Obama grassroots network meets over stimulus
By Matthew Bigg
[Sun Feb 8, 2009 10:15 pm EST]
http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20090209/pl_nm/us_obama_grassroots

ATLANTA (Reuters) – Thousands of groups of ardent fans of U.S. President Barack Obama met across the country during the weekend in hopes of converting the grassroots energy that fueled his election campaign into a durable movement.

The meetings were the first test of Organizing for America, a body that wants the army of 13 million people who signed up for Obama's record-shattering campaign to be harnessed to his presidential agenda.   Read More »

The Action Americans Need
By Barack Obama
Washington Post
Thursday, February 5, 2009; A17
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/02/04/AR2009020403174.html

By now, it's clear to everyone that we have inherited an economic crisis as deep and dire as any since the days of the Great Depression. Millions of jobs that Americans relied on just a year ago are gone; millions more of the nest eggs families worked so hard to build have vanished. People everywhere are worried about what tomorrow will bring.

What Americans expect from Washington is action that matches the urgency they feel in their daily lives -- action that's swift, bold and wise enough for us to climb out of this crisis.

Because each day we wait to begin the work of turning our economy around, more people lose their jobs, their savings and their homes. And if nothing is done, this recession might linger for years. Our economy will lose 5 million more jobs. Unemployment will approach double digits. Our nation will sink deeper into a crisis that, at some point, we may not be able to reverse.

That's why I feel such a sense of urgency about the recovery plan before Congress. With it, we will create or save more than 3 million jobs over the next two years, provide immediate tax relief to 95 percent of American workers, ignite spending by businesses and consumers alike, and take steps to strengthen our country for years to come.

This plan is more than a prescription for short-term spending -- it's a strategy for America's long-term growth and opportunity in areas such as renewable energy, health care and education. And it's a strategy that will be implemented with unprecedented transparency and accountability, so Americans know where their tax dollars are going and how they are being spent.

In recent days, there have been misguided criticisms of this plan that echo the failed theories that helped lead us into this crisis -- the notion that tax cuts alone will solve all our problems; that we can meet our enormous tests with half-steps and piecemeal measures; that we can ignore fundamental challenges such as energy independence and the high cost of health care and still expect our economy and our country to thrive.

I reject these theories, and so did the American people when they went to the polls in November and voted resoundingly for change. They know that we have tried it those ways for too long. And because we have, our health-care costs still rise faster than inflation. Our dependence on foreign oil still threatens our economy and our security. Our children still study in schools that put them at a disadvantage. We've seen the tragic consequences when our bridges crumble and our levees fail.

Every day, our economy gets sicker -- and the time for a remedy that puts Americans back to work, jump-starts our economy and invests in lasting growth is now.

Now is the time to protect health insurance for the more than 8 million Americans at risk of losing their coverage and to computerize the health-care records of every American within five years, saving billions of dollars and countless lives in the process.

Now is the time to save billions by making 2 million homes and 75 percent of federal buildings more energy-efficient, and to double our capacity to generate alternative sources of energy within three years.

Now is the time to give our children every advantage they need to compete by upgrading 10,000 schools with state-of-the-art classrooms, libraries and labs; by training our teachers in math and science; and by bringing the dream of a college education within reach for millions of Americans.

And now is the time to create the jobs that remake America for the 21st century by rebuilding aging roads, bridges and levees; designing a smart electrical grid; and connecting every corner of the country to the information superhighway.

These are the actions Americans expect us to take without delay. They're patient enough to know that our economic recovery will be measured in years, not months. But they have no patience for the same old partisan gridlock that stands in the way of action while our economy continues to slide.

So we have a choice to make. We can once again let Washington's bad habits stand in the way of progress. Or we can pull together and say that in America, our destiny isn't written for us but by us. We can place good ideas ahead of old ideological battles, and a sense of purpose above the same narrow partisanship. We can act boldly to turn crisis into opportunity and, together, write the next great chapter in our history and meet the test of our time.

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The writer is president of the United States.

Telephone Town Hall, Tuesday 2-3-09 9:30 pm EST
http://my.barackobama.com/page/s/economicrecovery

Please join us for a Telephone Town Hall at 9:30 pm EST on Tuesday, February 3 with David Plouffe, Campaign Manager for Obama for America, and Mitch Stewart, Executive Director of Organizing for America. This call is for neighborhood team leaders and other key volunteers.

