You can still cast your vote for Hillary

[JoB]

Ken,

i had to give up the PCO position in my precinct because i realized i couldn’t physically do the job.. my precinct is all hills and narrow roads with little parking… and i am not doing so well walking right now… but i had given the question you are asking a great deal of thought… especially since i am in a neighborhood with a fairly large number of elderly voters.

You are right, you really can’t educate voters without face to face contact… it isn’t just a matter of finding out who the voter wants for President.. there are other races and issues.

It isn’t enough to help them find their mail-in ballot.. you need to speak with them early enough to make sure they get a mail-in ballot…

i wouldn’t have one this year if someone hadn’t pointed out to me that there is a place i can request one on the web… which i still haven’t done:)

i know the party is big on the robocalls.. but all they do is annoy me.

i would like a note sent out or placed on my door a day or so ahead of time with a contact number that let me know someone would be coming by so that i could arrange to be there or call to arrange a better time. I had a PCO once who did that… and she said she got a very warm reception. she used a note.. not a political flier with her name and number on it…

she also started far earlier than anyone i have ever had… her first canvass was for people who needed to get a mail in ballot but hadn’t already registered for one.

She also did block coffees… where she moderated the conversation.. but was not a speaker.

i know those efforts are out of reach of some PCOs… but that was the model i had hoped to follow.

i think the reception too many get when they start knocking on doors comes from what they feel is their mission… to identify your political preference and educate you. You can get some pretty rude reactions from people who feel they are being interrogated or lectured to….

After a few years of that.. i can see why phone contact looks pretty good to those in the party.

I want someone at my door who is interested in what i want to know… not someone who is eager to tell me what i don’t…

i don’t know if this touchy feely response helps you much Ken, but it is all i have this morning:)

[beachdrivegirl]

And I don’t get resistence when selling a 40K copier machine and they are in a lease with a competitor with two years left? I get it JoB I know how to welcome an objection and over come it…And working in an outside sales job building a relationship is the key to being successful

Ken, I think JoB note idea is a good idea. I might even take it a step further and put three date on the card. Different days of the week, times etc. By doing this you are making the assumption that one of the three times you will be coming around they will be available. At the bottom of the card try to get some contact information. My next step for those that absolutely would not meet with you would be to try to figure something out about them from their neighbors…. because then maybe you can contact them with a little more personalized letter that might hit closer to home. (health, age, occupation etc-just ask a neighbor that you do meet with)

[JoB]

beachdrivegirl…

i have no doubt you know how to overcome sales resistance…

i was a very good saleswoman myself.. including teaching and running crews… I was one of Victor Business Machines top producers on the eve of the computer revolution… selling large business calculating machines. I have a good idea what it takes to be successful in sales.

i found the political stuff very different.

with sales you walk in and it is your job to assess if they have a need you can fill and then overcome objections to filling it…

with politics you get to convince them they have a need that you can fill…

although the two do have one thing in common…

silence is often the most powerful tool.. you just use it a lot earlier in the political process.

i am sure the dems will have great training…

[Anonymous]

JoB – The “idea” and “opinion” that you keep making obvious regarding BDG not being able to handle campaigning, is not flattering. I’m not sure where your “opinion” is coming from here, but I think she will do just fine.

I’m not understanding why you can’t just be encouraging. She will be campaigning for YOUR candidate, after all.

[beachdrivegirl]

What part of your life was that JoB? Your stories would have more meaning if you didnt have a “life story” about EVERYTHING that anyone posts on here… they start to really not mean as much nor be as credible.

[walfredo]

I’m sorry, I’m very late to this thread. Who is Hillary, and how can we vote for her? I looked at election law briefly, and it looks like McCain is running against Obama, with Barr and Nader as the smaller parties candidates.

Maybe I’m confused? Are we all talking about moving to New York in 2010 and voting for Senate?

[Anonymous]

JoB – Your analogy was not written by you to support the opposing view, but I used it to do just that.

To use your “old saying” about being able to lead a horse to water, but not being able to make him drink, I think that also applies to all of these underprivileged children you are talking about. They all attend school, whether they choose to learn, apply themselves and make something of themselves is up to them. It’s also up to their parents.

“I can lead you to information and show you examples until I am blue in the face if I am stupid enough to continue this charade.. but I can’t make you see what you choose to ignore.” -JoB

You choose to be a victim or you choose to make something of yourself. This is America, land of opportunity. If you truly don’t believe that, then explain to me why people from all over the world come here to better their lives.

