Not So Happy Turkey Day

I feel sorry for Obama. He is inheriting a broken country and I don't think anything he does will be good enough in a lot of Americans eyes. I was reading in the Daily Sentinel and it said constantly that no one is impressed with Obama's cabinet choices and in the "You Said It" column people are all ready blaming him for our horrible economy .....

11/19

Al-Qaeda had apparently vowed to hurt "Obamas US." The members of Al-Qaeda believe Obama is a "house slave" to American and that he has betrayed his Muslim roots.
" You were born to a Muslim father , but you chose to stand in the ranks of the enemies of the Muslims, and pray the prayer of the Jews."

11/16

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Zd8f9Zqap6U

Obama's Weekly Address, Nov. 15th

11/12

I was reading in the Daily Sentinel before I left for school and it said that 87% of Americans believe that Obama will help out our economy, that's good to hear.

Gas by my house was a $1.96 today I was pretty excited. My dad predicted it would go up after the election ended but it hasn't yet. I love it thought because no seems to care that the gas has gone down in price. Americans only complain, we are rarely positive. Just an observation.

Withdrawls

I honestly don't know what to do with myself now that the elections is over. Almost everyday I would into Forward Colorado for a few hours and phonebank. I learned a lot while working for the Democrats. I learned that you need stand up for yourself, you will encounter people that are rude and you just need to shrug it off. I'm more comfortable in leardership positions and I feel like I can manage stress more easily. I'm not sure politics is something I want to go into for a career but I'm glad I got to be part of the historic election.

11/10

I feel bad for Obama. Americans are pessimists about our country. Very few believe we are going in the right path. Last night I was flipping channels and I stopped on a religious channel because in big bold letters on the screen it said "Worlds End" on the show they were discussing that Obama getting elected president is a sign of the end of the world. oh what news. Honestly people, calm down.

11/6

So Obama has apparently chosen his chief of staff. It will be U.S. Rep. Rahm Emanuel. Emanuel worked for the Clinton Administration and now is the 4th- ranking Democrat in the House.

They think Obama chose Rahm Emanuel because he has experience and has a strong personal relationship with Obama.

11/5/08

Chemistry was rough today. There were three students in my class that were so over dramatic about McCain losing. One wore black because she was mourning and the two others just kept on saying how Obama was going to shot anyway . Okay I know I would have been sad if McCain would have won but come on, hoping for assassination is very morbid and strange. Obama is our president now, whether or not you voted for him.

I'm very said Dan Robison and Bernie Buescher lost, they are two great guys. Mesa Country loves Republicans and hates taxes I think that was evident last night.

McCain's speech last night was very good last night BUT not as good as Obama's. My dad got chills when he was speeching and my mom started crying.

I know these next 4 yrs are going to rough, no matter the president but I believe there will be more progress with Obama in office.

The first election I was able to vote in and I chose the winner. I know this won't always happen so I am savoring it.

SHWEEET

OBAMA WON !!!
UDALL WON !!!

Salazar, I'm not sure yet but I hope he does.
I'm very sad Bernie might not win =( everyday he would come into our office and thank us for our hard work.

Today I clocked in an 11 hr work day and it was totally worth it.
COLORADO WENT BLUEEEE !!!

thanks hillary for going and canvassing with me, you're awesome.

=(

It is very sad that Obama's grandmother, Madelyn Dunham died just a few days before the election. I'm very glad Obama took time out of this campaign to go visit her in Hawaii. I'm also glad that McCain acknowledged Obama's loss. It's nice to see that even though they are opponents they are still humans who have feelings.

7 am it begins

I am so nervous .... Tomorrow I am working all day at Forward Colorado. We are still phone banking and canvassing making sure that our supporters are going to the polls or are turning in their mail in ballots. My mom bought me a t-shirt that says "Change 08". I'll be rocking it tomorrow.

John Salazar and I .....

...

I checked real clear politics last night and without the toss up states colorado is going to go to Obama. I'm pretty excited = ) but of course that is only an estimation. I really hope all the Obama supporters go out and vote, I'm really nervous about the election

Send A Farmer To Congress

I will soon be posting a really cheesy picture of me with John Salazar up here. I got to meet him today at La Bamba. It was an interesting experience. We had a good turn out and the restaurant was packed. I've learned that most of the time the locations chosen are smaller, that way they look really packed. My dad got to go with me and I found out that John Salazar and my dad knew each other .... He was a very nice man and he really tried to push people to get involved the last 6 days of the election but alas only one person decided to volunteer for us. The top issues that were brought up tonight were.

• energy independence
• war in Iraq
• economy

Salazar stressed that if the Democrats lose this election it is their fault, we can't afford to have the mentality that we've already won, we need to work hard until the end.

15

Just read in the newspaper about the plot to kill Obama. I knew that would be an issue, my sister keeps bringing it up to me .... my dad and I both agree that we can't allow fear to control who we vote for. I'm so glad those crazy skinheads got caught. I read that if they weren't able to kill Obama than they planned on killing 120 black students in Tennessee. Our country is so scary sometimes.

