Live Volunteer Teleconference W/ Sen. Obama - PARTIAL TRANSCRIPT "It Can Be An Early Night Tuesday"

[Hissyspit]

I just took part in a live volunteer teleconference call with about 20,000 other Obama For America volunteers and field leaders. He called to charge everyone up and thank everyone for their work.

An Amazing Campaign - I'm 46 years old and I've never seen anthing like this.

Jon Carson, National Field Director for Obama For America, was on the phone from Chicago as we awaited Sen. Obama to come speak to us, 20,000 volunteers give-or-take on the phone at the same time. I will give some of the statistics that Carson read out to us below, but first, the comments of Barack Obama:

Sen. Obama is in Springfield, Missouri, apparently, and said that he had a rally coming up in Springfield.

He wanted to thank volunteers and encourage even more work.

"What has happened in this country over the last few months is astonishing. Over the next 72 hours we have to turn voters out.... Thank you. I'm proud of you. We've come so far. We've stunned, I think, the nation and it would be a shame for it slip away after all our hard work."

The senator said he has some points he wanted to make to all the volunteers:

1 - Double-down Your Time Committment
2 - Bring Your Friends: Pundits are questioning if the much-vaunted young and new voters will come out so we need to make sure that happens.
3 - There are going to be Long Lines
Finally - "This Race Is Ours To Lose: The stakes in this election are too high to come up short. I've been at this for two years. If we can line up the battleground states, North Carolina, Florida (etc.), it's gonna be an early night on Tuesday and we can celebrate or get some sleep."


Carson pointed out that there have been 13.3 million contacts, not knocks on doors or unanswered calls, but 'conversations.' "We spent this summer building a massive force across the battleground states. The voter contacts have been incredible - it took three weeks for the first tow million, one week later for next two million. Last week there were 2.5 million

- 1.9 million newly registered voters, changing the face of this election.
- North Carolina has a 500,000 vote advantage for Democrats now, with the largest early-voting day ever today.
- Florida This time, compared to 2004, there is a 7.5% advantage.
- Nevada: Dems have a 13% advantage over Republicans from four years ago.



An unprecedented campaign.

[tekisui]

1. Sounds like a call for a strong finish.

Confident, but not complacent. Very good, thanks!

[BlooInBloo]

2. "The race is ours to lose" - truer words have never been spoken. Get the damn kids to vote!

[graywarrior]

3. Find every young voter you know and take them to the polls

[Hissyspit]

4. kick with new material n/t

[Hissyspit]

5. .

[Hissyspit]

6. .

[cliffordu]

7. Recommend....Kick while I'm at it...

[Hekate]

8. An "early night" could be a bad thing for down-ticket races out West, though...

I was at the local HQ today for the training session for precinct work on Election Day, and that was one of the things our leader pointed out.

He said that if the networks call the election for Obama at 5pm California time, a lot of people here could decide to stay home and we could end up with losses for a lot of good Dems at the local and state levels. He too was talking about not letting up for one second until the polls close. It's amazingly detailed work that involves a lot of walking, and will start at 6am and end only when the polls close at 8pm. I've decided I won't be doing that part of it, but will drop in to the headquarters to see what else I can do to help out during the day on Monday and Tuesday.

Oh gods, it's almost over. Waiting to exhale....

Hekate

edited to add another Rec for you