The beat goes on.

[rodbailey]

Just got a mailing from Farrell Seiler, my contact in NH on the write-in Gore effort there. He is now spearheading an effort to start write-in campaigns in several states (Vermont being the first) in light of what looks like a "tie" between Hillary and Barack as the primaries drag on. If I can figure out how to do it, I'll attach a copy of the letter I just received, along with a little flyer asking for volunteers. I'm not sure what I'll be doing on this as yet. As some of you know, I spent a week one night in NH when Farrell thought we were going to try to focus attention on Gore and the global warming thing. I'm just not sure there is any indication that anyone but a few of us die-hards are still thinking of Gore that much, even in light of the Eleanor Clift column. I would jump for joy if any of the talking heads on TV would say just once that, with Gore serving to try to calm the potentially troubled waters, that more and more of the party leaders were starting to turn to him not just as a peace-maker, but a potential compromise candidate. Then, I think these write-in efforts in some of these late primary states might have a chance. Until, and unless that happens, I suspect any Hillary supporter would consider a Gore vote as basically a vote for Obama, and vice versa. Anyway, if anyone out there wants to follow up more on this, let me know with a private message or a posting on this thread.

[Andrea]

1. Rod, I'm glad to see that some are

still trying to move things forward with a Gore candidacy. I wonder though if Farrell has the right approach for this stage of the game. I think there are questions about whether write-in votes will count in various states. I plan to vote for Edwards here in Ohio. He will still be on the ballot. The only thing that would change that is if there was a convincing argument for voting for either Clinton or Obama in order to make a tie more likely.

I think the best chance we have is a brokered convention. I have a feeling that if it comes to that, the party leaders will already be thinking of Gore. Still, it wouldn't hurt to give them a nudge.

I have two ideas of what might work for that. One would be to commission a nationwide poll with Head to Head questions on Clinton, Obama and Gore against McCain. I think Gore would have a much larger margin than the other two and might be the only one that wins. I don't know how much it costs to commission a poll by a respected pollster, but it might be a better use of funds Farrell raises than the write-in campaign. If the poll was done and results were as we expected, press releases and email campaigns for MSM coverage could be launched.

My other idea is for us to target a party leader - my first thought is Howard Dean, but there might be someone better. We could organize a letter writing campaign to him. If the leaders are sitting there at the convention thinking, "what the heck do we do with this mess?" and then Howard says, "Well, you know I've received 70,000 letters and emails asking for a Gore candidacy", it might just be the little bit needed to get past the tipping point.

I was hoping you might mention these ideas to people in the Draft Gore movement, and if they get any traction, let us know so we can participate.

Thanks again for always providing us with good useful info.

[rodbailey]

2. Two great ideas;

I'll raise both of them with Farrell (assuming he might not be reading this already). I'm not sure how much a national poll costs either, and, unfortunately, I'm not sure Farrell is going to raise much with the effort he has underway. However, is there any other source for such funds - MoveOn, perhaps, of DFA? Not that it could be an on line poll (which mostly mean nothing). I'll keep thinking of other sources that might be interested. Unfortunately all the draft Gore web sites are moribund (at best) so there doesn't seem to be much there, although I might contact a couple of people who I know were involved with that to see if there's any response.

With respect to a letter writing campaign, that also a good idea. I'm not sure who to target other than Dean, but maybe some other peepers on this thread will have some ideas. Keep those wheels turning.

[Mabus]

4. I love the letter writing campaign idea

Howard is head of the DNC so I can't think of anyone better to write to. We could even throw our "two cents" into the envelope.

[rosesaylavee]

3. I like Andrea's letter writing campaign to Dean.

It costs very little and its an action more people will participate in. Sending money to Farrell may not be something people will cotton to... esp after the let down in NH.

How do we get a letter campaign to Dean started?

[rodbailey]

5. For one thing

I'll get in touch with any and all people I can think of who I was in contact with in the Gore effort earlier. That means not only the folks at the head of that effort, but I've still got a long list of e-mail addresses of folks here in NY and maybe some others I can contact. Plus, I have all the phone lists that I had gotten from Farrell that I was calling (or in many cases looking up phone numbers so I or others could call). If people on the Gore thread here want to pursue this, I can get some of those lists distributed. Unfortunately, I don't have a lot of e-mail addresses for places other than here in NY, but I will contact Farrell about this and see if he is willing to share any and all e-mail lists he might have. Actually, I think a phone call might be more effective, but the e-mails are certainly easy to send out quickly. Let's keep thinking.

I agree about the money thing. However, if we could get one of the draft Gore web groups to start fund raising for it, that might be a neutral source that folks would trust. I'll see what, if anything, I can do along that side with the algore.org folks at least.

[rodbailey]

6. Back again,

and after last night's Wisconsin and Hawaii wins for Barack, I think we might want to wait until after the Ohio and Texas primaries before launching into anything that was too time consuming. It is possible that after March 4, if Obama wins both of those as well as Vermont and RI, that the path to the nomination might seem a little clearer for him. I wouldn't expect Hillary to fold her tent until after Penn., but the super delegates might see the writing on the wall and decide they had to throw their support behind Obama. If that started to happen, then the door for a Gore compromise candidacy would seem pretty well closed. On the other hand, if Hillary pulls off even one of the big ones on March 4, I can see the deadlock scenario carrying forward and that might be the time to try to do something. In the meantime, I will get back to Farrell and at least the volunteer "leader" of the algore.org web site to see what they have to say. Where I've got easy e-mail addresses (NY list and my own local friends/Gore network) I think I'll send around a copy of the Clift column with a note about what we might try to do. If any of you have an e-mail circle of friends/relatives/enemies you might want to try the same thing. E-mail circles can expand very rapidly and just doing that might get the word to literally thousands of folks (the list I have for NY, for instance, is about 3400 as I recall) to let them know there are still Goreniacs out there trying to get the best candidate into the White House.

[Andrea]

7. I think you are right about timing.

We may as well wait and see what happens on March 4th to make sure our efforts aren't moot. Then we can go ahead. We can send emails to people we have addies for, and ask them to send on and so on. Plus, we can post the info around the web in various places - different blogs, Craig's list, message boards, etc. Thanks, Rod and others for being willing to look into this.

[rodbailey]

8. I've already sent a note along to

several of the folks I had been in contact with at the algore.org web site - the national volunteer coordinator as well as several people in the NYC area who had been very active when we were trying to put Gore's name on the NY ballot. Haven't heard back from any of them yet (it's only been a couple of hours and some of these people may have lives other than sitting in front of their computers). I'll let you all know as soon as I hear anything. Once again, I think this was a great suggestion you had.

[rodbailey]

9. One response so far;

Not that I was surprised by the following that I got from the volunteer coordinator of the AGO website because it seems to continue the whole thought process that plagued that outfit - that noone should do anything that might smack of action that would do some good toward moving Gore toward the nomination. Well, Dean may not be able to take a public position, but you've got to know that there are continuous discussions going on behind the scenes every day now to figure out how to resolve a "tie" between Hillary and Barack. And, don't you kind of think that he might end up putting some pressure on someone? Isn't that part of what he's supposed to do, or am terribly naive? Anyway, here's the critical paragraph in what she sent back to me:


I don’t think that trying to put pressure on Dean makes sense. In his position, he’s not allowed to support anyone, whether a declared candidate or otherwise. And surely he’s considered the Gore solution were it to be necessary. Equally surely, I imagine he’s talked to Gore and knows where he stands about all this. Who knows what he said. We don’t even know for sure that Gore would accept a draft at the convention.

[Andrea]

10. My take on the situation

and on what she said, is the same as yours, Rod.

I am getting worried that Obama seems to be pulling ahead, but we don't know much until March 4th.