Opinion

Search Results

Close Previous Now showing: of Next

Previous Next Close

Related Photos

• 

Discussion

Welcome to our online comments feature. We welcome your thoughts and your opinions, including unpopular ones. We ask only that you keep the conversation civil and clean. We reserve the right to remove comments that are obscene, racist or abusive and statements that are false or unverifiable as well as posts that are attacking other users. Repeat offenders will be blocked. You may flag objectionable comments for review by a moderator.

comments powered by Disqus

December 2, 2008

STEPHANIE SALTER: Thanks for donating a half a billion bucks; we need more

By Stephanie Salter The Tribune Star Tue Dec 02, 2008, 09:53 PM EST

TERRE HAUTE — You can’t just ask for money. You’ve got to involve them. That’s why the famous videos with [David] Plouffe were so important. People felt like insiders. They felt like they knew what we were doing.

— Obama campaign chief of staff Jim Messina, the Nov. 17 New Yorker.



Note to “Obama For America” campaign manager David Plouffe, et al:

Hey, guys. Give the fundraising a rest, will you? Not forever, but for a decent interval that will demonstrate that your astoundingly successful presidential campaign did not go culturally tone deaf on Nov. 5.

Shortly after the election, I didn’t mind the victorious Barack Obama campaign e-mailing to ask millions of online supporters for money to help the Democratic National Committee.

Although I wasn’t ready to even think about opening the old wallet again for politics*** that appeal made some sense. The DNC had done a lot of ground work for the president-elect in often-ignored states; scores of local Democratic candidates were in need of post-campaign infusions.

(***Disclosure distinction: When I was a reporter, covering the news as objectively as humanly possible, I adhered to common journalistic ethics and refrained from donating money to any candidates. That is a good rule that reporters and news editors need to follow. Now that my job is exclusively opinion, I feel free to donate — as long as I am open about it.)

As I said, I didn’t mind being asked, but I didn’t donate, either.

A couple of weeks ago, when Obama introduced most of his dazzling economics team to the world, I was slightly irritated to read about it later that day in an e-mail from Plouffe that ended with the usual, “Please Donate” tab link.

Since the election, Plouffe’s point has been that everyone who “owned” a piece of Barack’s unprecedented march to the White House by donating money and time to the campaign also can own a piece of the new administration. Obama For America will stay in existence to keep — you should excuse my mixed metaphor — the grassroots drums beating for change.

I get the concept, but I am not certain I embrace it.

Like so many Americans, Democrats and Republicans, I am struggling to keep visions of foreclosure, job loss and no medical insurance out of my head. I am worried about paying my utility bills this winter and trying to figure out how to do Christmas, which includes wrenching appeals from the usual charities, on a budget that reminds me of my college student days.

I am not in the market just now to buy a piece of the Obama transition, which is why Plouffe’s “Please Donate” e-mail earlier this week rubbed me the wrong way.

The pitch accompanied a roundup (with video) of Obama’s security squad, easily as dazzling as the economic team. The effect was as Kenneth P. Vogel wrote on Politico.com: “Like Hillary Rodham Clinton as secretary of state? Send me some cash, Barack Obama is telling supporters.”

It is especially irksome given that supporters already contributed to the transition effort via federal taxes. The Presidential Transition fund is providing about $5.2 million in public money to Obama for the assembling of a crew to take over the ship of state.

Now, I realize that $5.2 million won’t buy what it used to. That’s why the Obama folks did what other presidents elect have done: set up a non-profit 501(c)(4) to help pay for the massive process of filling cabinet and staff positions and creating an administration.

According to the Washington Post, the head of the transition team, John Podesta, said another $6.8 million in private funds is the goal for the Obama-Biden Transition Project. The project directors have said they will take no donations from PACs or lobbyists and that contributions, which are not tax deductible, can be no larger than $5,000.

This is good. If I decide I can afford to own a piece of the Obama transition, I will trust that the guys and gals in charge keep their word on that.

Throughout the long, grinding presidential campaign, David Plouffe sent out a fleet of e-mail messages. They were frequent, homey, sometimes righteously angry, but more often very Knute Rockne in their exhortations to keep on fighting for Team Obama. Sometimes the e-mails featured short videos of Barack, Michelle, Joe Biden or Plouffe, himself, just talking into the camera as if he decided to sit down and share a few thoughts before moving on to the next part of the building.