You can lead a horse to water but you can’t make him drink it.

[Anonymous]

walfredo – Very good question, btw. I don’t plan on moving to New York in 2010, so you’ll have to count me out.

[JoB]

Beachdrivegirl..

i sold Victor adding machines in my 20’s… that would have been in the years around 1971 – 1973.. if you insist i will gladly check my social security records for you and give you the exact dates.

That btw.. was while i was raising two children and putting myself through school.. in between major relapses of chronic fatigue syndrome.

i was in sales off and on.. depending upon my health and a few ventures into other professions.. such as accounting, flight attendant, interior decorator, personal shopper and restaurant work for the next 30 years.. holding every position from phone sales to managing dealerships.

Prior to my Victor sales job… i modeled, i waited tables, i was a car hop and for a brief stint i was a gogo dancer in a bar that thought short shorts and short ruffled tops were scintillating enough for their customers.

I think that about covers my employment history although i am sure there is an odd job here or there that i forgot… like wholesaling used cars… oh.. and selling my own fabric arts… and my own jewelry… and acting (i had a paid bit part once)… and

geez.. i forgot writer.. perhaps because that is as much a part of me as my brown eyes…

I had 3 children. i gave one up for adoption at the age of 19 (who found me 7 years ago and we have built a good relationship). I am still friends with his father.

I had 2 more children. I raised them until they were 4 and 6 respectively… when i lost custody due to my illness… (to their father and his new wife who saw my children as the way to hang on to her philandering husband) .. whom i married before having my children and divorced when he became so blatant in his philandering that i had to call him at his girlfriend’s house when his son was hospitalized and nearly died.. (his gf said he wasn’t there and didn’t give him the message.. his brother called him).

i am not friends with him.. tho i spend a fair amount of time being very friendly at family occasions.

I stayed involved in my children’s lives and i have excellent relationships with all of them. derek is the director of pharmacy at a major hospital in central oregon, ben is a graphic artist and supports his habit by working at Boeing and tiff is a PhD student at Virginia Tech in geotech engineering who just presented the preliminary work for her Phd at an international conference in China (… not to mention more young engineering awards than you can shake a stick at and several published papers and her name on a plaque on a dam and now on some library) and who was at Virginia Tech during the shootings, lost good friends and came closer to losing her own life than any mother wants to contemplate.

i have 7 grandchildren ranging in age from 7 to 21.. and will have my first greatgrandchild in November.. if all goes well.

i had 3 more husbands. One was killed by a drunk driver 6 weeks after our marriage. One was a pilot and we were married for over 10 years until the stress of his job loss (he worked for continental when they broke their union.. and then went on to work for united where they tanked his retirement…), my mother’s cancer (she died too young), the conflict with my ex over maintaining visitation with my kids (we were in court 3 times) and my illness separated us… and we are still very good friends. I have currently been married for the last 17 years to a man who is a very good software engineer. And i am pretty sure we are very good friends:)

i attended a total of 7 universities and a community college in a period covering just short of ten years and was eventually graduated with bachelors in acctg, philosophy & sociology. I had finished all of my course work for a masters in urban sociology when the state of Oregon put in their computer system coordinating all state colleges and universities and caught me taking grad classes at undergrad tuition. i did not turn in and present my thesis to earn my masters. I should have.

Nor did i finish my work experience in Acctg at Touche Ross (they used to be a big deal) to earn my CPA. i got ticked off because they didn’t let me go out to see clients (i was 26 by then) because they thought their clients wouldn’t take an attractive young woman in a business suit seriously.. while they let 20 year old males make the kind of relationships with clients that build a career. I shouldn’t have walked out. I only had another 3 weeks to go.

I think that covers work history, relationship history, education and educational credentials.

That leaves politics and travel. I was a young republican but registered as a democrat by the time i was old enough to vote. I have been involved in presidential elections to a lesser or greater degree since my mid teens. I have traveled extensively… although i have not been in Africa, south America or most of Asia. I have lived for at least 3 months in most major cities this side of the mississippi and some that are slightly.. or further east of there. I have lived in Alaska and Hawaii.. both for limited amounts of time. i have never lived outside the United States.

