we did it.

You made history every single day during this campaign — every day you knocked on doors, made a donation, or talked to your family, friends, and neighbors about why you believe it’s time for change.

I want to thank all of you who gave your time, talent, and passion to this campaign.

We have a lot of work to do to get our country back on track, and I’ll be in touch soon about what comes next.

But I want to be very clear about one thing…

All of this happened because of you.

Thank you,

Barack

I was very much moved by this email, but I hadn’t even thought about what comes next. But of course, this was only the beginning. The campaign has built up so much momentum, it would be a huge waste to stop here. If we could get an unlikely candidate elected with just grass roots and internet strategies, couldn’t we do something similar, to help create the change we want to see? Even the president of the United States can’t do it alone.

Today, I got an email from John Podesta, from the Obama-Biden Presidential Transition Team; that includes a video of a meeting of our Energy and Environment Policy Transition Team, an interview with team member Heather Zichal, and a link I can click on to submit my ideas. When was the last time your federal government asked you for your ideas?

In the spirit of continued communication, Barack Obama is creating very short, weekly addresses, and posting them on YouTube.

Now, with every email I get from the campaign, with every video I watch, I realize that something magical is happening - something many of us have been hoping for, but were too cynical to really expect it to happen.

The problem is, I don’t think everyone realizes this yet, and I know that not everyone is on Obama’s email list, and not everyone scours Video Sift for the latest Obama videos. This is what motivated me to write this article. I think it’s important for everyone to be aware, to get involved, because this is what Democracy was supposed to be all about in the first place.

Emilie Nottle is a graphic/web designer, online strategist, and principal at Zooop Design - a full service graphic and web design firm.

[tags]politics, obama, democracy, presidential campaign, election, grassroots, United States, America[/tags]

Wow, what a week! We’re exhausted and giddy.

All the door knocking, registering voters, phone calling, emails, pestering people in line to the rally… It really worked! We were still calling people up ten minutes before the polls were closing - telling them that if they’re in line by 8pm, they have the right to vote; if they needed a ride, we’d come and pick them up… It was heartening to hear people on the street, asking each other if they’d voted yet. We had record voter turn outs here in PA… with a little help from our friends.

I met people from both East and West coast blue states, here in Pittsburgh for just one purpose - to help Obama get elected. Not just young people, but people of all ages, taking time off work to crash on someone’s couch, just to help the cause! And then there were the bus loads of college kids from NY, here to help us in the last few days before the election. When was the last time we had a truly grass roots campaign like that?

Judging from conversations with our friends, neighbors, and total strangers here, we were worried. It seemed like so many people had serious issues with Barak Obama. Most of these concerns were based on lies spread by the McCain campaign, and no amount of reason succeeded in dispersing these fears.

Considering the outcomes of the last two presidential elections and conversations with people here on the ground, we were afraid all the lying and cheating might be working. Even normally reasonable, intelligent people were planning to vote against Obama! With such a weird/unusual/Muslim name, a childhood so different from most people here, and dark skin, he aroused much suspicion. Could someone like that really be one of the good guys?

So many here couldn’t get past all that, to hear what he was actually saying, to realize that he was one of the brightest, most inspiring leaders we’ve had in a long time, that he actually had viable ideas and plans, and was probably just what we needed to get us out of the mess we’re in…

I heard objections like, “he’s not our type”, “he doesn’t look like a president”, and “I can’t vote for him - he’ll only look out for his people”.

People were getting robocalls saying that due to the expectation of an unusually high voter turn out, Republicans should vote on November 4th, and Democrats on November 5th! And they were calling our volunteers, posing as Obama campaign staff, telling volunteers who signed up for shifts that they would not be needed! This was after we’d spent much time and energy signing up volunteers for the final days!

I was already imagining my disillusionment if all these slimy tactics would cost us the election, with so much at stake! Even friends from abroad were anxious for Obama to win, since the fate of the US will certainly affect the fate of the rest of the world.

Imagine the exhilaration when the numbers started coming in, and a large room full of exhausted campaign staff and volunteers started realizing that things were looking good after all. We were at our local campaign headquarters, and as soon as we were pretty confident that we couldn’t lose, and after all the cheering, hugging and crying, we all headed down to the “big party”, at the local union hall. By that point, we all really needed a drink.

We got to the big party, and I can’t remember the last time I saw so many happy people in one place. The numbers kept coming in on the big screen, and the hugging and cheering continued. We heard local politicians and campaign organizers speak.

