Senator Obama and the Democratic Nomination

Colegas, it appears that Senator Obama is on his way to securing the Democratic nomination. The results in North Carolina make it almost impossible for our opponent to overtake us in pledged delegates. I suspect there will be a steady number of superdelegates that make their way to Senator Obama's camp from now until May 31 (when the DNC Rules Committee meets about MI and FL).

Once Senator Obama has secured the nomination, Latinos for Obama Grassroots Organization is going to need all hands on deck for the general election. The organization is working on exciting grassroots outreach projects that are directed at the Latino community in this country. If you are interested in receiving more information about our organization, please sign up today!

PA elections and Article on Semana Latina

Colegas,

Gracias por todo su apoyo a lo largo de la primaria en PA. It was an interesting 6 weeks and we were able to close the gap considerably. Our opponent wasn't able to make a dent in the race for delegates and we are still comfortably ahead in states won and the popular vote. We have also won key swing states like VA, MO, IA and others throughout this primary process.

Now it's time to shift our focus to IN and NC. More information will be coming soon about how to get involved with Latino outreach efforts in these states and Puerto Rico.

Regarding SEMANA LATINA, below is an article in LATINA ONLINE MAGAZINE about the effort:

http://www.latina.com/lifestyle/politics/election-2008-isi-se-puedei

Election 2008: Sí Se Puede

During this week’s “Semana Latina,” Latinos nationwide are encouraged to support Barack Obama.


Forget attending fancy $500 per plate banquets to show your support: During “Semana Latina” (April 13 through April 20), Latinos across the country are hosting fundraisers aimed at raking in small donations. Supporters in Washington, D.C. can get their salsa on this Thursday at Zanzibar on the Waterfront, while New York City politicos can attend a networking party tomorrow. The admission price? Whatever you want to donate to the cause.

But you don’t even need to leave your house to plan an event. “It can be as simple as inviting people over to watch the debate on Wednesday and charging $10 at the door. Then you can send in $40 or $50 to the campaign, easy,” says Luis Maes, an organizer with the D.C.-based organization.

Latinos for Obama—which is not officially affiliated with the campaign—felt that raising small donations was a no-brainer for this week of activities because it’s a method the Obama camp employs daily. “He’s done a good job of leveraging the popularity of social networking tools on the web,” Maes says. “And the fact that my.barackobama.com has a lot of useful, dynamic tools helps get people involved.”

The Obama campaign has had great success with this small donation model. As of press time, 1,314,855 people had sent in donations, many of them for as little as $5. But those small hits add up, and Obama leads opponent Clinton in fundraising, pulling in $40 million in March alone, compared to Clinton’s $20 million haul.

Want to get involved? Visit my.barackobama.com to find an event near you; fundraisers are already scheduled in D.C, New York City, San Francisco, Austin and Miami. Nothing planned in your area? Plan your own quickie Semana Latina event. Email latinsporobama.events@gmail.com or visit latinosforobama.com for help.

Helpful Resources for Semana Latina

If you have not heard about it already, on the week of April 13th, Latinos across the country are planning low dollar fundraisers nationwide to support the candidacy of Senator Barack Obama. During this "Semana Latina", Latinos nation-wide will say in one collective voice - Sí se puede por Obama.

More information on this event can be found on this page in the right-hand column. Also, you can check out the National Latinos for Obama page within the my.barackobama.comsite.

Here are some helpful resources for you if you plan on organizing an event during Semana Latina:

Latinos for Obama Semana Latina Grassroots Fundraising Guide

Obama for America Contribution Form

If you have any questions about Semana Latina, please contact latinosporobama.events@gmail.com

Gracias y Buena Suerte!!

SEMANA LATINA!!!

Amigos,

On the week of April 13th, Latinos across the country are planning low dollar fundraisers nationwide to support the candidacy of Senator Barack Obama. During this"Semana Latina", Latinos nation-wide will say in one collective voice - Sí se puede por Obama.

Will you be adding your voice?

