One Nation Under A Groove

If I knew George Clinton and P-Funk were going to play, I would have stayed until the end of the One Nation Rally. I stayed two hours and eye-balled the size of the crowd. By the time I left and thousands more were coming, I believe One Nation at least tied the Glenn Beck rally, far-surpassed the early 9-12 Tea Bag rally last year, which Fox News had once estimated at 1 million,even though it wasn't 1/1oth that. 200,000 yesterday would not be unrealistic. Why I think it outdrew Beck was the lack of obese white people sprawling out on the lawn with picnic baskets. This was a more tightly spaced crowd.

Nice sign--"I don't want to take my country back--I want to take it forward." The problem with One Nation was that everyone could spell their signs correctly, somehow spoiling the raw authenticity one can obtain by being illiterate. Some of this has to be blamed on the scores of teachers from the NEA and AFT who showed up.

I even saw the NAACP from Asbury Park, New Jersey. The NAACP and the Urban League came out in force and their speakers emphasized the need to vote in the mid-terms. Remember black and Hispanic voters aren't supposed to show up in congressional races. Whatever the attitude of the American union movement is to the Obama Administration, the unions showed up in full regalia, representing every profession under the sun. The UAW, the Steel Workers, the Communications Workers, the Machinists and Aerospace Workers were all highly visible. Geographically, the preponderance of marchers were from the Northeast and the Midwest but there was a healthy gathering of African Americans from Georgia and South Carolina.

Contrary to conservative tweets during the day, George Soros didn't pay everyone to attend; they paid their own way. This was a problem because the SEIU members from Massachusetts were stranded back in Boston because the busses they hired never showed. Be alert for election miscues in the Bay State this November.

While One Nation was the estranged progressive wing of the Democratic Party, there is another way to look at this gathering. Unlike the teabaggers, this was a rally of organizers. Every one provides a multiplier effect. Richard Trumpka sounded the call to arms very clearly when he outlined the stakes in this election. He kept using the phrase that in 2008 "we laid the foundation" and now the Republicans want to tear it down. He called on all "economic patriots" to vote--nice phrase. It was very clear that the emphasis of the rally was on getting out the vote in an aggressive manner. One can look at the racial, ethnic and gender preference diversity there as a counter-image to the all white appearance of the teabaggers but to me the key difference was that they all represented real life organizations, which can be mobilized. This was part of the great coalition that elected Barack Obama, not the complete number.

Earlier in the week President Obama spoke at the University of Wisconsin. Chuck Todd told the television audience that it was too late for Obama to summon the base. Some said the audience was listless. During the campaign he spoke to 17,000 there, this past week he spoke to 26,000 with more still waiting. People lined up for over a mile just to get in. The crowd was hardly apathetic when President Obama spoke passionately with a hoarse voice.

This event to me was important not because we lament young people not voting in mid-term elections. But the fact that the President of the United States could be received as a rock star on a college campus is significant and a good sign. In my day, if Richard Nixon dared come to campus, someone would be duty bound to try and assassinate him. If you believe these young people are the future of this country,then it is hopeful sign that they even come to hear what the President wants to say. One of the reasons I voted for Barack Obama was I wanted my son to have in his youth at least one President he could respect and admire.

On Thursday I decided to forego the invitation to hear President Obama speak at D.A.R. Hall here in D.C. What a mistake! He gave one of the "whoop-de-doo" speeches Hilary Clinton used to talk about. The President was on fire speaking to the GEN44 group of Democrats, mostly the younger professionals here in D.C.

As I wrote earlier, the idea of mobilizing the Obama surge voters is to give a slight competitive edge to Democrats in November. It's not that the entire base--African-Americans, Hispanics, and young people--come out in 2008 numbers but a certain percentage that would cut into the Republicans mid-term advantage.

So can organization beat a tidal wave of cash from unknown donors? I would hope so. And there are tenative signs that this may be true. The Republicans today admit that there have not wrapped up the House yet because the first string of Democrats they planned on having put away now have "shown resilence". Republicans claim they only have half the seats they need to take over the House. They had planned on creating such a lead on the first tier that they could move quickly to the second tier of Democrats. You might see this second move with the non-profits like Concerned Taxpayers and others laundering money to strange congressional seats all over the map like Cong. DeFazio in Oregon and a few obscure seats in South Carolina and Texas. Republicans look like they will pick up many of their House gains in Michigan, Ohio,and Illinois. For their part, the Democrats are trying to create a firewall in the Northeast. After a meeting with DNC chair Tim Kaine, Congressman Clyburn told the press that the Democrats would keep the House but lose about 20 seats.

The RNC announced yesterday it was going to curtail its GOTV efforts this year. This triggered a Drudge flashing siren in my mind. They did this approximately at the same time in the 2008 process and as a result the GOP GOTV effort was the worse that I had ever seen and probably cost McCain a state or two.