Almost always Plouffe’s e-mails asked, “Please Donate.” Almost always they inspired that action.

In Ryan Lizza’s election post-mortem for the New Yorker, “Battle Plans: How Obama Won,” the campaign’s fundraising prowess was examined. Lizza wrote:

“Much of the intimacy that the campaign created with its supporters was driven by its need — its ravenous appetite — for money. Plouffe, who rarely spoke to reporters on the record, communicated with donors via amateurish videos in which he explained campaign strategy.”

The bottom line, of course, is that it worked. The Obama campaign raised a half-billion dollars online during the 21-month race. As the Washington Post’s Jose Antonio Vargas reported, the breakdown speaks volumes:

Three million donors made 6.5 million donations, 6 million of those gifts were $100 or less. The average contribution was $80, and the average donor gave more than once. A whopping 65 percent of the total funds raised — $150 million — arrived in September; $10 million of that came in the 24 hours after Sarah Palin’s speech to the Republican National Convention.

There is a beauty in the breakdown of those numbers that will forever warm the hearts of Obama supporters. In a time of cynicism and political alienation, 3 million Americans, most of them ordinary, put their money where their hope was.

Maybe some day we will be disappointed and feel like chumps for doing this. But let’s not hurry it along, OK? Give us a few months, Plouffe, to hold onto the proud owner glow.

Stephanie Salter can be reached at (812) 231-4229 or stephanie.salter@tribstar.com

Text Only | Photo Reprints

Opinion

• EDITORIAL: Delivering on infrastructure

  With national, state and local economies showing distinct signs of recovery from the Great Recession of 2008, it is good to hear Mayor Duke Bennett sounding optimistic about Terre Haute and its immediate future.

  February 9, 2012  

• READERS' FORUM: Feb. 9, 2012

  • Award proves art teacher’s special

  • Technicality hits cancer patient

  February 9, 2012  

• EDITORIAL: The shame of voter fraud

  For a state that has supposedly spent so much time and effort passing and implementing strict laws concerning voter fraud, it certainly deserves the embarrassment being heaped on it for the Charlie White affair.

  February 8, 2012  

• READERS' FORUM: Feb. 8, 2012

  • City engineer sets high standard

  • More than paper to protect rights

  February 8, 2012  

• LIZ CIANCONE: Give pets the gift of a better, longer life

  It’s amazing how many of us at the Family Sports Center are involved with pets. But I recently became aware of how involved some of us have become.
   

  February 7, 2012  

• Readers' Forum: Feb. 7, 2012

  • Kodak moment for America?

  • Let’s not bring back serfdom

  • IU-Purdue game a nice diversion

  February 7, 2012  

• EDITORIAL: Volunteer ‘army’ serving the needs of children

  You know, of course, that casa means house. But do you also know that its all-capitals cousin, CASA, means home?

  February 6, 2012  

• MARK BENNETT: Toxic victories

  When the Super Bowl ends tonight in Indianapolis, most of the Giants and Patriots will shake hands, despite their competitive fire, win or lose.

  February 5, 2012  

• EDITORIAL: Big dreams do come true

  Consider this Super Bowl Sunday to be proof that anything is possible.

  February 5, 2012  

• READERS FORUM: Feb. 5, 2012

  • Why does Howey keep attacking Mourdock?

  • Thanks for the commitment

  • Accurate view of pipeline issue

  • Oil pipeline is a pipe dream

  • Not all workers belong to unions

  • Unions protect working people

  • Terre Haute Zoning issue unites neighbors

  February 5, 2012  

• BRIAN HOWEY: Keeping Peyton in the Hoosier pantheon

  When it comes to the pantheon of Hoosier sports heroes — Johnny Wooden, Knute Rockne, Bob Knight, Larry Bird, Reggie Miller, Rick Mount, Bobby Plump, George Gipp — the newest name will certainly be Peyton Manning.

  February 5, 2012  

• FLASHPOINT: Tech trail leading us into a dense, digital forest

  It seems the Southwest Parke schools are the latest to play the laptop lottery game.