Our community needs you to plan or attend an event. To organize an event for "Semana Latina," please register your event on my.barackobama.com. We will then feature it on the National Latinos for Obama site.

We can also provide instructions on planning a successful event and connect you with other activists in your area. If you are interested and would like more information, please contact: latinosporobama.events@gmail.com

This is an opportunity to have our voices heard and organize our community as we head toward the remaining primaries and the general election.

Our goal is to have events in all 50 states.

This is a grassroots effort to raise our voice and help elect Senator Obama to the White House. You can make it happen by planning or attending an event during Semana Latina.

Sí Se Puede.

Latinos for Obama Grassroots Organization

Important Latino outreach Opportunities in PA

Along the campaign trail, some of the most passionate and dedicated Obama supporters have been Latinos. There is no doubt that because of people like you, the Latino community is learning more every day about who Senator Obama is and how well he represents our community. One of our community’s most influential politicians, Bill Richardson, understands this so well that he recently endorsed Senator Obama!

In order to build off this great momentum, we are focusing our efforts to turn out the vote in Pennsylvania. The state has 151 delegates up for grabs and the state has a sizeable and influential Latino population. The two largest Latino areas are the Lehigh Valley and North Philadelphia. Below is information on how to get involved

1) Latino and Bilingual Canvassing effort in the Lehigh Valley: From now until the April 22 primary, the Lehigh Valley campaign team needs your help! The Lehigh Valley is comprised of three cities including Allentown, Bethlehem and Easton. They are actively looking for Latinos and other Spanish speakers to help them in their Latino outreach efforts. They have an excellent infrastructure set up with offices in Allentown and Bethlehem with one to come in Easton. They also have plenty of accommodations for volunteers that are interested in staying overnight.

We will be organizing weekend trips to the Lehigh Valley from the Washington D.C. area from now until the April 22 primary. If you are interested, please contact me and indicate your availability and if you have a car. If you are not from the DC area and are interested in organizing a trip or traveling yourself, please contact me and I will make sure you get all the information you need to make your trip.

For any other information regarding the campaign’s efforts in the Lehigh Valley area, please don’t hesitate to contact Lehigh Valley Out-of-State Volunteer Coordinator Ken Schulz at kenneth.schulz@gmail.com


2) Latino Canvassing Effort in North Philly: This Saturday there will be a door to door canvassing effort in North Philly where there is a large population of Latinos. Particularly, there is a large Puerto Rican and Dominican community so if you are either one, North Philly especially needs you this weekend! If you are from the DC area and are interested in attending, please contact me and indicate your availability and whether you have a car. If you are not from the DC area, please contact Obama for America PA Out-of-State Volunteer Coordinator Ian Martinez at ianinphilly@gmail.com

The canvass is this Saturday and will start at 10 am. The meeting place is 1310 Wallace Street, Philadelphia, PA 19130. Maps and walking lists will be provided.


3) Call PA Voters: If you can’t make it to Lehigh Valley or North Philly this weekend, please consider making calls to PA voters. You can get started right away at:

http://my.barackobama.com/page/contact/splash/callpa

Gracias por todo su valioso apoyo a lo largo de este proceso and let’s turn out the Latino vote for Obama in PA!

Interesting Obama Article

New York Times
March 23, 2008
Op-Ed Columnist
Haunting Obama's Dreams

By MAUREEN DOWD

WASHINGTON

It is a tribute to Hillary Clinton that even though, rationally, political soothsayers think she can no longer win, irrationally, they wonder how she will pull it off.

It's impossible to imagine The Terminator, as a former aide calls her, giving up. Unless every circuit is out, she'll regenerate enough to claw her way out of the grave, crawl through the Rezko Memorial Lawn and up Obama's wall, hurl her torso into the house and brutally haunt his dreams.

"It's like one of those movies where you think you know the end, but then you watch with your fingers over your eyes," said one leading Democrat.

Hillary got a boost from the wackadoodle Jeremiah Wright. As a top pol noted, the Reverend turned Obama — in the minds of some working-class and crossover white voters — from "a Harvard law graduate into a South Side Black Panther."

