Let's get started.

[rodbailey]

Here's a copy of what I've started sending around to folks I've been in contact with from the earlier Gore effort in NY. The first mailing went to about 2-3 dozen people who had been working with me here in the Rochester, NY area or a couple of contacts from other communities in NY. Shortly I will be sending it out to a much more extensive list (a few thousand) of previous Gore supporters from around the state. Feel free to use any or all parts of this to send to any person, place, or thing you can think of to get this letter writing campaign started. I really do think "snail-mail" letters will be much more impressive than e-mail for this, since all these leaders are flooded with (probably) thousands of e-mails every day (assuming you could even find e-mail addresses for Dean and Carter). Any feedback is welcome and will be useful. LET'S ROLL!!!


Hi all,
I'm back with a possible new strategy (developed with some on-line folks at Democratic Underground) for getting Gore's name into the mix for the Democratic nomination. I know, you may think it's way too late for that; but, the way things are going between Hillary and Barack there will soon be blood on the floor and the convention in August will be deadlocked with neither candidate having the requisite number of delegates to get the nomination. This scenario has been envisioned by a number of people, even some notable political pundits (http://www.blog.newsweek.com/blogs/stumper/archive/2008/02/15/al-gore-to-the-rescue.aspx) have imagined the scenario where Gore is the compromise candidate that a lot of Democrats look to to bring some order out of the possible chaos at the convention.

To that end, we are starting a letter writing campaign to Howard Dean, Rep. Nancy Pelosi, and former Pres. Jimmy Carter urging them to turn to Gore if the convention is deadlocked and/or there are such bad feelings by the end of the primary process that a healer is needed for the party's sake and to make sure we can win in November. I am strongly suggesting that if you write such letters they be real letters, NOT E-MAILS. All these folks get way too many e-mails every day to pay any attention to something like this. If you want to do this, and in case you need some "talking points" to get you started, here are a few things I think I will mention in my letters to these folks: continuing damage to the party as this race gets nastier and nastier; the need for someone who really does have foreign policy experience; a strong environmental issues candidate; a person who has proven he can win the national popular vote; someone known and respected by world leaders both then and now.

I imagine each of you will have your own ideas of things to say. If you want to add to my list, feel free to send those ideas back to me and I'll send them along to others as I continue to send notes like this to lots of contacts I have from the earlier work on trying to get Gore on the ballot in NY. I think what I will do is try to follow up these "snail-mail" letters with an e-mail in a week or so (if you want to do that, the e-mail contact information for them is pretty easy to find) to remind them that we are serious about this. The ideal, as far as I'm concerned, would be a Gore/Obama ticket. I think that would sweep the election in November and position Obama for Pres. in 2012 or 2016. We could be looking at at least a 16 year reign for a Democrat in the White House.

Here are the critical addresses: Howard Dean, DNC, 430 S. Capitol St., SE, Washington, DC 20003; Rep. Nancy Pelosi, 235 Cannon HOB, Washington, DC 20515; and Pres. Jimmy Carter, The Carter Center, One Copenhill, 453 Freedom Parkway, Atlanta, GA 30307. Both Howard Dean and Rep. Pelosi have been involved in trying to figure out ways to resolve a deadlock, if there is one, and both are, at this point, uncommitted to either candidate. They both have met with Gore and others to discuss how to resolve a deadlock within the past couple of weeks. Former Pres. Carter has urged Gore numerous times to get into the race and, I suspect, may have also been involved in some discussions about how to resolve a deadlocked convention. All these folks are super delegates.

I'd be interested in any response you may have to this strategy. I will be contacting lots of other former Gore supporters in this state and contacts I have in other states (not that many) as we pursue this strategy. If you feel as I do that Gore would be the ideal candidate this fall I would encourage you to send this note (or your own) to as many like-minded friends as you can. We would like to spread this idea as far and wide as possible. In advance, I'll thank you for any effort you might put into this.

Rod Bailey

[rosesaylavee]

1. Great start, Rod!

I have to say though you have a LOT more of an opinion of Nancy Pelosi than I do. I hope I am wrong but she has not been as supportive of impeachment as I had thought she would be when she got in.

I may personally add another letter to Gore just to let him know that I would still support him if he chose to do this.

But overall, way to go in getting this started!