  February 5, 2012  

• READERS' FORUM: Feb. 4, 2012

  • Defending Bain, attacking Harrop, praising Romney

  • Break a CFL? No reason to panic

  • GOP’s timing not so super

  February 4, 2012  

• READERS' FORUM: Feb. 3, 2012

  • Keep pressure on the Pentagon

  • Supportive words for Jim Mann
   

  February 3, 2012  

• EDITORIAL: Big ‘kick’ from a native son

  Every player in Sunday’s Super Bowl is from somewhere. But not every player remembers where he’s from and reaches out to consistently help those back home. Not like Steve Weatherford. Make that not like Terre Haute’s Steve Weatherford.
   

  February 3, 2012  

• EDITORIAL: Smoking ban good enough

  When it comes to getting things done in the Indiana General Assembly, progress is often measured in baby steps. Indeed, it can take years to achieve even meager accomplishments.

  February 2, 2012  

• READERS' FORUM: Feb. 2, 2012

  • There are reasons unions are needed

  • Why so hard to get a tow here?

  February 2, 2012  

• EDITORIAL: United Way’s strong reputation helps sustain community trust

  It would be foolish in any community to take “positives” for granted, but it’s easy to understand how a casual observer would assume that United Way of the Wabash Valley will always come through with flying colors.

  February 1, 2012  

• READERS' FORUM: Feb. 1, 2012

  • Better options for Deming Park area

  • Tuskegee Airmen had local member

  February 1, 2012  

• LIZ CIANCONE: Super Bowl festivities mostly for super rich

  I hate being in a minority, but I guess I am. I am considerably less than thrilled over having the Super Bowl altogether too close to my back yard.
   

  January 31, 2012  

• READERS' FORUM: Jan. 31, 2012

  • Science from the heavens
  • Unions exist to aid the worker
   

  January 31, 2012  

• READERS' FORUM: Jan. 30, 2012

  • Right-to-work bill hurts state’s workers

  January 30, 2012  

• MARK BENNETT: Not-so-casual observers

  In the minds of many adults, the most upstanding generation of young people was, ironically, their own.

  January 29, 2012  

• EDITORIAL: Nothing sexy about human trafficking

  When kickoff comes at the 2012 Super Bowl, expectations will be high for a fun, competitive, fanatical contest between the two survivors of the NFL’s regular season.

  January 29, 2012  

• FLASHPOINT: Republicans enable war on middle class, unions

  About six years ago at the pinnacle of the Bush/GOP Dictatorship, I began telling you that the wealthy and Corporate America were laying the ground work to politically, financially and physically take over America.

  January 29, 2012  

• BRIAN HOWEY: Bauer leading Democrats from disaster to catastrophe

  In the end, it was the crushing fines set up in the 2011 anti-bolt legislation that caused B. Patrick Bauer and House Democrats to cave on right-to-work Wednesday.

  January 29, 2012  

• READERS' FORUM: Jan. 29, 2012

  • Obama wrong on recess appointments

  • Thanks for honoring ‘Soup’ at his passing

  • Mercury more danger than coal emission?

  • Beware employers who cut corners

  • All beliefs need to be respected

  • People’s decency becomes evident

  January 29, 2012  

• READERS' FORUM: Jan. 28, 2012

  • Don’t muzzle North’s ‘Woelf Pack’

  • The true legacy of coach Paterno

  • Bullet holes suggest dangerous gun use

  • Union coercion in right-to-work issue

  January 28, 2012  

• READERS' FORUM: Jan. 27, 2012

  • Labor bill would divide unions
  
  • GOP sure to retain Statehouse control
  
  • Internet lies about liberalism and more
  
  • National debt backs job growth numbers
  
   

  January 27, 2012  

• EDITORIAL: The law’s good ‘Shepard’

  Under the radar and against the backdrop of the fractious right-to-work battle going on in Indianapolis, one of state’s leading public servants delivered his valedictory in typical understated, even quiet, style two weeks ago. And before Indiana Supreme Court Chief Justice Randall T. Shepard slips away into retirement, his work needs to be acknowledged and praised.

  January 26, 2012  

• More Opinion Headlines

© 2012 Community Newspaper Holdings, Inc. · CNHI Classified Advertising Network · CNHI News Service
Associated Press content © 2012. All rights reserved. AP content may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.
Our site is powered by Zope. Some parts of our site may require you to download the Flash Player Plugin.
Privacy Policy | AP News Registry privacy policy
Advertiser Index

Events by eviesays.com

News From Terre Haute, Indiana 222 S 7th St Terre Haute, IN 47807