Obama blunted the ugliness of Wright's YouTube "greatest hits" with his elegant and bold speech on race. But how will he get the genie back into the bottle?
Pressed about race on a Philly radio sports show, where he wanted to talk basketball, he called his grandmother "a typical white person, who, if she sees somebody on the street that she doesn't know, well there's a reaction that's in our experiences that won't go away and can sometimes come out in the wrong way."
Obama might be right, but he should stay away from the phrase "typical white person" because typically white people don't like to be reminded of their prejudices. It also undermines Obama's feel-good appeal in which whites are allowed to transcend race because the candidate himself has transcended race.

Even swaddled in flags, Obama is vulnerable on the issue of patriotism. He's right that you don't have to wear a flag pin to be patriotic, and that Republicans have coarsely exploited patriotism for ideological ends while failing to do truly patriotic things, like giving our troops the right armor and the proper care at Walter Reed.

But Republicans are salivating over Reverend Wright's "God damn America" imprecation and his post-9/11 "America's chickens coming home to roost" crack, combined with Michelle Obama's aggrieved line about belatedly feeling really proud of her country.
On Friday in Charlotte, N.C., Bill Clinton, the man who once thanked an R.O.T.C. recruiter "for saving me from the draft" during Vietnam, sounded like Sean Hannity without the finesse.

Extolling John McCain as "an honorable man," and talking about McCain's friendship with his wife, the former president told veterans: "I think it would be a great thing if we had an election year where you had two people who loved this country and were devoted to the interest of this country. And people could actually ask themselves who is right on these issues, instead of all this other stuff that always seems to intrude itself on our politics."

Some people consider the Clintons to be the "stuff that always seems to intrude itself on our politics." Tony McPeak, a former Air Force chief of staff and an Obama adviser, accused Hillary's hatchet husband of McCarthyism.
After the Hillary camp lost — and trashed — Bill Richardson and was outmaneuvered by the Obama forces on mulligans in Michigan and Florida, Hillary's hopes dwindled down to the superdelegates.

If Jimmy Carter, Al Gore and Nancy Pelosi are the dealmakers, it won't take Hercule Poirot to figure out who had knives out for Hillary in this "Murder on the Orient Express."

Carter, who felt he was not treated with a lot of respect by the Clintons when they were in the White House, favors Obama.

"The Clintons will be there when they need you," said a Carter friend.

Al Gore blames Bill Clinton's trysts with Monica for losing him the White House. He resented sharing the vice presidency with Hillary and sharing the donors and attention with her when she ran for Senate as he ran for president.

"There's no love between him and Hillary," said one former Clintonista. "It was like Mitterrand with his wife and girlfriend. They were always competing for the affection of the big guy."

Like Carter and Gore, Nancy Pelosi was appalled by Bill's escapades with Monica. And, as The Times's Carl Hulse wrote, the Speaker has been viewed as "putting her thumb on the scale for Mr. Obama" in recent weeks. As a leading China basher, the San Francisco pol tangled bitterly with President Clinton over his pursuit of a free-trade agreement with China, once charging him with papering over China's horrible record on human rights. And she has been put off by the abrasive ways of some top Hillary people.

If Hillary's fate falls into the hands of Jimmy, Al and Nancy, the Clinton chickens may come home to roost.

New Mexico Governor Bill Richardson Endoreses Senator Obama

New Mexico Gov. Bill Richardson, the nation's only Latino governor, is endorsing Sen. Barack Obama for president, calling him a "once-in-a- lifetime leader" who can unite the nation and restore America's international leadership. He also mentioned, "as a presidential candidate, I know full well Sen. Obama's unique moral ability to inspire the American people to confront our urgent challenges at home and abroad in a spirit of bipartisanship and reconciliation."

As the only Latino governor in the country, Bill Richardson understands the needs of our community and recognizes that the candidate who will best respond to the needs of our community and of the entire country, is Senator Barack Obama.

Help Senator Obama become the next President of our country by joining Latinos for Obama Grassroots Organization today!