:applause:

[rodbailey]

2. One reason

for including Pelosi (and I agree with you about the impeachment thing) is that her name keeps getting mentioned along with Dean and Gore as some of the leaders that have been struggling with this. I just read something this morning that Harry Reid is sort of staying out of this because his 2 lieutenants in the senate are Chuck Schumer and Dick Durbin (who, when in DC apparently are roommates in an apartment). Obviously Schumer supports Hillary and Durbin supports Barack, so Reid doesn't want to lost the support of his two "worker bees" in the senate by seeming to take sides. So, apparently, he just stays out of it, even though you would think of him as some kind of a party leader, and he's certainly a super delegate.

[rosesaylavee]

4. Wonder if Durbin and Schumer have had any food fights

over the primary this year? Didn't know they were roomies.

[rodbailey]

3. Progress

I've posted my note about this effort on my local DFA site as well as my local Craig's list site. I also posted it as a forum item at www.algore.org. To post effectively at the www.draftgore.com site, you have to go state by state. I'm planning on doing the New England states, then down the east coast as far, and including VA and west including PA and WV. Can others out there pick off some of the other states and post some kind of note of what we're trying to do? Feel free to use my message above if you want - simply copy and past it state by state. I'm not sure what kind of viewership any of these sites get any more, but the effort involved is pretty minimal to posting so why not.

Are there other good general places to post? Hopefully this might be like the proverbial pebble dropped into the pool and spread to places we might not even imagine.

[rosesaylavee]

5. I can help.

Have to admit, I am not that aware of what area of that site you are referring to... but do know how my way around a computer if shown. I can work on this this weekend.

[rodbailey]

8. Posting at draftgore.com

If you go to the www.draftgore.com web site, then click on the "Gore supporters in your state" button which will take you to a map of the US. Click on a state and you will get a listing of Gore groups in that state. There is generally an umbrella state group and then a bunch of local groups on each state list. I'm just going to post on the overall state group. Since I've got my "post" all ready, I'm simply going to paste it at each site I visit. Again, feel free to use what I've already written up if you want.

You may have to register with the site first, if you haven't already visited the draftgore site before, but that is painless and free.

BTW, I had a note this morning from one of the head guys in the NY Gore effort with a new column by Eleanor Clift talking about how Gore would be the peace-making/compromise candidate to heal the Dem. party. So, we're not alone.

[lildreamer316]

6. I've got a couple of places.

I'll post about them in a moment, child is yelling.

[rodbailey]

13. more progress

I've had a chance to send the note around to my local Gore people as well as about 200 (from the 3000+) on the NY e-mail list. As you might imagine, I've gotten several responses along the lines that Obama is their person now and they don't want to see or hear any more about Gore. However, I've gotten several back saying they will write and seem encouraged that someone is still hoping to get Gore into the mix. Each one of those can offset about 10 rejections real quick. So, the pebbles in the pond are starting to ripple out.

Anyone else got any results to report???

[rodbailey]

17. Couple more people to write to:

One name suggested by a contact was gov. Bill Richardson (not yet committed to anyone as far as I know), Office of the Governor, 490 Old Santa Fe Trail, Rm 400, Santa Fe, NM 87501; and Donna Brazile (former Gore campaign head and, again, as far as I know still uncommitted), c/o Leading Authorities, Inc. (a speakers group), 1220 L. St., NW, Suite 850, Washington, DC 20005. There may be a better address for her, but I didn't see it easily.

By the way, if anyone wants to contact me privately, I have some other news relating to this that I shouldn't be sharing on this forum at the moment. (No, it doesn't mean I've been in contact with Gore).

[rodbailey]

18. What's happening?

A couple of things to report from this end: I guess by now I've sent out about 1600-1700 or more e-mails to people on the NY e-mail list I had. Should finish that up probably tomorrow (about 3400 total, as I recall but I sent a bunch of them to one of you here in NY so I'm well over 1/2 way through what I had left). I've overwhelmed my e-mail systems (using 2 different addresses) a couple of times, but now that I know what the triggers are, I try to stay below them. So far I've gotten about 2 dozen positive responses back - that is folks saying they think it's a good idea to write the letters and they will; and, in some instances mention that they've already sent the note I sent them along to friends. Not a huge pay-off, I suppose, but it's pretty low labor, so anything that comes out of it is more than we're getting here on DU anyway.

