We started this grassroots effort back in October of 2006. This was our original blog.
Sen. Obama came down to Texas to promote his book, Audacity of Hope, at the Texas Book Festival. People lined up at the Texas Capitol starting at 1:00am, and by 8:00am there were 600 people hoping to secure a limited number of tickets to hear Sen. Obama speak. They were not disappointed. The speech was inspiring, and the question and answer session afterwards was amazing. Unlike our current President, Sen. Obama is actually intelligent. He can answer questions off the cuff, and he doesn't need a teleprompter or Karl Rove. Sen. Obama has a wealth of life experience to draw from, and he's not afraid to be candid and tell people he disagrees with them. But he always respects everyone's opinion, and he tries to lead people to a better place and build consensus in the process.
After seeing so many people excited about Sen. Obama's book, our first grassroots effort was designed to build a book club. We held our first book club on Dec. 7, 2006 in Austin, Texas. It was a huge success. A full two years away from 2008, we had 30 people show up eager to discuss their passionate support for Sen. Obama.
As the support has continued to grow, we've realized that this grassroots effort was bigger than just a book club. While we strongly believe that everyone who reads Sen. Obama's two books will be inspired, we've realized that if we truly support Sen. Obama for President, we needed to do more. Thus this "Texans for Obama" grassroots effort has grown to become a fully-functioning campaign effort designed to get Sen. Obama on the Texas ballot and to provide information to curious Obama supporters.
We welcome any and all feedback. This is not a professionally run effort. There's lots more that could be done. Please email us at texansforobama@gmail.com if you have any interest in helping spread the word about Sen. Obama, or if you have any special skills you can bring to the table.
Keep Hope Alive! Obama '08!
Does anyone have a copy of the statement Sen. Obama gave on the impending Iraq war when he was a state Senator in Illinois?
Tim Russert showed it to John Edwards on Meet the Press this morning, and it was remarkable, but not surprising, how prescient Senator Obama was about why we didn't need to get into this "dumb war", and about the quagmire and chaos that would ensue.
Posted by: Tim Dickey | February 04, 2007 at 10:11 AM
does anyone know if there will be an Austin rally (open to the public) any time around the debate?
Posted by: lyndsey | February 14, 2008 at 12:20 PM
Meet The Press Transcript for Feb. 4, 2007 – On the War
MR. RUSSERT: Another opponent in the Democratic race for the presidency is Barack Obama of Illinois. In October of 2002, he was a state senator in the Illinois legislature. He came out against the war, and I want to share his words with you and our viewers. “ I know that Saddam poses no imminent and direct threat to the United States, or to his neighbors, that the Iraqi economy is in shambles, that the Iraqi military is a fraction of its former strength, and that in concert with the international community he can be contained until, in the way of all petty dictators, he falls away into the dustbin of history. “ I know that even a successful war against Iraq will require a U.S. occupation of undetermined length, at undetermined cost, with undetermined consequences. I know that an invasion of Iraq without a clear rationale and without strong international support will only fan the flames of the Middle East, and encourage the worst, rather than best, impulses of the Arab world, and strengthen the recruitment arm of al-Qaeda. I am not opposed to all wars. I’m opposed to dumb wars.” His judgment was on the money.
Sound Judgment is important. If we had elected Senator Obama we could have avoided the Iraq war!!! Iraq war has cost $500 billion so far, $275 million per day. Almost 4,000 U.S. soldiers killed and more than 60,000 wounded. 700,000 Iraqis killed and 4 million refugees.
Posted by: Peter in Dallas | March 03, 2008 at 09:12 PM
"A good storyteller is a person who has a good memory and hopes other people haven't."
-Irvin S. Cobb
Senator Hillary Clinton is really the one with all speeches and no results. She claims that she has been fighting for poor people for 35 years. According to U.S. Census bureau, Arkansas state ranked 49th in people with college degree (almost dead-last) and 6th in people living below poverty level. The truth is: technology boom did far more for the good economy of the 90's than Bill Clinton. For example, Mark Cuban became a billionaire within 4 years! Billary have nothing to do with it.
If Billary cannot lift a small state like Arkansas out of poverty, how can they do it in Ohio and Texas?
Bill and Hillary need to come up with a different line of attack apart from experience. Obama actually have more total legislative experience (Illinois and Washington) than Hillary. Billary have talked about experience so much, you will think Senator Obama just graduated from college in 2007 instead of 20 years ago.
Auto insurance is mandatory in Texas and most states, yet many drivers in Texas do not have it. Just because Hillary mandate health insurance does not mean everyone will partake. Robert Reich, former labor secretary for Bill Clinton, studied both Senator Obama & Hillary plan - he concluded that Senator Obama's health-care plan will cover more people.
Posted by: Peter in Dallas | March 03, 2008 at 09:15 PM