I was watching BBC News and they said that McCain's favorable rating seems directly related to the DOW. If the shares go up so will McCain's ratings. hmmm .. some food for thought.

John Salazar anyone ?

ATTENTION ATTENTION

John Salazar is going to be at La Bamba on Main St. tomorrow at 5:00. I know he isn't as cute as Mark Udall but it should still be a good time. I will working at the event, if anyone wants to start volunteering PLEASE come. We really need more young people volunteering. Let's go out and show those old people that we aren't apathetic.

Thanks for chosing 2nd hour over us ....

I was watching the evening news with Katie Couric and it mentioned that the polls showing Obama's strong lead is probably not accurate. My mom and I were thinking and we hope that democrats don't get too comfortable and feel like they don't need to vote because Obama will obviously win. Last Monday I mailed in my mail in ballot, I am pretty excited = ) I made my dad help me and we both looked through the little blue book so I had an idea of what all the amendments were about. I really didn't have strong opinions on a lot of them except for amendment 48.

FYI - I hear a HUGE shipment of Obama's signs came in last week ( over 4,000). Can anyone verify this ? I heard the Obama Headquarter on Grand has tons. I got one so now there are 2 houses in my neighborhood with Obama signs and 3 with McCain.

[Funny Story]
This weekend I was hanging out with me extremely Republican boyfriend and we saw this van driving around Main Street with these signs on the van saying "McSame" and these two blow up dummies hugging, one with the face of McCain and the other ... Bush. This is the first year that I've seen so many people voicing their political opinion so strongly. I also saw this man driving around town with a bumper sticker that said "Obama should be the president of Afghanistan NOT American." The best thing I've seen so far though was a mini van that said " Vote for Hope, this mama's for Obama." lol.

1:30

Closing remarks were interesting. The question asked was "What do you not know , how will you learn it." Obama's answer was confusing, McCain's answer was very straightforward. The debate went very well. McCain repeatedly said that Obama lied constantly and questioned Obama's character. There were not a lot of personal jabs. Barack Obama was not looking for a fight and McCain definitely was. Obama was more relaxed in this debate, McCain seemed pretty nervous and what was up with trying to bring Tom into the debate ? Leave the moderator alone, lol.

Who won ? I liked what Obama had to say.

Debate

Don't you love how no one looks happy in the background of the debate. They are probably told not to show favoritism but come on, there are people yawning constantly and most of them look uninterested. I'd love to be there.

• I love the idea of incentives for being "green"
• Obama keeps on saying that the government should be like a family on a tight budget, when we don't' have a lot of money we should cut down on things (he used the allusion of a family cutting down on eating out when money is tight.)
• McCain says "my friends" constantly. McCain said that Obama wants to raise taxes and that 50% of those increases will go to small businesses. He also said that he is not going to give tax cuts to the wealthy.
• Obama's tax plan- "I want to provide a tax cut for 95% of Americans. Only a few percent make 200,000 dollars a year, they will get tax cuts with my plan." Obama says McCain will give CEO's tax cuts, God debates are confusing !!!!!!
• Can I keep a tally of the number of times McCain says "my friends." lol. I actually agree with McCain on some of these issues. This is why politics are so confusing. Now McCain says Obama has never cut taxes.
• McCain says our planet is damaged. He disagrees with the Bush Administration on climate change. He says nuclear power is our answer. What about wind energy ? Solar energy ? I heard this women talking about it on Sunday and she said she refused to vote for someone who only thought nuclear power was the answer .....
• Obama's Energy Plan - Solar energy, wind energy, hydro power , and nuclear power as a possibility. "we cannot drill ourselves out of this crisis." I TOTALLY AGREE !
• Basically I think both of these candidates will be better than Bush ....

I grew up in a household of democrats. For this debate I am trying be open minded but I am having a hard time. I hear my parents constantly talking about how Obama is the right choice and I volunteer at FC so I hear the democrats side more than the republicans. I have this stereotypical view of republicans and I apologize. Some of you do care about the environment and are very educated. I wish I could talk about politics with non democrats without feeling like I have to defend my every statement.

Okay neither of them are paying attention to time, Tom is getting pissed. OMG ! Obama just follow the gosh darn time limit ! McCain follow the time limit !

Tuesday

It seems like I have been an intern at Forward Colorado FOREVER ! But in actual reality I've only earned 40 volunteer hours .....

THERE IS ONLY 28 DAYS UNTIL THE ELECTION !

GOTV (get out the vote) started here at the office a couple days ago. We are really trying to get more people involved so if ANY of you guys want to come volunteer once or twice a week that would be amazing = ) You can go canvassing and phone bank. You guys would totally like canvassing, you're out in the fresh air talking to people about their political views. It is the most effective way to persuate voters and has a higher contact rate then phone banking which is less than 30 %. For instance we just had a lady come in for 5 hrs, she dialed 100 phones and only contacted 6 !

Just a side note : I am here in the office all myself ...... this why we need more people my age volunteering that way I won't be alone ... in an office ... on North Ave ..... Did I mention Dairy Queen is REALLY REALLY close ?