Tonight I noticed a reply to my note that I had posted at the algore.org web site. It is in line with information I got yesterday from someone who should definately know what is going on with these web sites. The note at AGO said to start paying attention to the draftgore.com web site for some new national coordination/effort of a quiet sort to try to get Gore's name in play. I'm not sure that's exactly how it was stated, but you might want to check it out and then pay attention to the draftgore.com site. Also, Farrell (friend in NH) is apparently working on constructing a draftgoreusa.com web site. He mentioned that to me in an e-mail today, but when I tried that one, it said it was still under construction. Anyway, check both of those out.

I'm really curious as to whether other folks here at DU have gotten the word around and/or written letters yet. I've got my 5 letters ready to go in the mail tomorrow (Dean, Pelosi, Carter, Richardson, and Brazile). Not sure whether I'll hear anything back from any of them, but I can't think of much else to do at the moment.

[Andrea]

7. Great, Rod

Thanks.

I haven't got started yet because I had a crazy last 36 hours at work, but I'll have plenty of time this weekend and will write my letters and post far and wide. We are having a blizzard here, so I can't do anything else much and will definitely have time, unless the power goes out again, but I hope that doesn't happen. I think this blizzard is headed your direction, Rod, so you and anyone else in the path be careful and stay safe! I'll get on this tomorrow.

[rodbailey]

9. Help

Would it make sense to post something like this (or this post) on one of the larger discussion boards? If so, would one of you who knows your way around DU better than I do want to do that? With the Eleanor Clift article that's circulating (along with her earlier one) there is certainly some interest percolating up about Gore. I'm just not sure the best way to do this without re-typing the whole thing, etc. Feel free to use what I've written if that saves time. Thanks.

[rosesaylavee]

10. Let's keep it here for awhile.

Posting it up front would be more trouble than its worth right now. There is enough opposition to the few Gore threads this week that I think posting an action item would generate a lot of negativity.

I think after another month of bloody infighting would be a good time to introduce it. Currently, some of the Clinton supporters who have done the math and don't like her supportive McCain statements are drifting to Obama... and he still may pull it out.

Let's see what we can do between now and April 1 to test the waters at the draftGore sight and others before we launch it formally in DU. Or thems my two cents.

[rodbailey]

11. I'm certainly open to the wisdom

of folks who have been around these parts a lot longer than I have. I finished posting at the draftgore.com states I mentioned earlier. I had one comment back from my DFARochester posting, saying (as usual) that he didn't think Gore really wanted it so he was staying with Obama. Didn't even try to straighten him out. Re-reading the latest column from Clift I noticed (significantly) that she has a Clinton adviser commenting along the lines that he/she realizes there may be something like a Gore outcome at the convention. If people haven't seen the Clift piece they need to look at the post here that references it. And, with Clinton continuing to trash Obama (McCain being better on national security than Obama, etc.) you have to wonder if those tactics will continue to take a toll on Obama (as they seemed to in Ohio) so that the 100+ delegate margin he currently has will shrink by convention time.

Here's an interesting hypothetical that actually convinced my wife that a Gore/Obama ticket might not start riots in the streets from all those folks who got really energized and worked for Obama (and I have seen that here in Rochester, so I know he really does energize folks): suppose you had a situation where the super delegates were going to potentially move to Hillary, thinking her the more electable (contrary to current polling, by the way) and "over rule" the will of all those who had voted and worked for Obama. Would the Obama forces rather lose in that way to Hillary, or hook-up with Gore for a Gore/Obama ticket and at least get a piece of the White House for the next 4-8 years, and then be in a position to choose his own drapes for the Oval Office in 2012 or 2016 when he would still be a relatively young man?

And, I think if it came to that, Gore would love to "stick it" to the Clintons in about the most embarassing way he could. GO Al!!

[rosesaylavee]

12. Yeah... I don't think people are following the logic that if this

continues, both candidates will be bloody stumps by August. Having a volatile convention is something I find that I personally have less stomache for since Obama started pulling away with it. But there are so many variables that having an ace in the hole with Gore is the only way to think about at this point.

There are a lot of wandering trolls for both sides up front. I say keeping our powder dry for another month and keep a collection of editorials and statements here for reference to use in April when we propose it out there... if its still applicable then.

And as for sticking it to Clinton, I would probably enjoy that more than Gore. I really think he's moved on from those years now. She 'can't touch this' as the song goes.

[Andrea]

14. My apologies

I ended up being way busier this weekend than I thought I would be - digging my car out of the plowed snow, taking blizzard pictures and so on. I didn't get my postings done yet. I'm having surgery tomorrow afternoon and will be in the hospital overnight. I'll be back online by Friday and will get going on this then.

