formerly Kamera To My Eye

20 February 2008

From Senator Obama, Just Now:

Aaron --

Make a matching donationWe learned something extraordinary since I wrote to you last night.

We've crunched all the numbers and discovered that we are within striking distance of something historic: one million people donating to this campaign.

Think about that ... nearly one million people taking ownership of this movement, five dollars or twenty-five dollars at a time.

We're already more than 900,000 strong, including over half-a-million donating so far this year. This unprecedented foundation of support has built a campaign that has shaken the status quo and proven that ordinary people can compete in a political process too often dominated by special interests.

Unlike Senator Clinton or Senator McCain, we haven't taken a dime from Washington lobbyists or special interest PACs. Our campaign is responsible to no one but the people.

One million donors would be a remarkable feat -- something that's never been done before in a presidential primary and something no one ever thought would be possible for us. And your generosity made it possible.

But it's going to take an incredible organizing effort to bring in 100,000 new donors before March 4th.

Be a part of this historic effort. Make a donation as part of our matching program, and you will bring in a first-time donor by doubling the impact of their contribution. You can even choose to exchange notes and let them know why you are part of this movement.

There's less than two weeks until March 4th, but you can be part of this historic push right now. Make your matching donation here:

https://donate.barackobama.com/promise

We started this improbable journey a little over a year ago in Springfield, Illinois.

And because you've joined together to make your voices heard, this journey isn't looking as improbable anymore.

Since our victory on February 5th, we've won ten straight contests.

But on March 4th, we face a huge challenge in Texas and Ohio, who will vote along with Rhode Island and Vermont. We are behind in the big states and need as many people involved as possible if we're going to win.

If we can reach our goal of one million donors by March 4th, we can send a powerful message that the Washington establishment and big-money interests cannot ignore.

As one million people with one voice, we can tell them that their days of dominating Washington are coming to an end -- the old politics are crumbling and a new voice is breaking through. Our voice.

Will you make a matching donation now to make it happen?

https://donate.barackobama.com/promise

I learned the power of ordinary people coming together as a community organizer on the South Side of Chicago.

I worked side-by-side with people who had been laid off from steel plants that were moved overseas. These were people who needed new jobs to rebuild their lives, and their political leaders were ignoring them.

But even though the odds were stacked against them, they discovered that by coming together with one voice, they could no longer be ignored.

When we launched this campaign, we knew we were up against similar odds. We knew we'd be running against a massive political machine with deep ties to the Washington establishment.

We knew it wouldn't be easy.

But if we can do this, we're not just going to win an election. We're going to change our country.

Thank you so much,

Barack

15 February 2008

An Open Letter to the Superdelegates and Undecided Voters of America

Dear Esteemed Superdelegates of this Great Land:

I am a twenty year-old guy who is currently attending Berea College in Berea, Kentucky studying--amongst a wide variety of subjects--Biology and Chemistry as a Pre-Medical Student.

Last time around, circa Fall 2004, I was unable to voice my opinion on who should be the Commander-in-Chief of my favorite country on Earth. I begged those of my peers who were at least 18 and not interested in voting to go vote. I felt that if I could somehow persuade others who could vote to vote for whom I thought (and still truly believe) would have been the better candidate out of the two options, I could somehow have some satisfaction in something close to actually casting a ballot.

I was not as fortunate as I had believed we might be as my candidate was not chosen. I was heartbroken, I honestly did not understand how so many people could have voted for the wrong person. I agreed with nothing he stood (stands) for and every part of my body was against his re-election. Yet, here I am four years later and I am old enough, two years to spare! I do, in retrospect, look at the election four years ago and wonder to myself was it meant to be that Bush was SUPPOSED to be re-elected? Is somehow our country in the need of a revolution? What if Bush wouldn't have been re-elected? Where would we be? I'm not sure, however I do believe that we would have been better off than we are now.

However, I am not fully convinced of this. I really do believe that Bush was SUPPOSED to be re-elected just because Barack Obama was SUPPOSED to be the change we all crave and long for so much that it hurts to think of what would happen if we got a Bush 2.0!

I have never been so strongly political in my beliefs until I first heard Senator Barack Obama speak. It was perfect, I felt his sincerity, his earnest, his desire to bring change, but most importantly, I could FEEL his pain--the same pain I feel and as do most Americans at the state of our Great Union.

I do not know Barack Obama, nor will I probably ever personally know him. It does not matter, however. What matters is I have found the one political figure that my entire family can agree on and whom all my peers, colleagues, college professors, enemies and people I will never know can really stand behind.

We need someone to restore our credibility, our global voice that once was held with such high regard and respect. We were the "do-no-wronger's" of the world. Of course I'd be arrogant to believe that it was just so Utopian. Yet, I'd be a fool to believe that we are not THE superpower of the world. The most capable union of like-minded colonists who strove to tear our bindings from an oppressive dictator and form a piece of earth devoid of that kind of oppression, that kind of political back-stabbing, that kind of totalitarianism. The perfect ideal of perfection in any sense of the Human condition. I feel that we have become the enemy we once hated, the enemy our wise Forefathers stood against in the name of freedom and justice and peace.

It is not just this country's reputation that needs Obama's prowess, it is not just the economy that needs Obama's conviction, nor the dreadful war, the health care atrocity, the housing crisis, the impoverished people's, the pre-college students, the people who still live in the hell that was Hurricane Katrina's destruction, nor myself.

Who really needs Obama now, more than ever, is the common person--the person who does not have endless money in trust funds, inheritance, or enjoy the fruits of life like royalty.

However, I also do need Obama, and I would be forever grateful if you decide to pledge yourself for Senator Barack Obama so that he may truly prove himself worthy and become the Fourty-Fourth President of the United States of America and serve his well-needed time in the 56th and maybe 57th terms of United States Presidency.

Please, FOR ALL OUR SAKES, help Barack Obama in any way you can, especially with your decisive pledge.

In pursuit of the American Dream,

Aaron Fidler