Sunday

Last Sunday Danielle Glover (our Regional Field Director) took me along to two Mark Udall events. I guess I had the most volunteer recruitments so as my price I got to work for 12 hrs at Udall events, lol. No it was actually pretty fun, I got to meet Mark Udall and his wife Maggie Fox AND his very attractive manager. Udall and his wife are very charming in person. Maggie tries to stay away from the spotlight, for instance while we were at this small and very "hip" coffee shop in Carbondale Maggie stayed in the other section while Mark and 100 of his supporters were in the back. Udall talked about why he voted twice against the new bail-out. He said he didn't believe it would solve any of the problems, it meant more money being spent. He also talked about water rights and getting the USA out of Iraq. I will admit that sometimes he sounded too cheesy, every event he would say the same jokes and tell the same stories. The weirdest one involved his mother. Apparently she got in a horrible accident when Mark was running for Congress and before the paramedics could rescue her from her car she made them promise her that they would vote for Mark. He said quote "you all have to be like my mother."

I happened to watch Fox news a couple days ago ( I know you're shocked Mr.Coit) and they had a program that was all about how Obama is linked to religious crazy people, like his pastor etc ... I got very annoyed with the program so I shut it off.

9/18

Yesterday we had the volunteer appreciation party @ Forward Colorado, it was pretty exciting.lol. Everyone there was 50 + minus Danielle, Claire, Miranda, and I. We registered some of them to vote (one of the volunteers was from Puerto Rico and just got her citizenship) and we also registered people to get their mail-in-ballots. I signed up for one because this year the ballot is going to 8 pages long. Last night the girls taught me how to enter data onto the computer so after the party ended I did that for awhile. It was really fun being there late at night, we laughed a lot and I got to know Claire and Danielle a lot better.

hmmm ....

correct me if i'm wrong but i'm pretty sure that there is only 18 more days until mail-in-ballots go out in Colorado.

9/16

If you're bored you should go on these two websites. I have been hearing a lot of people saying that they are "unsure" on how they are going to vote in the senate race.

Mark Udall -http://www.markudall.com/.
Bob Shaffer - http://www.bobschafferforsenate.com/.

9/15

My feet are so sore. Anita Castro and I waited for two hours to see Obama, it was rough (we were in front of some INSANE people) but it was all worth it. Even though we didn't have tickets we were able to SEE Obama and we could hear his message loud and clear. Volunteering at Forward Colorado is not glamorous. For the past couple of days I've been phone banking. Basically I call 200 + people and ask them three simple questions ...

1.) will you be supporting Udall ?
2.) will you be supporting Obama ?
3.) will you be supporting Salazar ?

Usually I don't have people yell at me on the phone, on Saturday I did have someone call me a " n**** lover." I got so upset I just hung up. I wanted to say something rude but as a representative of the Democratic Party you are suppose to be the bigger person. I'm an intern there so I have more pressure put on me and I'm required to complete 10 hours of volunteering per week. It seems like a lot now but in a few weeks I'll be use to it. On Wed. I'll be canvassing for the first time with Claire = ) she's really nice and very intelligent. I love Forward Colorado because no men work there, only women. There are men volunteers but none that actually works there. You'd think they were be catty with each other but all of the women are very professional. We really need volunteers, so if anyone wants to get some volunteer hours for National Honor Society or something PLEASE go to 729 North Ave and phone bank or go canvassing. You don't have to be an intern like me, you can just volunteer for 2 hrs randomly.


We're having a volunteer appreciation party on Friday @ 6 pm. Some of you guys should come, it's pretty lame being the youngest volunteer/intern.lol.

Madison Model

The Madison Model of government was set place to protect the United States from tyranny. In Madison’s model of government the power is separated into three branches, the executive, legislative, and judicial. Madison believed it was essential to divide the power in order “to keep most of the government beyond their power.”
Under Madison’s model of government the people only voted for the House of Representatives. The senators and presidents were indirectly elected and judges were nominated by the president. Over the years the model of government for the United States has changed drastically. Now under the 17th Amendment Senators are elected directly from the popular majority.
Even though the model of government for the United States has changed over the years we can still see the Madison Model of government in our current government today. This is evident because today we still use check and balances which were established under the constitution to limit the power of the government and to maintain the status quo. The Madison model of government is also still apparent in the way the president is elected. Today we still use the same method, we use the Electoral College to elect the presidents which usually votes the same way as the majority in each state, and the president is elected indirectly the same as in the Madison Model.
One of the problems with having a similar government as the Madison model is that our government takes a long time to pass laws.

Obama in Gj

Rumor has it that Obama is coming to Grand Junction on Monday. I talked to the ladies at Forward Colorado and they didn't know anything about it.

First day

Today marked the first day I volunteered for the Democrats. It wasn't glamorous but it was fun. I made volunteer packets and I put signs together. They require that student volunteer at least 10 hours a week. On the 26th I am going to go to Denver to get "official" training. Should be exciting. The two women that are in charge there are hilarious, today they discussed who is more attractive John Salazar or Udall. They also have a dog, it stays in the back room .....

Volunteering

Today at 3:30 I am going to start volunteering at the Democratic center by Dairy Queen.