I missed McCain’s concession speech while waiting in the bathroom line, which was probably more fun anyway.

Suddenly, I’m actually feeling hopeful. I know it sounds like a cliche by now, but I truly feel it, as do many others I’ve met in this journey. I’ve been asking myself, my friends and enemies: what will need to happen to get us out of the mess we’ve gotten into in the last eight years. I really think Barak Obama has had the best answers to this question.

I know change doesn’t come quickly, and I know it won’t be easy. But I’m certain now that soon we’ll be headed in the right direction.

Maybe there’s hope for democracy after all!

Emilie Nottle is a graphic and web designer who recently moved to Pittsburgh, PA. Stop by her website to learn more about her work.

Proactives are actions anyone can do to affect anything, including ending the war in Iraq. Electing Democrats did not end the war. Protesting, whining, complaining has not done it in five years and will not in another five years. Each individual citizen must proactively take action, or engage in non-actions, not doing things. Become a proactive part of a non-violent revolution to make things right in this country again. Here are nine things anyone can do to stop the war in Iraq and improve America and the planet right now.

Use less gas. It is all about oil. I still drive a car, but I have cut my gas consumption by 25 percent over the past six months. I use my bike when I can, and have found other ways to cut down. There are endless ways to do the same. You can car pool; buy and use a motorcycle; walk more, bike more; telecommute, etc. Using less gas is a great proactive. If millions of Americans do it rigorously, lots of good things happen, long-reaching things.

Spend less. This is the opposite of what the Bush administration wants, which is to keep the economy pumping. Go the opposite way. We might as well have fun with this recession. A real slowdown in the economy has many beneficial effects, too, particularly on the environment; it is not the end of the world, or our economy. There are countless ways to spend less money.

Save money. Shoot for saving $500, $5,000, $50,000 or $500,000. If millions do this it will have a definite effect on the economy. And vastly improve your own financials. Quit buying useless crap, including four dollar coffee drinks. I am doing fine without an iPod, and saved a ton of money. Again, if millions of Americans do this, many long-reaching good things happen.

Get in good shape physically. This is good for you, the planet, and humanity. We need you healthy. It is good for your mental fitness too, your intellect, your powers of reasoning, your overall self respect and respect for all living things. We need healthy, energetic, proactive, non-violent revolutionaries.

Boycott sports. What professional athlete has spoken out against the war in Iraq? Not one. They are too concerned with their fat paychecks and endorsements. Watching them, caring about them is how they get paid. Boycott them. This is related to numbers 2 and 4. Stop living your life vicariously through these overpaid crybabies, and get into your own best shape. You win when you do. All this applies to the Olympics too: do not watch a second of this over-hyped, athlete-automaton garbage. Boycott the Olympics in every way you can, starting by not watching any of it.

Write your senators and representatives. I have always hated this and never did it. Not anymore. I have sent my federal lawmakers more than 30 letters over the past 6 months. Their offices now know exactly where this voter stands on Iraq. It felt fantastic.

Write the president. Ask/demand that Bush and Cheney resign immediately. I have sent five such letters in the past 6 months. Really vented. Felt great. Think if the White House got 50 million such letters, or 500 million, forcefully asking for/demanding resignations. Never happened before in history. Inundate the White House, really let Bush/Cheney have it, tell them what you think of them. It does not matter that they will not see the letters. It is fun. The White House, 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue NW, Washington, DC 20500.

Cut your animal consumption. In half, at least, including animal product (eggs, dairy). Shoot for a totally plant-based diet. This is good for you, the environment, and helps downshift and shift the economy toward something more humane. As long as there are slaughterhouses, there will be wars. I used to be the biggest carnivore on the planet. No more and I feel fantastic, never been healthier.

Take a sabbatical from pets. Stop buying and spending money on pets. Keep what pets you have now, but do not buy any more, or replace the ones you have, for one, three or five years. We spend a huge amount of money and time on pets and we need money and time to wage this non-violent revolution to get our country back. Use the money you would spend on pets in other ways that are good for humanity, the environment, our country, and the planet.

Jerome Kellner is author of The Maui Diet. He’s lived on Maui since 1972 and enjoys biking, hiking, swimming, snorkeling, kayaking and other outdoor recreation. See http://www.themauidiet.com

[tags]politics, liberal, current affairs[/tags]