Right now i can’t think of a single other thing that isn’t your business that i can tell you.. other than i have had fibromyalgia pain my entire life (diagnosed in the 80s) and relapses of chronic fatigue syndrome since i was 15 (generally not lasting longer than 6 months until i reached my late 30s.. and diagnosed in the 90s). I have been diagnosed with 5 separate conditions so far that were supposed to end my life.. but haven’t. I am currently officially disabled and receive social security benefits.. which i waited nearly too long to apply for and thus receive only miminum benefits in spite of a lifetime of working.

I can’t think of anything else that i might mention.. oh. my childhood… not good.. father drunk and violent, stepfather mentally, physically and sexually abusive, mother uneducated, mentally and physically abusive, financial situation desperately poor to lower middle class.. though not necessarily in that order.

That is probably more than you or any other person reading this blog wants to know about me… and certainly more than many of my friends know.

I realize that as a young person it might seem odd to you that someone could hold so many jobs or do so many things… but when you have put in your 60 years on this planet (which i will have managed by the end of this year).. i hope you have at least a portion of the stories i have to tell.. because if you don’t.. you won’t have done much with your life.

I was told i would die within 6 months for the first time when i was all of 17 years old. I have received the same information.. and believed it.. more than once since then. I have held life precious and lived it as fully as i could.. when i could.

When i was young, i was attractive, slim, intellectually intriguing and i had strawberry blond hair that shimmered in the sun. I personally think the hair is what attracted the most attention… it was a color that chemicals couldn’t buy then.. but whatever.. i got to meet and attract more than my fair share of male attention.. and that opened a lot of social doors for me… including extensive travel and exposure to a seriously rich lifestyle. I met a lot of famous people… and a lot who aren’t so famous.

i lived in interesting times… when it was reasonably safe for a young woman to stick her thumb out and go where her whims took her.. and there were a lot of really cool places to go.

i was lucky i had a mom who loved taking my children for a week here and there and an ex-husband who also took my children for a week here and there and i always took advantage of that time… and by the time i reached my mid twenties.. i no longer had children tieing me to one place (ex-hubby and his wife made life h.ll for my children if i lived where they did) and i did my stint as a stewie and after that married to a pilot. i really traveled.

Those are all the reasons i have the amount of experience i do.. and plenty of hard data..

should i deviate from my personal story.. i have certainly given you enough details to call me on it.. but in the meantime i would appreciate it if you would stop calling me a liar. This isn’t the first time you have done so.. but i would hope it is the last.

in case you are unclear… calling someone a liar or hinting that they are a liar is an insult.

I have lived a life i am proud of… although i am certainly not proud of everything i have done. i have accomplished a great deal for a young woman that wasn’t expected to live past her 18th birthday… and has struggled with her health her entire life… and survived the kind of tragedies that derail most… well enough to talk about them matter-of-factly.

But more than that, i have cared enough to listen to others, record their stores and help them whenever i could… beginning in childhood.

I am aware that some lessons can only be learned with age.. but in the meantime, there is no call for the kind of personal disrespect you have shown me when i challenge your ideas. Please stop.

[JoB]

NewResident..

i didn’t imply that beachdrivegirl wouldn’t do a good job campaigning.

i merely stated that while her sales experience is helpful, it is not quite the same a political work.. and that since she has no experience in political work it would be good to get some coaching.

her sales experience will make it much easier for her to meet and talk comfortably with a wide variety of people.. which she will have to do… so she is certainly a step ahead of those who are not comfortable with people and have never done political work before.

[JoB]

NewResident…

“You choose to be a victim or you choose to make something of yourself.”

i hate to be the one to inform you.. because this news is available every night on local television.. but you can choose to make something of yourself and still end up the victim of discrimination, or fraud, or violence, or simple accident… or ….

You can deny that all you want to… but that doesn’t make it untrue. You have only to watch your local news to find that it’s a pretty common occurrence.

being the victim of something out of your control doesn’t make you a person with a victim mentality. blaming others for something that is within your control does.

blaming others for their inability to surmount their lack of opportunity and/or bad luck by labeling them as people with a victim mentality is one way to justify keeping as much opportunity for yourself as you can…

Owning your own sense of entitlement is something i can understand… because i have certainly owned mine.. from being smarter.. or cuter.. or simply luckier…

You get what you can get while the getting is good.

But whining when that entitlement is curtailed by law… that says you want to get whether the getting is good or not.

Choosing to see and believe only in unsubstantiated truths creates a very narrow and self serving outlook…

[JoB]

Walfredo..

thanks for presenting such a clever example of why a good part of the democratic party feels underrepresented…

that had to have been your intention.. since you wouldn’t be so foolish as to further antagonize voters for your candidate.. would you?

Nah.. you’re too smart for that. You were just being clever ;->

[Ken]

I am trying to hijack this thread in a more productive direction :)

I will state my goals when I knock on doors.

The party might not like it, but my civic conscience leads me to put getting every eligible voter in the precinct to engage in the process and vote ahead of spending time trying to bend them to my will. Admittedly I don’t spend too much time trying to convince the Republicans, but I try to talk to them about neighborhood issues anyway which sometimes leads to being able to correct some of the more simpleminded smears.

I did not campaign for any particular candidate while walking the precinct in the primary and don’t intend to start. In the general election walk I will update my info on the known rental units and those which have been sold in the last 90 days to a year. (there is a tab on parcel view which will turn every house blue that has been sold in the last year)I will hit the new residents first (no relation:)to make sure they can vote, then Absentee ballot users second since the candidates never ever get their literature to the printers or out to the PCO’s before the absentee ballots go out. If the district cheat sheet/ sample ballot with all the endorsed candidates on it is ready I will hand out those. If not, I make my own.

The poll voters get checked on last and often it stretches into rainy late October. (Trick or treat!)

Meeting with every voter to convince them of something or other is not my goal. Maybe it is just not my style. I want to make sure they have every opportunity to participate in the process and that they know they have an outlet (me) where they can make their concerns known upstream through the party structure or point them to the representative, state or local who can answer their question or needs to hear their complaint.

Finally on election day I check the polling location to make sure they are not too confused by the changes since last year and check to see who has voted at 10 am and 4 pm. Anyone who has not voted by 5:30 might get a visit to see if they need a ride to the polls.

This year the August primary will be a challenge. I am not sure I even understand all the bizarre ramifications of the idiotic “top two” primary system.

If you voted for the Louisiana primary initiative, chances are you either call yourself and independent or a republican or did not understand the meaning of the initiative.

I will start a thread explaining it as soon as I figure it out. Maybe.

Here is a link to the current candidates for the August primary.

http://www.metrokc.gov/elections/200808/contestscandidates.asp

A lot of people will be voting for someone they have never heard of or for the familiar name. Hint, anyone named “Johnson” has been proven to be a big vote getter.

[JoB]

Ken,

successful and appreciated hijack!

and if it matters.. an incredibly healthy attitude to what political work is all about…

it’s about opening conversation and making sure that every potential voter gets the opportunity to vote…

i wish i lived in your precinct:)

and i hope the many first time political enthusiasts find at least one idea from your post to make their own.

You inspire me.

[charlabob]

Ken, PLEASE start a new thread for specific stuff that the rank and file can do in their precincts. This discussion is extremely useful (relevant to dems and whatever the people running as repubs choose to call themselves. As I said, Rossi is a gopper. :-) And I’m afraid it will be buried here.

Frankly, my PCO is never seen or heard and this bothers me a lot. I volunteered to help her (and I was going to run against her if she didn’t respond.) My native east cost beligerance was overcome by an attack of Seattle niceness, so I let her know.

She responded — still, we’re not doing anything. I can do a lot on my own, and I am connected to the party, as in they know who I am, but I really mind not having seen this person in the 8 years we’ve lived here. (I’m actually hoping she’s a lurker here — next time, sweetie, there will competition for you on the ballot.) :-)

[JanS]

Charla…I have no idea who my PCO is either. And this street is full of “multi-family” units. No one ever contacts me, unless it’s a robo call. I don’t answer those, and I erase them from my voicemail.

[JoB]

ken..

i think charla has a point…

this deserves it’s own thread.

[beachdrivegirl]

JoB just becuase you expereinced something 30+ years ago for a year or two does not make you an expert in it. All I am saying is that people will take what you say alot more seriously if you dont always say you know more than the other individual. The fact that you question what my job does and does not entail and what experience I have campagining is rude. And this is a repeat experience I have had from you.

[JanS]

BDG…whether you want to believe it or not, with age does come wisdom….and experience DOES count for something. JoB never said she was an “expert” in anything, and she never discounted your experience. We all need to keep an open mind, even you, and taking what advice you can get re:campaigning, from the local Democrats can only enhance what you already know. It was a point well made by JoB.

