Obama Phonebanking Results 4/29/08

[panAmerican]

I started earlier tonight, which was great because I ended up making only 17 out of 25 calls, and one of those calls lasted 42 minutes!

*** Again, I am finding that Hoosiers are polite and friendly, even if they're not interested.

*** Some numbers were disconnected, out of service, or no longer the numbers of the people listed.

*** No Clinton supporters, a few Obama supporters. None is interested in early voting.

*** I encouraged undecideds to visit www.barackobama.com and some non-partisan sites like VoteUSA, FactCheck, League of Women voters to learn more.

*** What people care about: gas prices, education and taxes came up frequently. People think the gas tax holiday is a gimmick, that what is needed is more like $1 or $2 off the price, not a few cents.

*** Healthcare - people said they don't want the government deciding what doctors they will see. I said Obama wants to focus on making it affordable, whereas Clinton is willing to garnish wages to make people purchase it.

*** The voter with whom I had the 42 minute conversation is a registered Republican who leans Libertarian, so he's evaluating all 3 candidates. I told him I'm registered Independent, and no Dem was on my radar initially. I took my time to learn about them, and eventually picked Obama. His concerns:

*** Voter Fraud: Indiana has many more names on the rolls than are registered to vote. Wanted to know why Obama disagreed with Supreme Court on this. I replied that the major concern was for people who were poor or disabled or otherwise may not have need for a photo ID. Said that personally I don't think it's a huge burden, and there's still time for people to get a photo ID in time for next week. I said the campaign is encouraging people to bring as much ID with them as possible.

*** Will Barack back off Michelle's wanting to increase tax burden on higher-income folks? I said that certain loopholes can allow someone making $150K to pay higher % in taxes than someone making $40K. I explained that Obama's plan would be on a sliding scale and indexed to inflation.

*** Lots of illegals in IN, and he thinks they will keep coming, if not for the jobs, then for the healthcare. I said more staffing is needed to process paperwork of people who are in the legal gueue, and that Obama wants to make it tougher on employers who draw illegals.

*** Does Obama favor hydrogen fuel cells? I said I didn't know, and that Obama wants to build the infrastructure to research alternatives.

*** How could Obama listen to Rev Wright for 20 years? I said NYT had retracted the claim that Obama was there for the clip that they captured the week after 9/11. Said that on Foxnews interview, Obama was asked what controversial things he heard, and he said sometimes Wright uses street vernacular, tells people to take responsbility for their kids, etc. And besides, it's not like what Wright said in those 30 seconds were being repeated over and over for 20 years.

Gave example of my own church where the pastor preaches 2 Sunday services and a weekday service, not to mention where he goes as a guest. Even the most devout of people don't go to each and every service, so they are bound to miss things they would disagree with. I gave him examples in my own life of when I had to leave a church, and it's even harder for people with kids and established relationships to walk away. Said that there's no religious test in this country to become president.

I told him I believe Obama didn't come out more strongly before because he didn't want to diminish the work that the church had accomplished, such as feeding 5,000 people per year, 2 senior citizen homes, job retraining and a lot of other outreach ministries. I said that Wright made a lot of good points on Moyers' show and at NAACP dinner, but that he made some BS claims like right-brain, left-brain differences between Blacks and Whites, and touted his book instead of sticking to the good points he was making.

Whew! I'm exhausted!

[Coexist]

1. great work!

even the bad and disconnected numbers are good, because the improve the database for the GE - it saves lots of time when it really counts!

[likesmountains 52]

2. Thank you!

[antigop]

3. "people said they don't want the government deciding what doctors they will see. "

I suppose they would prefer that the insurance companies decide?

These people really need to understand in-network vs. out-of-network providers. The insurance companies today are deciding what doctors people can see by limiting coverage to in-network providers or making you pay more to go out of network.

[dana_b]

4. fantastic responses! I hope the repub heard you. n/t

[babylonsister]

5. Thank you! You sound great to me!! nt

[NashVegas]

6. Hey - Great Disinformation Tactics!

Clinton is willing to garnish wages to make people purchase it.

[SoonerPride]

7. Thank you for making a difference.

You are a true difference maker.

One call at a time.

Great job.

K & R

[GetTheRightVote]

8. Thank you for spending your time helping Obama.

[VolcanoJen]

9. You should be proud of your work.

I'm proud as hell of you, myself. :-)

[PBS Poll-435]

10. A robo-call by a human? Now I HAVE seen everything.

[panAmerican]

23. So, I'm officially an Obamabot? LOL

[Barack_America]

25. You clearly have never volunteered for your candidate.

Her campaign lives off phonebanking, considering they rarely have the volunteer strength to do thorough canvasses.

I'm surprised you didn't know that.

[PBS Poll-435]

32. 'Twas just a joke...

Please see the response above yours...

[malik flavors]

11. Great job. You're a really informed and valuable supporter. Keep up the good work!

[panader0]

12. Sad not to see the war in Iraq as one of the important issues.

I know it's been going on a long time and that it's become boring for the average American, but it wasn't boring for those who died today, both American and Iraqi. The immorality and illegality of this war, created for oil profits, is sickening. To me, the war is the MAIN ISSUE. End the war first. The economy will improve, the price of gas will go down, there will be money for health care (the cost of the war would have funded health care for all for many, many years instead of the cost of caring for our brave troops that have lost limbs and minds in Iraq.) PLEASE!
Edit to say thanks for your work on behalf of Obama.