[rodbailey]

15. Good luck with the surgery;

will you be trying to have some Republican jerk removed from your spleen? (That's a joke, everyone). Wishes for a speedy recovery and maybe Gore will have announced he's getting in after all by the time you get back here.

[rodbailey]

16. By the way,

I've had people suggest sending letters to folks like Gov. Bill Richardson and former Gov. Mario Cuomo, also. Richardson seems like a good prospect - don't think he has taken sides yet; I'm not so sure about Cuomo. Not even sure if he's a super delegate, and if he is, he might be committed to Hillary because of the NY connection. Richardson, I'm sure, can be reached by mail to the Governor's Office in NM. Think I'll add him to my list of letters to send.

[rodbailey]

19. Another progress report

As many of you know, I've been contacting you directly so we can keep in touch through regular e-mail as things develop in this effort to get Gore's name in front of some people who could make a difference. Also, I just learned today that SharonRB and Mabus (think I'm remembering this right) will be in DC this week at the Take Back America meeting and will try to "peddle" this strategy. I have also been "mining" any sympathetic names I can find at the AGO site and have sent out about a dozen e-mails where I could find contact information. The appeal to these people (similar to what I sent some of you) is to get folks in different states researching info. about super delegates so they can be contacted about the real possibility of needing Gore as the compromist candidate at the convention. Lildreamer keeps bringing us all the blogs/columns where this is mentioned (great work!)so we're not alone in thinking Gore is the solution. I've got some more "mining" to do back at the DU/GD-primaries site that was referenced here a week or so ago.

My hope is (as I may have expressed before) that algore.org (AGO) or draftgore.com will start running with this strategy and post a single national Gore site to get people ready to contact, state-by-state and locale-by-locale, their super delegates. That would be much more efficient than what I can do. But, failing that, DU contacts and others I can "mine" seem to be the only way to go.

If I haven't already said it, thanks for all of you who have helped in any way on this.

[Andrea]

20. My contribution

Here is my letter to my contacts, as it now stands. Embedded within the letter, is the letter I will send to Howard Dean and the others. I'm fairly satisfied with it as it now stands, and yet I feel it is too long. I'm going to sleep on it before sending it out tomorrow. I'm open to suggestions from any of you. Thanks in advance!

=============================
Dear Friends,

I know that many of you share my concern about the current state of the Democratic Party and our chances for success in the Presidential and other elections this fall. The party is more divided than I have ever seen it in my voting life. Both the remaining presidential candidates are battle-scarred and will likely become even more so between now and the convention. We face a very real and very frightening prospect that John McCain might be elected president and that irreparable harm might be done to our party. I have been searching for something I can do about this worrisome state of affairs and have hatched a plan along with some other people on Democratic Underground.

I am proposing that we need a better nominee to unite our party and win in November. We need Al Gore.

How can we have Al Gore as our nominee? It all depends on the super delegates. Without the super delegates, there is a very strong possibility that neither Barack Obama nor Hillary Clinton will have the requisite 2, 024 delegates needed to win the nomination. Here is a very handy delegate counter device where you can test out various scenarios and see for yourself how likely it is that neither will earn the nomination without super delegates: http://www.cnn.com/2008/POLITICS/02/29/delegate.counter/index.html

If the super delegates sit out the first ballot, Gore can be put into nomination on the second ballot. A deal can be struck among the party leaders and Hillary Clinton and Barrack Obama. Many people have proposed various shapes that deal can take. I will leave those specifics to the party leaders. The key factor is that either Clinton or Obama, or preferably and quite possibly both, will direct their delegates to vote for Al Gore.

Will Gore accept the nomination? I feel certain he will. He has never closed the door on serving as President. In fact, he said in Oslo to CNN, "I haven't ruled out the idea of getting back into the political process at some point in the future. I don't expect to. But if I did get back, it would be as a candidate for president, not in any other position." (http://transcripts.cnn.com/TRANSCRIPTS/0712/10/sitroom.03.html) When presented with the argument that his candidacy is best for the party, the country, and the world, he will put aside personal considerations and accept the call to duty.

