I could only watch MTP for about 10 minutes before turning it off. The opening focus was on a Newsweek poll and the same boring questions were focused upon, what is wrong will Senator Obama on this that and the other. Well, I went to my computer to research the race in key states, and found a message that is not televised. The most important thing that will win this election is you getting more of us to the polls to vote.
Key Obama advisers say they hope to match or exceed the "tremendous" Bush field operation of 2004, which increased Republican turnout by 12 million votes over 2000, beating Democrats’ 8 million increase.
The Republicans had to increase their voter turnout by 4 million in order to beat the Democrats in 2004 by a slim margin. As we all know there has been an increase in Democratic party identification to 39% and a decrease in Republican identification. I find this to be a strong positive that is not being televised. Nevertheless, what will become key in November is voter turnout. McCain has no ground game to move those voters to the polls. How is he compensating for this deficit, he tells the media how "excited" everyone is about Sarah Palin. Are people really excited, who knows, but McCain understands that if he does not motivate his people to get out the vote, he loses.
Obama is putting his money on the ground game. He believes that it is more important to get out and talk to real people. John McCain has no ground game, so he must rely on negative ads. Obama has us. Let me ask you a simple question, do you know who five of your closest friends are voting for? If anyone you know is voting for McCain, time to send them a few e-mails. If anyone you know is voting for Obama, time to call them and make sure they are registered and know where to go to cast their vote.
Florida
Obama advisers say they’ve identified 600,000 African-Americans who did not vote in Florida in 2004 and hope to score big among 900,000 young people who did not vote. Bush beat Sen. John Kerry, D-Mass., in Florida by 381,000 votes in 2004.
If you just do the math, if Obama is successful in registering and turning out 20% of the prior unregistered African-Americans and young Florida voters then he has won over 300,000 additional votes. A hard task yes, but well worth the effort because there is virtually no scenario in which McCain can win unless he wins Florida. The key is to call your friends and remind your friends to call people. Look at how this works, if 100 people who read this diary stop to call or e-mail 10 people, then that means 1000 voters for Obama. People in Florida, does 1000 votes make a difference? Now imagine if every Florida Obama donor called or e-mailed 5 of their friends. Donations matter, but so does your phone call or e-mail.
http://www.thekansan.com/...
Pennsylvania
In Pennsylvania the registration deadline is coming up fast. The GOP is scrabbling to register new voters because they know they are down. Again in Pennsylvania it will come down to voter turnout.
But still unknown is whether the enthusiasm and excitement generated by Republican John McCain’s choice of Sarah Palin as his running mate will change that trend, G. Terry Madonna, a Pennsylvania political analyst, said.
"We really won’t know that for a couple more weeks," Madonna said.
Voter registration closes Oct. 6 in Pennsylvania, either by 4 p.m. that day at county courthouses or, if mailed, postmarked by that day.
In Pennsylvania, nearly 107,000 Democrats have been added to the voter rolls since April, a sharp contrast to the 2,702 new sign-ups by Republicans, according to the state Bureau of Election’s Web site.
Robert A. Gleason Jr., who is both the Cambria County and state GOP chairman, suggested that some of the Democratic registration is inflated by some activist groups signing up voters.
"In Philadelphia, there were 125,000 new registrations, and only 16,000 ended up being added to the rolls," Gleason said.
"They’re sending in a lot of triples and doubles."
But he said that even with that happening, he’s still concerned that GOP registration in Pennsylvania is behind by about 1.1 million currently.
http://www.tribune-democrat.com/...
Nevada
In Nevada, the Democrats are enjoying a registration lead over the Republicans. Turnout, turnout, turnout is the key. Everyone knows that if we win Nevada, Colorado and New Mexico we can win the White House. It will be a disgrace if we come up a few votes short because someone did not vote. Our job is to get people to the polls by all means necessary. So, if you have a friend who has a cousin who knows a person who lives in Colorado, call that friend after you finish reading this diary. Tell that friend to call that cousin and that cousin to call that person who lives in Colorado. Yes, it is that serious, no way, no how, no McCain.
For now, Democrats outnumber Republicans by 61,700 voters statewide. In Clark County, Democrats have nearly doubled their registration edge over Republicans since January, claiming 98,400 more voters. The county election department is now processing between 7,000 and 8,000 registrations a month, most of them submitted by Democrats and their allies, Registrar Larry Lomax said.
Over Labor Day weekend, Obama’s campaign deployed more than 1,000 volunteers in a statewide voter registration drive. The campaign had said it hoped to beat the previous weekend’s record of 1,500 registrations, and it did. Volunteers registered 4,200 Nevadans.
Thus, Obama’s campaign is leaving nothing to chance. It plans to host a steady stream of surrogates in Nevada to highlight the differences between the two tickets. Among the topics of discussion for a women’s round-table Saturday: equal pay, abortion rights and family leave.
Registration efforts will continue through Oct. 4, the last day organizers can submit forms to county election departments. "Leave no stone unturned," Tolbert said. "There are still doors to be knocked on and people to persuade. Everyone needs to be given a reason."
The Republicans say that they are going to be able to turn out their voters and they will win Nevada. They say the new voter registration does not matter because Democratic voters usually will not show up. Please, if you live in California and Nevada, let’s show them that they are wrong by helping to turn out voters on election day.
http://www.lasvegassun.com/...
Virginia
Obama is also cranking out the youth vote in places where he may be struggling. Lynchburg, Virginia is one example.
From voter registration drives at Liberty University to an entire year dedicated to citizenship at Lynchburg College, students at each school are noticing a united effort this year centered on the November presidential election.
The 18- to 25-year-old group has grown from 11 percent of all registered voters (in Lynchburg) in 2004 to 15 percent of all registered voters now," she said. "So they’re definitely registering."
If you are going out this weekend, take a few registration forms with you. The GOP wants to win over the evangelicals, well we can win over the party-goers. If you are at the bar, register a few of those people you meet. If someone asks for your phone number, make it conditional on them signing up to vote. Is it that serious, yes. We can't afford 4 more years of the same.
http://www.newsadvance.com/...
Finally, the most critical vote to this election will be the Latino vote. So if you live on the West coast and are bilingual your help is needed, especially in Colorado where the battle will be hard fought. Kerry lost Nevada for instance by just 6,000 votes. 40,000 registered Latinos did not vote. Yes we will do better this time.
On Saturday, Richardson fired up about 75 volunteers at the campaign’s North Las Vegas office before they fanned out across five, Latino-heavy Assembly districts. "Canvassing is the most important thing we can do to win," he told the crowd. "You can have a lot of negative ads, but what’s most important is people-to-people, door-to-door, getting out in the neighborhoods with the people."
Nationally, the Obama campaign and the Democratic National Committee plan to spend $20 million on a grass-roots organizing and advertising effort aimed at Latinos. That’s more than double the amount the Bush and Kerry campaigns spent together on Hispanic outreach in 2004.
Today Democrats hold a 39-point party identification edge, nearly double what it was two years ago, according to a recent national survey by the Pew Hispanic Center. The movement, the poll found, is driven in part by overall dissatisfaction with the state of the country and by a growing view that Democrats are better attuned to the concerns of the Latino community. More than half of registered Hispanics say Democrats are more concerned about them, compared with just 6 percent who say that about Republicans.
The poll also found Hispanics overwhelmingly favor Obama (66 percent to 23 percent) and, by a 3-1 margin, think he’s better suited to deal with their most important issues: education, jobs, the cost of living, health care and immigration.
http://www.lasvegassun.com/...
Finally a little something for reading this long diary: