So I'm going to go to an OFA meeting on Saturday

Maybe I'll find out what the hell the Health care plan actually entails or maybe I'll be asked to campaign for a plan that no one has a clue is in it.

If its the second, I won't be campaigning for something I don't know what it is.

:shrug:

And they aren't finished yet. But you knew that right?

Shall we wait until they're done to fight for what we want?

What's on the table and what's off.

Don't go to the meeting if you're just going to be a disruptive ass.

Who do you think is going to fight Congress for the details of the health plan?

I know how to behave myself.

I was asked to host one of these things.

How much did you give up to get the guy elected?

I'm hosting one too. Big fucking deal.

before I'd support it.

Reading the papers the past month I'm hearing things I don't like.

I don't know if you've done this before, generally there is a pitch to support the President's plan at the end of the meeting.

I hope the rest of the hosts are more enthused than you are. Oh, and you might go to WhiteHouse.gov and look up Obama's health care letter today. It was posted here once, but it was good news so it probably sank like a rock, kind of like the news that they were going to sell the Katrina survivors their mobile homes for $5 and not kick anybody out which DU was in extreme angst over just days ago. Funny how little celebration there is now that people's deep concerns have been answered.

My friend is. I was asked to host I declined.

1) I wasn't sure if I needed to visit my Brother in the group home or if my mother was handling it this weekend

2) I really don't like this OFA concept. I don't like the way it has been marketed and I don't like the way it has been rolled out.

When he does things I like, I praise him, when he does things I don't like I criticize.

I'm sorry I don't worship him, never fucking did. I knew he was a politician with good intentions.

Sorry I didn't post about the trailers, maybe if I wasn't at a meeting for the party on local issues after working 9 hours and commuting an hour both ways I would have read about it.

That's what I said to begin with.

I hope it takes forever till 2012, I don't look forward working with your types for another 4 years.

I am glad my local Naderites are more reasonable than you though.

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I hope that you still go, and please tell us how it went. :)

I've been doing this for over a year now. I have other responsibilities.

Like I said, right now locally there are two camps working in opposite directions. Scratch that there is one camp trying to get Democrats elected and another trying to re-invent the wheel because for some reason they think that there is this evil Party machine locally.

We have trouble fielding candidates for all positions locally, let alone getting involved in one person's race over another in a primary.

what you don't realize is that you there are two attitudes that are heavy in play. While one is the Obama enthusiast, the other is the Hillary cynic. Your playing your own role in this melodrama.

Please explain to me how I'm a Hillary cynic?

I have Hillary supporting friends that were treated awfully by Obama people when the General Election came.

Some of us were pretty shitty fucking winners.

This OFA thing is only furthering that divide.

It was give and get. Only a fool thinks the Obama crowd preyed on the Hillary crowd.

DU and real life = two different things.

It seems to me (if i understand you correctly) that your heart belonged to hillary while your ass belonged to Obama. Please correct me if im wrong.

While i praise and admire your willingness to work toward the overall success of the ticket(which is wise), perhaps you should let some of the more enthusiastic folks bear the load.

If you intend, like some others here, to go to these meetings intending so disrupt with push back, then you shoudl reconsider. Its and organization drive, not a town hall.

I was with than Senator Obama fiercy. I was extremely partisan during that primary.

I disarmed when the primary was over. I spent alot of time mending fences. I went to my democratic party picnic locally with pins I had ordered at my own expense with both of them on it.
I worked very hard to make people feel welcome, my biggest challenge was not Hillary supporters "acting up" it was getting Obama supporters not to poke them for no reason. It was frustrating organizing in that enviroment. The people who didn't want to play nice were the Obama people not the Hillary people.

I sometimes wished Hillary won, simply because I think the Hillary people might have been nicer in Victory to the Obama people than the Obama people were being to the Hillary people.

My best friend is hosting the meeting. Why would I disrupt my best friend. I've been trained to deal with disrupters. If anything, I'll be used as a tool to quiet disruption. I know more of what OFA is than 90% of the posters on here.

Then i would say that your experience is removed from mine. My experience was that the Hillary folks where constantly on the attack parroting the negative sound bites her campaign was cooking up. This was true at most events. These kinds of attacks almost always resulted in arguments in which either the Hill supporter or the Obama supporter would become angry. No mater who lost their temper, it always seemed to be sourced in negativity from one side of the group.

I should take your word and so I will. Again, I admire your peacemaking attempts. perhaps things are just different all over. Be aware there are several sore losers here that wish to insert thier candidates policies into the Obama platform. That have openly stated a desire to some to these org-ups and "influence" the output.

The poking didn't stop till after she became Sec. of State.

instead that behavior transformed into a less directed general criticism without a unified source. Essentially, it became more formless and general in its negativity.

:rofl:

Maybe you should just step away if it doesn't suit you.

Well one I like him.

Two it pisses off some people on here who see the avatar and make assumptions and start swinging before they know who they are talking to.

I worked for Obama for nearly a year. I obviously like him, I'm not afraid to be critical.

I've been hearing this same crap for Hillary supporters for months, since before he took office. Every time there's any kind of Obama organizing effort all they ever ask is if they're just going to be cheerleaders. It's a bunch of sour grapes garbage and I'm not going to pretend otherwise.

I never supported Hillary Clinton.

If you would like me to PM you my Huffington Post Fundraise page I'd be more than happy to.

You can also do some search of my post from the Primary Season on here under my old moniker Jake3463.

Perhaps some of the way these people were treated during the campaign after the Primary was over is the reason why they asked the question.

But i remember arguing with you during the primaries. I couldn't really care less how hurt the Hillary supporters are. They gave and got back. They could dish it but not take it. Perhaps the way they where treated had more to do with how the acted.

I'm talking about in real life.

If you want to see my donations and what quarters they fell in, I'm free to disclose.

insurance. That is by far the best plan and the one I want our President to support.

We agreed that they would keep working on that, and I would get this group ready to go so that when it came time for everybody to join together and push for the public plan and open enrollment, the infrastructure would be in place for them to just come right in. Why don't you suggest that instead? If 60% of the country supposedly wants single payer, they must know what the hell it is.

These meetings are sales pitches for the President plan. This is not for input.

work for me. This forum is about what is best for the American people. As a citizen who is studying this issue and cares deeply about it, it is incumbent upon me to attend and speak up about single payer national health insurance. It is the only proposal that truly represents both health care reform and cost savings.

Yes, I will go. Yes, I will bring materials about single-payer.

There are people all over Obama's blogs talking about and supporting single-payer too. We are not alone and we have just begun. Single payer...Yes WE CAN!

We will be planning that on Saturday so be sure and come prepared to volunteer for the next 3 weeks to help create an event in your town to draw attention to the need for health care reform. Any ideas of what kind of event your town should have?

If you want to lobby for Single Payer, your better off doing it in another way.

They will shut you down pretty quickly if the person has any training from the General Election in hosting meetings or was a Team Leader.

Not discouraging you, however these are not input meetings. They are meetings to produce output.

...just like single payer advocates have been calling the White House and participating in Obama's blogs on the subject.

its not your platform.

Your opportunity for input was your vote. If your candidate did not win, then wait or run yourself.

There are reports that certain things, that were not campaigned on, but were actually campaigned against are on the table right now.

If a few of things pass it will be a disaster for the party. As long as those things are not implemented I can support a bill.

Essentially, if we tax benefits, I will be made to be a liar because, I told people that was in the McCain plan and than Senator Obama would not do that.

Obama is against taxing benefits. He still supports rolling back the Bush tax cuts. That is one of the things we will be organizing to fight on Saturday. That and the public option and open enrollment.

Jesus.