Running silent but deep is David Plouffe with the OFA efforts. He has escalated OFA's effort to train and re-train thousands of volunteers, separate from the efforts by labor and progressive organizations. The several million strong OFA membership list has been sent a pledge card, where you pledge to vote. These people will be receiving calls starting three days out about voting--all the way through election day. From their past experience, this has brought considerable voters to the polls. Whether that helps for my congressman Jim Moran as opposed to Barack Obama, we will have to see. But the contrast in official , structured efforts at GOTV is impressive.

For the next few weeks track the wanderings of one Karl Rove. It was no mistake he was at my son's college this past week since he is carrying money to Rob Portman and John Kasich on the top of the Ohio ticket and trying to solidfy gains for Republicans in contested Ohio districts. He'll be doing that for his billionaire's Boys Club, Crossroads America, until the election. If he parachutes into a state, it also may mean trouble for Republicans.

The vast private money advantage the Republicans have is slightly, but not completely offset by the difference between the take by both parties' campaign arms. For reasons no one can explain the RNC's Michael Steele is off on a 48-state bus tour.

As I wrote before, Republicans need to gain a net plus of 44 seats to take the House. They have conceded five seats and it looks like Democrats are posed to poach a couple more. Still Nate Silver and Charles Cook are holding strong to their predictions of a Republican takeover of the House. Gallup with its last poll predicted truly dire things for Democrats in November. But the Newsweek poll has Democrats up five point in the generic poll and way ahead in the likelyvoter poll. Also Newsweek reports that Americans trust Democrats on almost every issue by a wide margin, except terrorism where they trust Republicans more. They also approve of Obama's "cool" approach to issues by 53% to 38%, which runs counter to the media narrative that Obama has to emote more.

It will all come down to who has the best GOTV effort. If you look at the polls right now,there is still alot of confusion. For instance, Ken Buck, Teabagger running for Senate in Colorado, has an 8pt. lead over Bennett but look closely and Bennett has a lead with registered voters. The same discrepancy shows up in race after race. Arch-criminal Rick Scott has a lead over Alex Sink, unless you check the registered, not likely voters. In short, if Democrats actually come out in good numbers for a mid-term, they win. Be forewarned though, Nate Silver says that if a candidate is trailing by 8-10pts with a month to go, he or she only has a 10 percent chance of winning.

Frank Rich wrote a column in the New York Times that warned that Christine O'Donnell may prove alot of laugh lines but she takes away from the danger posed by Boehner and Mitch McConnell coming close to having their hands on real power. Excellent point. But who can resist a woman whose father played Bozo the Clown? Or said she didn't become Hare Krishna because she liked Italian meatballs too much. Or has a lesbian sister but believes you can eliminate the GAY. And she graduated from all those prestigious schools to boot. Ok. she didn't. But openly lying doesn't seem to count anymore in our political system. Especially, if God told you to run.

A Tip of the Hat to Rachel Maddow, who finally solved the mystery of Carl Palladino. On Friday's show, she examined the graffiti art roots of Carl Palladino's candidacy, citing the pipe-smoking image of Bob found around urban areas in the 1990s. The slogan written in the Bob graffiti was "I'm Mad too, Bob", which is reproduced in Palladino's slogan, "I'm mad too, Carl". Rachel Maddow believes that Carl Palladino is an art project. How else can you explain his riff on Andrew Cuomo having extra-marital affairs and claiming he hasn't? While in full view of the public is a daughter born out of wedlock, when he was married to someone else at that time. I think Rachel's on to something here--Carl Palladino is an art project.

You'll be saddened to learn that John McCain announced today that he wasn't running for President again in 2012. Can you imagine his lingering bitterness from his defeat in 2008? Why would you think anyone would care, let alone support such an idea?

Oh, I forgot--real Christians showed up at the One Nation rally, along with other religions. Maybe they thought that their faith was getting a bad rap on Glenn Beck. Another note from One Nation were the frequent calls not to believe the corporate media, not just Fox News. I thought this was a nice touch. Speaker after speaker pointed out that the media now are almost all for-profit corporations, which will back the economic status quo. Van Jones showed up and made a passionate argument for clean technologies--now that's a radical Black militant idea. You'll remember Glenn Beck claimed he started the Rodney King riots in Los Angeles. Of all the speakers, I liked Marion Edelman's talk on education, which was based on the lessons of Noah's Ark. She had many great lines but one was "Noah's Ark was built by amateurs, the Titanic was built by experts", an allusion to the current debate on education reform.

I'm looking forward to the mid-term elections because they really have put conventional wisom to the test. If Congressman Clyburn is right about the situation in the House, then all the noise, all the money, all the media exposure would simply come down a normal mid-term election. If some seismic changes really are in the offing, then we have major problems facing our political system during a time of immense economic hardship.

But never fear Governor Moonbeam is chugging along, winning his second debate against Queen Meg Whitman. California may reclaim its title as bellwhether of the future.