Well, that was some two weeks. The Obama campaign is over – ending in victory, of course – and I’m back to Ireland today. (…well, it was “today” when I started writing this last Sunday.) The Obama campaign was, overall, a masterclass in grassroots activism. The sheer numbers of people contributing to the campaign – [...]
November 17th, 2008 at
10:15 in
Politics (Outside Ireland) | tags:
alexandria,
autonomy,
barack obama,
cialdini,
congress,
data,
data protection,
decision making,
democratic committee,
expectations,
field office,
fundraising,
george w bush,
grassroots,
ireland,
john kerry,
john mccain,
obama campaign,
ownership,
senate,
staff,
training,
us election,
us elections,
virginia,
volunteering,
volunteers,
voter registration |
5 Comments
Very hectic. All the stops are being pulled out on the ground here in Alexandria. Unlike the Florida McCain office that FiveThirtyEight (the bible on polls, by the way), photographed tonight, I can assure you, having just left it, that the Obama Field Office in Alexandria, VA, is still working. That’s 1am local time. There [...]
November 2nd, 2008 at
06:31 in
Politics (Outside Ireland) | tags:
alexandria,
barack obama,
canvass,
canvassing,
chicago,
data entry,
field office,
get out the vote,
gotv,
indianapolis,
john mccain,
jon carson,
labour youth,
last 72 hours,
obama field office,
ohio,
phone bank,
phone banking,
us election,
va,
virginia,
volunteers |
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There’s great interest and enthusiasm around the city and suburbs about the election. You expect to see posters and ads, but there are a huge number of people walking around wearing stickers, pins and t-shirts for candidates. Even children are feeling ownership of the campaign. This sign is up in a garden in Alexandria, just [...]
October 26th, 2008 at
23:44 in
Politics (Outside Ireland),
Random Rocks | tags:
alexandria,
barack obama,
dc,
jeff le,
john mccain,
marathon,
marine corps marathon,
meet the press,
rosslyn metro,
us election,
virginia |
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Watching the debate live. John McCain just got the Irish Corporation Tax rate wrong – again. Back in the first debate, he said it is 11% – it’s not. It’s 12.5%. You’d think someone would have updated his speaking notes by now. Update: Video from C-Span, it’s 10 seconds in. MSNBC failed to note this, [...]
October 16th, 2008 at
02:16 in
Politics (Outside Ireland) | tags:
business tax,
corporate tax,
corporation tax,
debate,
fact check,
ireland,
irish,
john mccain,
presidential debates,
profit tax,
us election |
2 Comments
Interesting stuff from Pew Research: 72 % of likely voters said Obama did a good or excellent job in the debate, compared to 59% for McCain. In the ‘one-word’ question (give me one word to describe Candidate X in the debate), the following results came up: Obama: 50% “confident” 31% “inexperienced” 31% “intelligent” 28% “presidential” [...]
The New York Times somehow managed to get Aaron Sorkin (creator of the great The West Wing and Studio 60) to write a Bartlet/Obama short script. Obama goes to Bartlet for advice on how to win the campaign. Here’s the nutshell version: OBAMA: What would you do? BARTLET: GET ANGRIER! Call them liars, because that’s [...]
No, seriously. According to one of his senior advisors, when asked what McCain had done to understand financial markets, holding up a Blackberry: “Telecommunications of the United States is a premier innovation in the past 15 years, comes right through the Commerce committee so you’re looking at the miracle John McCain helped create and that’s [...]
There’s a great post over on the FirstRead blog on MSNBC – 50 Questions for 50 Days. They’ve listed out fifty questions, the answers to which will tell you who wins the US election. Some highlights: Can Sarah Palin look as engaged as Joe Biden in the debate and can Joe Biden not look condescending [...]
