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Obama table in Madison: April 26 Edition (second one in 2008) [View All]

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zulchzulu Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Sat Apr-26-08 11:41 PM
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Obama table in Madison: April 26 Edition (second one in 2008)
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Edited on Sat Apr-26-08 11:42 PM by zulchzulu
It was the second Farmers Market Obama table for this year and was a blustery, chilly 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):
$514,514,150,746
- $4,681 per household.
- $1,721 per person.
- $341.4 million per day

American Deaths:
4,052

American Wounded:
29,829

Iraqi Body Count:
1,201,597

As of April 26, 2007 at 12:00AM

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


The Obama table at 8am before one of many 40mph wind gusts.

As I packed the car with the table "ingredients", which consists of a foldable table, a 8 ft. x 3 ft. canvas sign with lightweight and strong PVC pipe stand, a large duffle bag full of clipboards with signup sheets, button, bumper stickers, weights to hold things down and other items, it was apparent it was going to be a very windy, chilly day with 40 mph gusts and a wind chill that made it feel like 25 degrees. Still, it was worth fighting the wind to get out the message.

The crowd was huge at the Capitol Square, with 17,000+ people showing up for the 5k Crazy Legs race, where many walkers would also participate with many runners. We were set up with enough time for people to stop by and grab a sticker or two to show off in the race. Quite a few were very happy to don some Obama merch for the race.

Because it was so windy, the Obama sign, connected to the table and weighted down by a heavy bag, started bending to a point where the PVC pipe might seem to split. Not great grassroots weather, but we're pros... you learn to being weights to make sure everything doesn't fly off and 50 yards away.

After giving away 100 bumperstickers and buttons, dozens of stickers, rally signs, literature and 100 new names signed up on the email list, we also had 20 free posters for people to have. I had designed it and it's also available for free (http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_mesg&forum=132&topic_id=5682380&mesg_id=5682380).



Unlike last week, which was pretty mellow for the most part and probably due to very nice weather, there were a few oddballs that stopped by.

One woman (who supports Hillary Clinton) came up to the table and started on some rant about "how your candidate has hired Hamas to work for the campaign". I told her to have a good day, but one of the other people who joins us weekly asked her what she was talking about. She said "my friend is on the internet a lot and she found out that Obama and Hamas have some agreement and that they are working on his campaign..." OK. Look for that from the Clinton campaign sometime soon...

From what I heard, some New York radio station interviewed some Hamas official and he was asked who he liked in the Presidential race...he said he liked Obama...so there you have it... a guy with Hamas likes Obama and it metamorphs into that Obama has hired Hamas... creative...

One guy (classic Repug looking guy) walked by the table and yelled "God damn America, right? God damn America, right?" and like most Repugs like that, quickly ran off and mixed into the crowd. Another dude walked by another time and said "Reverend Wright, huh!" shaking his head...and of course was walking away fast.

Again, as I've mentioned before, I try to just focus on Obama as the candidate and when someone walks up, all of us say "hello, would you like to sign up for emails on the campaign or maybe a button or bumpersticker..." This starts the conversation and people are very excited to be able to get something. However, usually people 80% of the time ask about when "Hillary is going to drop out" or "man, the Clintons really bug me because..." I'm guessing it's going to get worse before it gets better.

A lot of people mentioned that they saw the Bill Moyers/Reverend Wright interview (http://www.pbs.org/moyers/journal/04252008/watch.html) and were really impressed by Wright. I haven't seen it as of this writing, but had seen how Fox News was already trashing it. So it has to be good!

A few people were looking forward to Barack Obama going to be on Fox News Sunday (042708). It will be interesting to see what the Murdoch channel tries to do.

Maybe next Saturday will be decent weather. 40 mph gusts out in the open for several hours gives you windburn. But it's worth it!




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