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Edited on Sun Sep-02-07 07:24 PM by zulchzulu
It was a gorgeous day with lots of people from all over the globe walking along and choosing from all kinds of locally grown, baked, crafted and political flavors. The Obama table is one feature to many at what the New York Times mentioned "The Dane County Farmers' Market in Wisconsin is now recognized as the largest in the nation, and is still growing."
It's always great having perfect weather and large crowds of people to get the grassroots efforts going and see how the day unfolds. A newer feature on the Obama table, the weekly war scorecard was updated and very visible. Here's this week's sad news:
Cost of Iraq Occupation:
(running total):
$447,679,272,722
American Deaths:
3,739
American Wounded:
27,662
Iraqi Body Count:
71,017 (Min) 77,555 (Max) As of September 1, 2007 at 12:00AM
Sources:
www.iraqbodycount.net
www.defenselink.mil
www.antiwar.com/casualties
www.costofwar.org
I think it is important to be very upfront and vocal about these numbers, which actually are a lot smaller than the real numbers. The American deaths are deaths of KIA's who died in Iraq, not hospitals outside of the country. The same goes for the wounded and certainly many other estimates suggest that many more Iraqi have died.
The morning started off at 8am with a woman who was sitting next to where the table was set up who had worked for Obama in Illinois when he first ran for state senator in 1996. As the table got set up, she said that she really enjoyed seeing how he has come from a state senator to senator and now was possibly going to be President.
It was nonstop as usual for four and a half hours. The students at University of Wisconsin-Madison were back with their parents and friends and the first big football game as well as the festival "Taste Of Madison" was going to be on the Capitol Square later in the day. The day is one big blur until you sit down later and reflect on what happened. Looking at the 10 sign-up sheets filled out with some heartily expressing a will to volunteer brings the puzzle back into place.
We went through dozens of buttons and bumperstickers to people who were very enthusiastic about Obama. Many were from out of state, namely Michigan, Indiana, Pennsylvania, Maryland, California, Florida, South Carolina, Texas, Iowa and a few from Britain and Germany.
Having new quartersheets to hand out to people about the campaign and web links made the explanation and purpose of the table a lot easier. People like to walk away with something tangible besides "check out the website". If anyone wants a PDF, contact me.
There were a number of people who supported Clinton as well as Obama and thought that it would be great to have a Clinton/Obama ticket. While I thought that might be nice, I also said that Obama is in the race to win, not get a VP gig. He probably would finish his term as Senator if he wasn't the nominee anyway.
Some older folks from Pennsylvania who were battling the folks at the Palestinian awareness table next to us (wow, it got ugly...) came over to us and said that "it's Hillary's turn..." I said that some think that and that we shall see what the voters think. I've learned to just not even mention other candidates unless they want a copy of all the other candidate web sites, which I have made available.
There was a woman who had been by the table (we always have repeat visitors stop by...) and was very concerned about what a friend said about Obama. "He said he isn't going to be in any more debates!", she said. I told her to tell her friend that they were incorrect. I told her he was participating in the official Democratic Party debates, the Univision debate and a couple in Iowa. Obama was going to be in the following Democratic Party debates:
September 9, 2007 – Coral Gables, Florida
Univision will host a forum in Spanish at the University of Miami's Bank United Center in Coral Gables, Florida and moderated by Univision's anchors Jorge Ramos and Maria Elena Salinas.
September 26 NBC News/MSNBC in Hanover, New Hampshire
October 21 ABC News, WMUR-TV, and The New Hampshire Union Leader host a Democratic presidential debate in New Hampshire
October 30 NBC News/MSNBC in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
November 15 CNN in Las Vegas, Nevada
December 10 CBS in Los Angeles, California
January 6, 2008 – Johnson County, Iowa
The Des Moines Register and Iowa Public Television will host a Democratic debate in Johnson County, Iowa.
January 15, 2008 – Las Vegas, Nevada
The Caucus of African-American Nevadans and Impacto will host a Democratic debate in Las Vegas.
January 31, 2008 – Los Angeles, California
The Los Angeles Times and CNN will host a Democratic debate in California.
(from WIKI)
She was relieved. I asked who her friend supported. Rolling her eyes, she said "Hillary...". "Oh...Let her know that he will be in nine debates", I said. She grabbed another bumpersticker and was on her way. I made a point not to say anything about her friend's candidate of choice.
There are always a few tinfoil hat types who come up to the table and rant some gibberish about the CIA...this or that FBI...that and the occasional hit-an-run Freeper that says something while walking quickly past so as to not get any discussion going.
But one guy really fit all the parameters that Central Casting would need for a paranoid, burnt-out, smelly, chubby, pie-eyed flake complete with ratty clothes and a very heavy looking Army bag. He walked up and tapped hardly on the table and screamed "When is Obama gonna talk about the secret concentration camps in Saskatchewan with the CIA and Canada? Huh? When?"
I was talking to a very nice family at that time about Obama and saw the little boy next to him start crying. The father grabbed them and said a quick goodbye and left.
This menacing dude stood at the table and I could imagine the late great Chris Farley doing a skit with this guy as inspiration. A little "van down by the river" meets Teddy K and some George Bush peppered in for flavor. The dude was scary. Maybe a Gulf War vet... I didn't ask.
He then went into how the CIA had picked up people and sent them to Canada in some concentration camps to make electronic equipment for the Pentagon. He said they were after him and took his buddy, so he was going to Saskatchewan to rescue him. "Why isn't Obama helping?" he yelled. I told him that maybe he needs to bring it up with some others in government that he knows would help. "Ya mean Rudy?", he guffawed. I said "Yes, Rudy. Try him." He disappeared into crowd that started forming again. I later imagined I will see his face somewhere in the news later.
People were saddened by the war scorecard. I even had John Nichols at the Nation stop by and talk a little bit about the war and how he would choose the best candidate who would actually end the war by the end of the first term. We talked about the possibilities and chances of impeachment. The guy is a genius and very down to earth. I feel very lucky to know the guy.
As the tabling neared the end for the day, we have about 20 students come up and ask for the last of the buttons and all of them wanted to put on Obama stickers for the big game later that afternoon. They all signed up and we will probably be able to set up some buses to go to Iowa to see Obama and do some campaign work after the event. I have someone in the campaign who promised that we'd be able to get that done. I also told them there is a great Obama student group at the University (www.uw4obama.com).
I was able to get more video of the day and will post something in the next couple of weeks. Part of the footage will be from next weekend's Fighting Bob Fest in Baraboo, WI. (www.fightingbobfest.com).
Stay tuned!
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