Nappy Headed Black Child

The Home Stretch Memo Obama

Senator Obama, today is Monday October 13, 2008 and there are 22 days until Election Day and the polls show us to be ahead in all of the battleground states with the exception of Missouri in which Senator McCain leads us by .4 percent. We are in control of this of this race, however as you know polls can be deceptive if not downright false, so now is not the time to be complacent nor arrogant. Allow me to explain how we were able to get ourselves to this point and express what we have and have not done well thus far in this electoral campaign.

Much of our success has come from the novelty of who you are as well as your message. You being a young fresh face on the political scene and your preacher’s eloquence combined with the campaign’s message of hope and change have proven to be precisely what many in the American public have wanted to hear due to the political backdrop in which this election happens to fall. As you know the current President George W. Bush has embroiled America in an unpopular war that has damaged our reputation abroad and strained diplomatic relations with our allies. In addition to this Bush’s wasteful spending has depleted the surplus left to him by former President Clinton. His deficit spending has nearly doubled the national debt and economic policies he has supported have increased the gap between rich and poor, driven up the prices of food and gas, and made higher education much more expensive. All the while providing tax breaks to big business and the wealthy. Now with the economy crumbling due to the housing crisis this backdrop, which is hostile to Republican politics and policy, has only amplified the message of Change and Hope that our campaign has espoused. In addition to this, Senator, you as an individual to many are symbolic of the notion of change and your campaign has recognized that utilized it to their advantage. Your personal history characterizes you individual who is a product of several different cultures that has, at the risk of sounding cliché, achieved the American dream. Your upbringing by your mother as a single parent as well as your multiculturalism is a point of relation that allows people to say; He understands me and the issues that are important to me, because we share the same culture. Furthermore, the historical nature of being the first African-American to secure the nomination of a major political party and run for the Presidency of the United States again hearkens back to the notion of change and hope that is the theme of this campaign.

However our campaign does have weakness. For example one of the weaknesses that come along with your freshness in the political arena has been your lack of experience and you have been heavily criticized for that due to the current state of global affairs. With America being the target of several dangerous terrorist groups and the potential danger of countries like N. Korea and Iran pose; should they acquire nuclear weapons, the question is do you Senator Obama have the experience necessary to handle those tough foreign policy situations. Your opponent Senator McCain has the advantage in the discussion of foreign policy. Being a prisoner of war in Vietnam and actually visiting many of the areas in the embattled Middle East such as Iraq gives him a practical knowledge of the area that you just don’t have. However, despite this you have done well in countering this issue of your inexperience by selecting Joe Biden as your running mate thereby bolstering your ability to make foreign policy decisions as well as adding his experience to the ticket and silencing some of those attacks. We have also been able to silence some the criticisms on you ability to lead on foreign policy issues by talking about McCain’s record on Iraq, talking about the need for the concentration of troops in Afghanistan, and dealing directly with rouge states like North Korea and Iran. As you know Iraq is very unpopular and that Senator McCain supported that war. The American public wants the United States to begin withdrawal from area. You have provided a plan for withdrawal that would give the Iraqis the ability to police and stabilize their own country, which has been received positively. Continue to make the statement that McCain supports continued involvement Iraqi and continue to talk about your exit strategy and turning things over to the Iraqis. You have also made it known that the real fight against terrorism lies in Afghanistan. Bring up the point that Al Qaeda, the perpetrators of the September 11th attacks, have strengthened in Afghanistan since the beginning of the Iraq War and are now becoming a presence in Iraq where they were not before because of the negligence of the Bush Administration who was supported by Senator McCain. In addition to talking about Afghanistan you also addressed the threat of states like Iran and North Korea saying that tough direct diplomacy was needed. However, the point here that needs to be emphasized is that we have to deal with these rogue states with the help of our allies. We must utilize our alliances in this post September 11th world in order to be effective because our enemies are not countries they are groups of people in countries so communication and coordination on a international basis will keep us safer and in addition improve our reputation globally. As our global reputation rises we will be better able to compete with these terrorist organizations on an ideological level. These are the type of things you need to be communicating on the topics Foreign Policy and National Security.

Another weakness associated with your newness to the national political arena is that there are segments of people that are not familiar with you and as a result of that you have to define yourself positively through you policy and record or the opposition will do it for you. To an extent our campaign has fallen victim to some this. It first occurred with Reverend Jeremiah Wright and his inflammatory and divisive comments during several of his sermons but specifically, the sermon entitled “God Damn America”. That incident hurt our campaign badly in a number of ways. When it occurred during the primaries, the American public as a whole were still very unfamiliar with you and your policies and it seemed that Hilary Rodham Clinton was still somewhat the favorite to win the nomination. Your net favorability as determined from the Rasmussen Poll actually plunged into the negative and vacillated between -3 and +5 and did not climb above that mark up until you received the nomination at the Democratic National Convention. It did serious harm to our campaign even if only temporary despite your public break from Wright’s congregation. As we draw closer to Election Day we should be ready for our opponents to bring this back into national headlines. It could be a potential troublesome situation because many feel that you switched you stories and were not forthcoming about your relationship with Rev. Wright. This can still be damaging not only from the standpoint of Wright’s provocative and controversial sermons but also from the standpoint that Wright does not look like your archetypal minister. He is often depicted in the media wearing a dashiki or a similar African inspired garment. While in the African and African American communities these garments are well known and commonplace but to other groups of Americans this may come off as strange and at an extreme, foreign. This may cause some to feel that the sermons preached under his time as your pastor, as subversive thus having an effect on the policy you may seek to implement. Your association with William Ayers is also another issue that is currently being used against you by Senator McCain. They are seeking to link you substantially to William Ayers a known domestic terrorist as someone, which you confide in and admire. Although you have stated he was someone that you served on a Board of Directors that presided over an educational fund in Chicago, it is necessary to keep in mind this could be potentially damaging should any substantial link be found or fabricated from a coincidence. At the moment your counter this accusation has worked because of the media and the American public have determined that the Economy is the most important issue in the election as of right now which is an advantage for you. At this time it would seem that the public is not really all that interested in you association with William Ayers. In addition the media has reported on the violent and sometimes racist outbursts from the members attending the rallies quoting them as saying, “…Kill him”, “…Off with his head” which is causing some backlash against the Republican Campaign. One individual has even got so far as to characterize you as “Arab” during a McCain rally in response to this negative William Ayers based strategy. So this to a point gives you a measure of protection from this accusation. Another failure in this strategy is that the William Ayers attack has come late. The public has not responded as strongly as the opposition would have hoped because it has come after two debates and after much of the public has gotten a chance to get to know who you are. Through the two debates most of the American public have been to see you and become comfortable with who you have defined yourself as thus far.