This idea has already been mentioned in many places in the mainstream media. Here are a couple links to examples:

http://preview.tinyurl.com/35d3ap

http://preview.tinyurl.com/ys9agr

http://preview.tinyurl.com/ysngfs


What can we do? We can let the super delegates know how we feel. Here is the letter I have sent to Howard Dean, Jimmy Carter, Nancy Pelosi, Donna Brazile, Bill Richardson and Sherrod Brown. In the coming weeks, I plan to send this letter to all the super delegates from my state, Ohio.

Dear Dr. Dean,
I’m writing to you today because of my serious concern for the outcome of the Presidential Election this November and for the future of our party. Both of the remaining candidates for the Democratic Party nomination for President are battle-scarred. The party is more divided than it has been at any time in my voting life. If we nominate either Senator Clinton or Senator Obama, I feel we will lose the presidency and likely many down-ticket races this November.

The primary process has failed us this cycle. From an extremely talented field, we have remaining only two very unelectable candidates. Open primaries have been vulnerable to manipulation by non-Democrats. There is a disconcerting trend for caucus states to have been won by one candidate and primary states to have been won by another. Media influence has not been beneficial. Race and gender issues have taken precedence over qualifications and stands on issues. We are not just divided, we are bitterly divided. Those that don’t support either of these candidates are left shaking our heads and wondering how we could have ended up here.

We need a better nominee. We need a nominee who:
∑ Was against the Iraq War from before day one.
∑ Has a stellar resume.
∑ Is respected across the country and around the world.
∑ Who understands and respects our constitution and abhors the damage done to it by eight years of the Bush administration.
∑ Who understands the threat of global warming and has been able to focus attention and ignite action against it.
∑ Who has a long and very successful history of winning elections.
∑ Who can unite our party.
∑ Who can draw in independents and many Republicans.
∑ Who can win this election.
We need Al Gore.

It is becoming very apparent that neither Senator Clinton nor Senator Obama can win the nomination without the super delegates. You can influence the nomination by influencing the actions of the super delegates. If the super delegates sit out the first ballot, Vice-President Gore can be nominated on the second ballot. A deal can be struck among all involved for the good of the party and the nation.
Many, many people would have chosen Mr. Gore in the primaries had that option been available to us. Many would have voted for another of the original candidates had those candidates not been eliminated so early on. Those that support Ms. Clinton and Mr. Obama will accept a Gore nomination readily when the proper deal is struck and their candidates endorse that deal.

Will Al Gore accept the nomination? I feel he will. When approached by the leaders of the party and asked to serve for the good of the party, the country, and the world, he will respond to the call to duty, regardless of personal considerations. I hope that you and other influential leaders have already been in touch with him, laying the groundwork for this possibility.

This election is extremely important. The damage that has been done in the past eight years will be very difficult to overcome. We need a president capable of taking on the task. Our nation may never overcome its debilitated condition if we don’t elect Democrats up and down the ticket this November. Please take the strongest of actions to ensure that our nation has a chance to recover.

Sincerely,


Please join me in writing to each of these people. Contact information is below. I recommend a tangible letter on paper if possible because it makes more of an impression. Please write the letter in your own words and feel free to use any or all of the points I have made here. If you are able to, please go beyond writing to these people and write to all the super-delegates in your state. Please forward this letter to everyone you know. Please post it everywhere you can. I’m dropping this letter into the public discourse in the hopes that it will act as a pebble dropped into a pond. Please drop your own pebbles.

Thank you,

Andrea Studebaker

CONTACT INFORMATION:

Dr. Howard Dean
Chair, Democratic National Committee
430 S. Capitol St. SE
Washington, DC 20003

President Jimmy Carter
The Carter Center
One Copenhill
453 Freedom Parkway
Atlanta, GA 30307

Rep. Nancy Pelosi
235 Cannon HOB
Washington, DC 20515

Governor Bill Richardson
Office of the Governor
490 Old Santa Fe Trail
Rm 400
Santa Fe, NM 87501

Donna Brazile
c/o Leading Authorities, Inc.
1220 L St. NW
Suite 850
Washington, DC 20005

Senator Sherrod Brown
455 Russell Senate Office Bldg.
Washington, DC 20510

[rodbailey]

21. Great!

I think you've got it just right. My thought on length is that the folks who are interested in this will read the whole thing. Those who aren't interested wouldn't read past the first sentence no matter how long it is. So, it's good to lay out all the issues and let them read through it.

[Andrea]

22. UPDATE 3/21/08

Scratch Bill Richardson from the contact list. He just endorsed Obama.