22 February: Clinton vs. Obama: the campaign.

The irony is that I thought that I was going to make telephone calls this weekend but my cough might not allow me to!

I’ll maybe try Sunday afternoon. I did make two donations to the Obama campaign, and Barbara made a large one as well!

Financing of Campaigns

This is one of the things I love about the Obama campaign: his donations mostly come from small donors (such as Barbara and myself) whereas most of Clinton’s support comes from major donors.

The details of Mr. Obama’s January fund-raising illustrate just how much his campaign has been able to chart a new path for the presidential race. He brought in $28 million online, with 90 percent of those transactions coming from people who donated $100 or less, and 40 percent from donors who gave $25 or less, suggesting that these contributors could be tapped for more. (Donors are limited to giving $2,300 per candidate during the primary season.) More than 200,000 of the campaign’s nearly 300,000 donors in January were first-time givers to Mr. Obama. [...]

or put this way:

“There is no question that Obama’s fundraising is a huge breakthrough,” MoveOn Executive Director Eli Pariser said, estimating that his organization’s donors have given at least $500,000 to Obama. “Clearly, he has hit this nail on the head in a way that no one has before. He has given people a real sense of ownership that makes them want to chip in.”

Obama raised $27.2 million in donations of $200 or less in 2007, compared with Clinton’s $11.6 million, Federal Election Commission reports show.

Measured another way, half of Clinton’s donations earmarked for the primary campaign came in increments of $2,300. By comparison, one-third of Obama’s money arrived in $2,300 chunks, according to the nonpartisan Campaign Finance Institute in Washington.

Mind you this was written when Obama had only 650,000 donors. It is well over 950,000 now and closing in on 1,000,000.

One of their tricks is to have you make a “matching donation”; that is, you offer to donate X dollars if a brand new donor will match it. What I found is that a 25 dollar donation is quickly matched but a 50 dollar one is slower to be matched; once they waited until it was; the other time they broke my 50 dollar pledge into two 25 dollar ones.

Photo Essays from the Field

I am something of a “black sheep” of my family; my mom, sister, family, and even my ex-wife are all backing Hillary Clinton.

My sister reports from the field, so to speak. I’ve decided to use a photo or two.

Note that Sis got to shake hands with Chelsea (Chelsea Clinton, 2028???)

It was a crazy day. After gathering at the Red River Cafe close to the UT campus a group of young girls..how I got in there with them I don’t know..waked to the library where early voting was being held and campaigned for Hillary by walking up and down the area with signs and handing out fliers. I was sitting down holding my sign and wearing my Hillary shirt and buttons and got cursed at not once, not twice, but three times. One young man wearng an Obama shirt, one young man wearing a button for the same candidate, and one older women. This was surprising because I didn’t say anything to them. I was just sitting there holding my sign. I’m sure Senator O would not have approved of thier conduct. The rest of the day was amazing. Such energy. Even Ron Paul people were there and other groups representing a variety of causes. A highlight for me was watching Krystal get caught up in the emotion and excitment of campaigning for a cause. Krys also attended the debate watch party at Guerro’s and got to see Hillary and Chelsea. I got to shake hands with Chelsea which was very cool. I wasn’t even aware that she was there until she was standing in front of me.

A Daily Kos member talks about Obama action in Austin as well

Some photos:

And of course, Obama has his UT fans too, such as some players and the coach!

I sure wish I were there, though I am sure that my family is probably glad that I am not!

But my family isn’t the only one that is divided on this issue (scroll to the bottom of the page)

Writer Letty Cottin Pogrebin, one of the founding editors of Ms. magazine and a co-founder of the National Women’s Political Caucus, supports Hillary Clinton. Her daughter Abigail, who supports Barack Obama, is an author and former producer for Mike Wallace at “60 Minutes.”

Watch their take on the role of feminists in the context of Hillary Clinton’s candidacy.

Watch the video from the site to see the short interview.

Update The following was what I wrote, based on what NOW showed on TV (an edited version)

Here is what bothers me: Letty Cottin Pogrebin’s main argument is something to the effect: “gosh darn it, we finally have a good woman candidate and he has to come along. Why can’t he wait…it is her turn!

No, I am not making this up; watch the interview. It is a pathetic argument, really. The sense that HRC feels “entitled”; that “it is her turn” really rankles many.

No one is ever entitled to a “turn” at being President; why is that so difficult to understand? Now if you think that she is the best candidate, fine. But this “her turn” argument is absurd, shameful and pathetic.

I highly recommend watching the unedited 15 minute version; Letty Cottin Pogrebin comes off much, much better in the full version. The part I was upset about: she had been asked to give her “gut” reaction; in other parts she gives reasons and explanations.

True: at times she does mindlessly repeat HRC talking points. But this is a lesson to me: don’t rely on a snippet of an interview to form an opinion on someone.

Also, watching the interview made me realize that my problem with feminists is more of a generational problem; I actually like many of the newer ones (my age or younger); it is the generation that is now 55-70 years old that I don’t care for.

Last Debate: Fact Check called it a “Pillow Fight”. They found no blatant lies; just “a few factual claims that could use correcting or clarifying”.

What is the current state of the Texas Primary? More data than you’d ever want is right here.