Being on the defensive, taking things personally, and making issues on here extremely personal…yes, being sarcastic about someone’s experience is making it personal…well, many have had enough of that on here. It does get tiresome…take it “off forum” if you have a problem personally with someone, IMO. There are lots and lots of lurkers on here, and we can only hope that eventually they’ll join us, but I’m sure they have second thoughts because of all the personal “attacks” on here. I say we all give it a rest…what say you?

[JoB]

beachdrivegirl…

i don’t know why you persist in harassing me. You are not only being rude to me but to everyone who reads this blog.

i am sorry you feel offended, but it was not rude to suggest that you or any other person choosing to campaign for Obama this fall get political training.

Speaking from experience… over 30 years of experience since sales was the one consistent occupation during my working career…and even longer campaigning… political campaigning is not the same thing as closing a deal.

Would you send a salesperson into the field.. servicing your accounts.. without training … even if they had already had some sales experience? probably not.

For the same reasons.. i suggested you get training.

I have a vested interest. Obama is my party’s candidate… I have invested a lifetime in the democratic party.. i care deeply about it and our candidates.

if nothing else, the decades i have invested have earned me the right to comment… as you will no doubt learn when you too have invested many years.

I don’t know what your personal problem is with me.. but it is your personal problem.

Perhaps it is not a problem with me at all, but with anyone.. or possibly any older woman… who challenges you on what you don’t know…

but it certainly isn’t something that most of the people who read this blog find entertaining..

any more than they find my frustrations with your continued insults entertaining.

please stop with the personal insults so we can all resume conversation.

[Ken]

Just a note to BDG:

I often condemn the “marketing above all” mindset since I saw it destroy several otherwise viable businesses when the sales force was assigned to sell products that did not and could not ever exist. The did not have the expertise to even know that and that was not their fault.

But I am also aware of the one great truths of business, everything follows the sale. Without sales, without a competent sales force, no product can get made, no sales happen and no paycheck for the geeks, engineers and administrators whose budget is seen as a “loss” even though the company would collapse without both parts.

I am also often in awe of sales people since I am self aware enough to know it is a talent I do not posses. My father sold Cadillacs. He sold more of them than anyone in the state for 10 years before dying of a heart attack. But he sold them because he really believed they were the best product he had seen and he could sell them with a clear conscience unlike his starter job after the war with a used car dealer.

Sales tactics may not work on some voters, and some might find it distasteful, but there is no substitute for the persistent, methodical, and cast iron ego of a good salesman when it comes to “Get out to Vote” work.

Contact your PCO and take over your block. Form a block party or a block watch meeting and snag your prospects from that group. If the PCO doesn’t show up then every two years they have to run for the position and a write in vote can beat them if they don’t have any name recognition in the precinct.

We cannot wait for someone else to save this country or the state, we have to do it our selves.

One block at a time.

[JoB]

Ken,

minor point.. and definately not putting BDG down…

i am not in any way suggesting that anyone who wants to campaign shouldn’t give it their best effort… i would hate to see her enthusiasm wasted…

but i don’t think she can sign up as a PCO without joining the party…

or has something really big changed?

[beachdrivegirl]

He isnt telling me to sign up as a PCO he is telling me to talk to my PCO to get assined a block to campaing on. And THANK YOU KEN!

[Anonymous]

Just want to give $0.02, of course.

In my opinion, if you are going to make your life an open book on an open forum, you should also be aware that it could be challenged or questioned. Basically, if you are going to lay it out there, you’re gonna have to take the heat (if any) from doing so.

That’s your choice. This is a public forum.

I don’t see any “rudeness” in this thread except the constant accusing that someone is being “rude”.

[Anonymous]

*whether you want to believe it or not, with age does come wisdom*

The only sure thing that comes with age is death. To think otherwise is another one those isms everyone is so fond of throwing around. Like perhaps, age-ism. My parents are ancient, and they couldn’t be more ignorant. Maybe some of the youngins are tired of being dismissed, talked down to, and given advise they have neither sought nor needed.

One of the wisest things said on here recently was *silence is often the most powerful tool* Too bad it is rarely practiced by any of us Regulars. Maybe some of the lurkers you’re worried about protecting would speak up if they could get a word in edgewise.

[Author]

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