[panAmerican]

22. Great point! I will try to remember to bring that up.

[DangerousRhythm]

13. Wow, great work! N/T

[TragedyandHope]

14. Thanks for sharing your experience!

Click to call for Obama:

[zulchzulu]

15. Thanks for your work. Phone banking IS exhausting.

[jefferson_dem]

16. Thanks so much for your terrific updates.

Keep up the great work! :applause:

[Auntie Bush]

17. You get a gold star

for throwing BS and distorted bias answers.

[phillysuse]

18. The answer to people worried about the government

choosing their doctors is Medicare. The government doesn't assign doctors to Medicare patients.
Private physicians decide if they want to accept Medicare (capitalism at its best) and then if they do, they are paid by the government to see whatever Medicare patients choose to see them.

That is how a single payer system would work and if we had a single payer system, most physicians would be included.

Again there is confusion between health care and health insurance. The candidates have been debating health insurance - Barack wants to make it more affordable but not force people to buy it and Hillary wants to garnish wages so that everyone must buy in. They have been debating health insurance, not health care.

Health care is a different subject and includes issues of availability of doctors, nurses, etc., quality of care and cost of care and research and use of technology.

[patrice]

19. I will begin tomorrow night. Had a meeting for a local candidate tonight.

I was just realizing from the point about focusing on making health-care affordable that if you mandate everyone into the system, the cost efficiencies become secondary to managing all of those people, ergo less cost efficiencies, so it's kind of a cart ahead of the horse situation. What you have to do is get the horse ahead of the cart, get the cost efficiencies as high as effective as possible and let that pull people into the system . . . . . just practicing here.

I will post tomorrow night after I make my calls.

:hi:

[panAmerican]

24. Excellent Patrice! I will keep an eye out for your post

[thevoiceofreason]

20. Barack is a big fuel cell backer. Absolutely!

[WillyT]

21. Thank You !!! - K & R !!!

:bounce::yourock::bounce:

:hi:

[casus belli]

26. Thank you for your hard work.

I hope that 42 minutes was well spent. If nothing else, you gave him some points to consider other than the sound bites that have dominated "news" coverage of late.

:)

You done good.

[ampad]

27. Thank you

You are awesome!

[Triana]

28. WOW. Good job! THANK YOU! n/t

[abburdlen]

29. Thank-you

Keep up the great work!

[bigpenguin]

30. K&R

K&R!!!

Gobama!

[Psst_Im_Not_Here]

31. As a born and raised Hoosier

I'd have to say that you did great! Listening to them is key as well as respectfully answering their questions. I'm glad that you've found out that "Hoosier hospitality" is still alive and well in my home state! I've heard good things from my family there.

[sandnsea]

33. learning style differences

Why do people not understand learning style differences because of the cultural differences in the way adults interact with children. He never ever said white and black brains were different. *sigh*

[datopbanana]

34. Very nice

[FrenchieCat]

35. Thank you for your hard work!

[symbolman]

36. Congrats! Job well done

thanks for spreading Sanity, Hope, and Peace... :)

[Hope And Change]

37. K & R!

:kick:

[AnarchoFreeThinker]

38. K&R (and thanks!)

[panAmerican]

39. 7 tips to phonebank. Yes, YOU can do it, too!

Thank you all for the encouragement. I post my results to encourage myself to keep going, and to reduce the fears some of you may have about making calls. Here are some things that work for me:

* Smile; make faces at yourself, tell yourself the next one will be for Obama. Challenge yourself to make X number of calls in X minutes.

* SPEAK SLOWLY. You are used to the tone of your own voice and regional accent. Slow down so that people can hear what you say the first time. You will sound more intelligent and confident.

* The official script advises you to ask, "Is _____ available, please?" Then you would introduce yourself. I reversed it because I hate when strangers ask for me when I don't know who they are or why they're calling.

* Watch the clock. It is also a courtesy to the people you call because you are probably interrupting something. If you get a guy like I did last night who is happy to get it all out, don't rush them.

* Don't worry about not knowing everything about Obama's platform. I sure don't, and I don't pretend to. People will know if you are BSing them; say you don't know and move on, but be prepared to talk about the reasons why you support Obama.

* The official script lists talking points to share with undecideds. I don't do that. Instead I ask, "What are some of the issues that are important to you?" Yes, you risk revealing now knowing where Obama stands on those issues, and that's ok. This is the opportunity for you to create buy-in with the voter, because they will hear themselves articulate their own needs. They will believe themselves quicker than they believe you.

* Last, but not least, be polite always!!! You may be the closest they ever come to Obama. If you find people who are not interested, thank them for their time and say goodbye.

[flpoljunkie]

40. Great work! One error: It's $250K, not $150K for raising income taxes. Perhaps a typo?

Will Barack back off Michelle's wanting to increase tax burden on higher-income folks? I said that certain loopholes can allow someone making $150K to pay higher % in taxes than someone making $40K. I explained that Obama's plan would be on a sliding scale and indexed to inflation.

[panAmerican]

41. Yes, typo! It was too late to edit

[CADEMOCRAT7]

42. Bravo ! Great information ! Thank you so much !!! n/t