fired up!

Sarah Palin and John McCain have decided to run a small campaign full of old ideas, to divide and distract us, to stir up old resentments and fan the embers of the culture wars. These two are both warriors, of a sort--and we can't let them lead us down the path toward increased international conflict and hyperpartisan social conservatism. The challenges we face are too complicated, the geopolitical field is too dynamic, and the real longing of the American people for leadership is too great to reboot that old 1980s game of us vs. them.

As most of you know, I've put some time and some money into this campaign, and I have to say it feels great. I volunteered during the primaries, I've started going on daytrips to Philly to register and turn out voters, and whenever I can, I blog and digest the news for friends and family.

I hope that you'll join me in volunteering, if you can, and I hope you will consider supporting the Obama campaign financially. If we're going to win, we're going to do it on the ground--that means more than 30 field offices in Wisconsin, it means full-time organizers in the 13 offices in Philly alone...and it means supplies, office space, phone lines, and all that's needed to run a grassroots campaign.

I've set a personal fundraising goal for the campaign, outside of my own donations--will you please make a donation and help me reach my goal?

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Now, about that speech:

In short: repubs 2008 is a lot like repubs 1992--distract and divide.

Last night, very late, i collected a lot of links to interesting stories of people donating and volunteering for the first time since seeing Palin (and Giuliani, and Romney)...and will get them pretty for you and send them out this evening.

In the meantime, in case you are feeling jittery, this is a great take on the impact of Palin's speech, and her candidacy. the upshot?

The mockery went too far. They played the "Obama doesn't love America, just himself" card, over and over and over. For people already inclined to believe that (i.e., the hardcore Republican base), the speech was a smashing success. Maybe they will work a little harder, volunteer a few more hours, dig a little deeper into their pockets. But so will partisan Dems, who are far more plugged into watching the election coverage.

So my reaction: St. Paul loved this speech… and so did Chicago...Fire up both bases equally, it's not even close. Obama wins going away. In 2008, there are so many more Democrats, numerically.

i'm going to philly this weekend again to register voters. anyone want to join me?