Its because some people are so off the mark and some how crying the same river that you get tired of it. Its like a built in response that comes from me every time some dickhead evangelical walks up and pretends to be my friend when i know its just a stupid setup to try and jam his retarded ideology down my throat.

You may say im quick to judge.
maybe im just quick to understand.

Worse was when her super volunteers started getting responsibility.

Worse even yet when we made the decision to put a Hillary supporters welcome sign in our window.

Some people never appreciated that they had fought as hard as we had over 99% the same issues for a candidate.

The only difference was we won.

I prefer to keep my involvement level to myself on this board. Thanks.

I will say this, I have known you to be more against Obama than for him on this board. This of course could just be my limited perspective.

Who I am, what I've done, and money I've donated in a private message.

And i don't expect you to either.

you never know, you might learn something. :)

http://my.barackobama.com/page/content/hckickoff
Is that the same thing you're doing?
Didn't read any proclamations from above in the materials, more like a starting point.

Are you just trying to create a grassroots information distribution of sorts?... so that people at the meeting can repeat those talking points ("(1) reduce costs, (2) guarantee choice, and (3) ensure all Americans have quality, affordable health care.") with a more practiced ease when the attacks start coming?

Or is the plan to organize in order to actively campaign your local congressional district... in order to have more people call congresspeople?

Or are you just looking to get your community "ducks in a row" so that you won't contradict each other when writing letters to editors?

Who?... What?... :crazy: This makes no sense to me... but then again my Congresswoman is already pro-Single Payer.

Depends on what else I have going on.

Everybody should do the same.

AllentownJake has been one of the most passionate Obama/Democratic party supporters that I've encountered.
With regard to OFA, they deserve both praise and critique, but I don't see how critique of OFA can be taken for opposition to the President. OFA is whatever us Democrats make of it. OFA exists to make the most of grassroots passion and energy. If OFA can't find a use for someone like AllentownJake, then they're doing something wrong. The president is and has been trying to motivate the grassroots through OFA, but he's not powering it. We are.
Now, I think AllentownJake's suggestion that volunteers will be asked to support an as of yet undefined healthcare plan is entirely likely, and if it so happens, well, that will be legitimately frustrating for many people. Can anyone dispute that being asked to campaign for a healthcare plan without details is frustrating?
Maybe Obama's personal message that he'll be making on Saturday will be more specific and persuasive than we've seen so far..and by necessity the message will be more detailed pretty soon.
I'm waiting for details. Jake's waiting for details. Waiting is frustrating. That's what I get from this post.
So I have to take issue with any assertion that this post is a generic criticism of Obama. Unlike many posts, it
-uses logic
-calls for more details and information (in my opinion, most disagreements here arise out of lack of information)
-does not use inflammatory rhetoric
-sets realistic expectations

That is all :-)

All critism is not a threat to President Obama. I have a passion for the ideals of this party and a passion for building this party.

Truth be told President Obama will be here 8 years and than he'll be gone. I'm 30. I want to make sure we build for the next 50.

that this is a KICKOFF meeting to begin organizing for health care reform. I think its odd the he is frustrated over expectations about being asked to support an undefined health care plan.

I think its reasonable to expect that the Health care plan NOT be ready yet considering the Obamam approach. Instead of the traditional political approach of posting on the outside and fighting to the middle, Obama crafts policy at a middle point so that he can better occupy the discussion.

Its a stylistic difference that many hear are surprisingly unfamiliar with. In case your curious, the plan inst ready, you will be asked to start thinking about and preparing for the health care policy discussion when it hits the ground.

So in summary:
Plan not ready.
start thinking about the upcoming fight.



As an aside, it might be wise to start thinking about viable options to single payer.

Details are in the Ohio forum. I'm fiercely for a single payer system and anyone who wants to talk single payer will be very welcome at our meeting.
Obama's plan is not complete. If I'm to have any input, I have to do it now. The only way we will get a good system is to work together to make it happen.
That's what I plan to do, and welcome all the help I can get.