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Host a House Meeting [February 6-8, 2009]
http://my.barackobama.com/page/content/economicmeetings

President Obama and members of Congress have a plan to put nearly four million Americans back to work, but they need your help. The economic crisis can seem overwhelming and complex to many, but you can help the people you know connect the recovery plan to their lives and learn more about why it's so important by hosting a house meeting. A special video will outline details of the plan, how it will help your community, and impact working families.

Mike W
Tulsa+
Who listed generic URLs above

Melding Obama’s Web to a YouTube Presidency
By JIM RUTENBERG and ADAM NAGOURNEY
New York Times
Published: January 25, 2009
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/01/26/us/politics/26grassroots.html

WASHINGTON - Lyle McIntosh gave everything he could to Barack Obama’s Iowa campaign. He helped oversee an army that knocked on doors, distributed fliers and held neighborhood meetings to rally support for Mr. Obama, all the while juggling the demands of his soybean and corn farm.

Asked last week if he and others like him were ready to go all-out again, this time to help President Obama push his White House agenda, Mr. McIntosh paused.

“It’s almost like a football season or a basketball season - you go as hard as you can and then you’ve got to take a breather between the seasons,” he said, noting he found it hard to go full-bore during the general election.

Mr. McIntosh’s uncertainty suggests just one of the many obstacles the White House faces as it tries to accomplish what aides say is one of their most important goals: transforming the YouTubing-Facebooking-texting-Twittering grass-roots organization that put Mr. Obama in the White House into an instrument of government. That is something that Mr. Obama, who began his career as a community organizer, told aides was a top priority, even before he was elected.

His aides — including his campaign manager — have created a group, Organizing for America, to redirect the campaign machinery in the service of broad changes in health care and environmental and fiscal policy. They envision an army of supporters talking, sending e-mail and texting to friends and neighbors as they try to mold public opinion.

The organization will be housed in the Democratic National Committee, rather than at the White House. But the idea behind it — that the traditional ways of communicating with and motivating voters are giving way to new channels built around social networking — is also very evident in the White House’s media strategy.

DNC announces key staff for Organizing for America
Mitch Stewart named Director
Democratic National Committee
For Immediate Release
January 23, 2008

WASHINGTON, DC -- In a video announcement sent to supporters and DNC activists today, Obama for America campaign manager David Plouffe introduced Mitch Stewart, who will serve as Director of Organizing for America.

Announced last week, Organizing for America will work in partnership with the DNC to continue to build, engage and strengthen the unprecedented organization that was built during the campaign and the grassroots network built over the past four years at the DNC. The joint partnership signifies the ongoing commitment to both building and strengthening the grassroots movement, and reaching out to people in all 50 states to engage Americans in this movement for change.

“I’m extremely pleased that Organizing for America will be housed here at the DNC. Working in partnership, we will seek to engage people in new ways, and to broaden what President Obama calls the ‘Coalition for Change’ in America ,” said Governor Tim Kaine. “I know first-hand how important it is to reach out and engage the grassroots all across a state and all across our country.”

“As the election of President Obama has shown, the strength of our country comes from the grassroots -- but we can’t stop now,” said DNC Executive Director Jen O’Malley Dillon. “It’s more critical than ever that people across the country continue to be involved and engaged in their communities and helping to bring change to Washington.”

“The message we heard loud and clear from people across the country is that this movement must continue as we actively support President Obama’s agenda and continue to fight for the change our country needs,” said Organizing for America Director Mitch Stewart. “I’m deeply honored to be a part it of this next phase as the volunteers, grassroots leaders and ordinary citizens continue to drive our organization.”

In addition to Mitch Stewart, the DNC also announced that Jeremy Bird will serve as Deputy Director.

Mitch Stewart served as Iowa Caucus director, Indiana state director and Virginia state director for the Obama campaign. Before joining Obama's campaign, Stewart was the coordinated campaign manager for the Democratic Farm Labor party in Minnesota in 2006, when Sen. Amy Klobuchar (D) won her race. In 2004, Stewart served as former South Dakota senator Tom Daschle's field director. He was also a regional field director in Iowa for former senator John Edwards' during his presidential bid in 2004.

Jeremy Bird served as Obama campaign field director in South Carolina during the primaries and general election director in Ohio .

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Paid for and authorized by the Democratic National Committee, http://www.democrats.org This communication is not authorized by any candidate or candidate's committee.