Another issue is that you have been at times seen as an elitist. Your popularity lies most strongly with the youth and the intellectual community. During the primaries the group with which you have had the most problems with was the middle class blue-collar workers. Evidence of this was when we failed to take Pennsylvania in the primary. We cannot afford to be out of touch with this segment of voters because they are concentrated in states such as Ohio, Michigan, and Pennsylvania that are vital to our electoral vote count. Our campaign has done well in addressing the issue of elitism by fully assuming the mantle of the middle class by focusing on issues that mean something to them. We started that process at the Democratic National Convention when you gave your speech. You mentioned investing in schools and services that insure equity of opportunity, a reformed tax code that rewards workers, taking tax breaks away from companies that take their factories overseas and take jobs away from America, cutting taxes for 95 percent of working families, a 10 year plan to end oil dependency from middle east, Investing in clean coal, tapping natural gas, developing safe Nuclear Power, and putting 150 billion towards renewable energy sources over the next 10yrs which will create 5 million new jobs. We drove this home during the first debate in which Senator McCain failed to even say “middle class”. These are issues are “kitchen table” issues that matter to the middle class. In this particular subject, the condition of the economy has only helped our cause. The recent economic downturn occurring under the watch of a Republican President and the devastating effect it has had on the middle class put our campaign in an extremely favorable position. Our current economic situation makes the public more favorable to a plan coming out of our camp simply because we are not republican but we as democrats have a tradition of government involvement that is needed in our current economic crisis. This particular economic situation has given your opponent, Senator McCain very little to stand on because he has not thus far been able to give a solid economic recovery plan that rests upon Republican principles. This also plays heavily in our favor. We must continue to make this election about who would be the better steward of the economy in addition to drawing parallels between the economic plans of Senator McCain and the unfavorable economic policies of President Bush.

Fundraising is something that we have done masterfully. On August 31st we have 77 million and we are projected 100 million before Election Day. We have been able to completely able to out fundraise Senator McCain and thus we have been able to put into play states like Virginia, North Carolina, and New Mexico that previously went for the Republicans in the 2004 elections. By putting these states into play we have been able to stretch McCain resources and personnel and force them to make difficult decisions about which states they are and are not going to place staff and money and in addition we are in some states out spending Senator McCain 2-4 to 1. This also forces McCain to defend states like Virginia, North Carolina, and New Mexico putting resources here allowing us to be more visible in states we need like Ohio and Pennsylvania.
So Senator Obama, with roughly three weeks left in the campaign we are solidly ahead. What we need to do now is to remain disciplined. We have to continue to draw parallels between Bush and McCain and make sure that the election stay focused on the economy. Senator when speaking on your policies I must emphasize brevity and specificity. Senator you have a tendency to lecture and talk around a question. You need to be clear and direct to as well as speak in terms that the public will understand clearly. As the race draws closer to its finish we want to communicate things that are going to resonate with them as they cast their ballot. For example consider Ronald Reagan. Ronald Reagan major strength was his ability to tell the electorate exactly what he was going to do. We do not want voters going to the ballot box without being absolutely sure about what you and your campaign stands for. Another recommendation that I have is to connect to the economy to issues of foreign policy and National Security. The economy is your strong point if we can relate the strength of the economy to our ability to defend ourselves and our interests abroad and with McCain inability to produce a economic plan palatable to the public we can put him in a very uncomfortable position in the upcoming weeks. In these final days of the election let us also begin to focus on actually getting people out to vote. As I have stated earlier we are the least popular with older white working class people and those individuals are the demographic most likely to vote. If we cannot get our supporters out to ballot box all of our fundraising, media, popularity, and our record registration numbers will count for nothing. So I recommend that our staff in areas where transportation maybe an issue is get a carpool or shuttle system organized for those individuals who many not be able to physically get to their designated voting areas and to also encourage people to vote early to avoid lines, as well as making people are in compliance with all the rules and documentations needed at polling places so that if they wait till November 4th they will not be turned away and have to wait in line again for not having proper identification or wearing clothing items that may be seen as promoting a specific candidate. Senator Obama a victory is well within our grasp. I believe if we address the issues set forth he we will be successful on November 4th.