Obama table in Madison: June 28 Edition (tenth one in 2008)

[zulchzulu]

It was the ninth Farmers Market Obama table for this year and was a blustery day with lots of people from all over the globe walking along and choosing from all kinds of locally grown, baked, crafted and political flavors. The Obama table is one feature to many at what the New York Times mentioned "The Dane County Farmers' Market in Wisconsin is now recognized as the largest in the nation, and is still growing."

The night before the tabling, I made sure the weekly war scorecard was updated and visible.

Here's this week's ever growing sad news:

Weekly War Scorecard

Cost of Iraq Occupation:
(running total):
$532,561,149,041
- $4,681 per household.
- $1,721 per person.
- $341.4 million per day

American Deaths:
4,103

American Wounded:
30,333

Iraqi Body Count:
1,276,459

As of June 27, 2008 at 12:00AM

Sources:
www.iraqbodycount.net
www.justforeignpolicy.org/iraq/iraqdeaths....
www.defenselink.mil
www.antiwar.com/casualties
www.costofwar.com



Saturday was a day of unity for the Obama campaign and there were several events throughout the Madison area. We at the Obama table were going to head over to the Irsh pub, Brocach, after the tabling was done. In order to show unity with the Hillary Clinton fans, we has a Hillary ticker displayed on the Obama banner stand.



It has gotten to a point where we have to hide bumper stickers and buttons and only hand them out with very inquisitive people who REALLY want them. We've given away so many and the demand is so great that if you leave any on display, they are gone within minutes. There is a back order coming soon... we only give away Union-made bumper stickers and buttons. Additionally, there are a few choices in Obama logos with various Avery labels, which are very popular.

It was a particularly interesting day in terms of people stopping by. We also got about a dozen people signed up to register to vote.

There were quite a few Hillary Clinton supporters who wanted more info on the local headquarters and got whatever we had in terms of Obama merchandise.



There were quite a few people visiting from Europe and Asia who stopped by and wanted to bring something representing Obama back home.

There was one man from Cairo, Egypt who stopped by to express his support for Obama and knew many from his travels that were looking forward to the possibility of President Obama. He talked about how much damage the Bush administration has done in the World and he was upset by how many people in his travels tend to think that Americans are as nuts as Bush. Having travelled in the US for a few months, he knows just how unpopular Bush is.

There was a woman from New Zealand who was just finishing up the book "Dreams Of My Father" by Obama and we talked about the book to the point where other people who had read the book as well chimed in with how much they loved the book.

There was the obligatory idiot who walked by yelling that "Obama is a Muslim!" You just laugh at people like this and tell them to have a good day. People like that usually do a verbal drive-by and quickly scoot away. It's never worth engaging in a discussion with people like that.

A few people expressed dismay with Obama not going the official public financing route. Each time, I asked them how they like how Kerry handled the Swift Boat Vets ads. They all said he didn't do enough. I told them that because 527s (some had no idea what a 527 was) are the major loophole in the McCain-Feingold Amendment, true campaign finance reform will never happen. Obama had asked the McCain camp several times that if they got rid of 527s in campaign financing, he would be glad to work with the limited $80+ finding. McCain, of course, couldn't give a straight answer and he had already proven he would just act like he could do nothing about 527 ads.

Obama has mentioned that his contributions are in many cases $100 or less, therefore should be treated as public financing. Either way, Obama has been consistent with wanting to take the 527 loophole out of campaign finance.

Some days when you table can be particularly a blur. It literally gets so busy doing the Obama table that you can often forget the myriad of people who stop by with a short story about how they travelled and worked with Obama during the primaries or how they want an Obama sticker for themselves and all their kids. When you're not busy, you can look around at all the other tables near you and see people dedicated to their issues and engaging people in discussion and wanting to get involved. Mostly, time just flies by and you suddenly realize it's time to go.

I'm working on the idea of a live webcast of the Obama table later in the election season. A laptop, an Internet card and a webcam...

As mentioned, after the long morning, it was time to go the Unity party at the local pub across the street. It was a fantastic way to end the day with people wanting to make Obama the next President while having a Guinness and some Fish and Chips. I got to meet some new Obama staffers who are doing a fantastic job.

Gobama!

Note: I'll be in Nashville next Saturday, so stay tuned for the next Obama table report in a couple weeks.

[trashcanistanista]

1. Thank you!

I look forward to your postings. I worked a small fair booth a few weeks ago for the Democrats and we had 3 candidates. The Obama merchandise, pins and bumper stickers were the first to go. I registered about 4 Dems. on a four hour shift.

[zulchzulu]

3. Thanks for your hard work!

There's nothing like being out in the street and getting to meet and greet and that's fantastic about getting people registered to vote.

:thumbsup:

[FrenchieCat]

2. Love your stories on your tabling experience.

I hope it makes folks go out there and do some of it too.

I'll be doing my share soon. The only thing I got was a Bowling for Delegates, but it was way to far for me to go......and the email came too late in the morning for me to even try to make the event.

Anyways, sounded like you had an excellent time. and the weather looked fantastic.

[zulchzulu]

5. These are the Warm Times

It will be blustery winter winds soon enough. People are so nice when it's nice out. Well, even nicer than usual...

Bowling for Delegates? How does that work? :rofl:

[snacker]

4. Love your updates and stories...

sounds like a busy weekend---happy to hear that!
Gobama!

[zulchzulu]

6. Thanks for checking it out n/t

[zulchzulu]

7. Isn't she pretty?

The woman in this photo was really an interesting person... she's studying Dance in NYU and has been all over the World. A huge Obama fan...