Earlier in the presidential campaign of Barack Obama, his people believed that New York was a write-off; they felt that Hilary Rodham-Clinton was a lock to win most if not all the convention delegates coming out of New York. To the shrewd political analyst this observation probably made a lot of sense, but sometimes politics defy common sense, and at other times common sense defies conventional political thinking. What is shaping in Brooklyn is a case in point.
As soon as Barack Obama officially announced his presidential pursuit last winter, a group of young idealists came together shortly after to form an organization called: “Brooklyn for Barack Obama”. Almost immediately they hit the street; registering voters, recruiting volunteers, staging rallies, canvassing, politicking, visibly dealing with issues, spreading the Obama message and pushing their candidate. Despite the knowledge that Obama’s national campaign was reluctant to invest in a New York challenge, these young political neophytes, have been undeterred in their objective to deliver Brooklyn’s democrats to the Obama delegate count.
It’s like in the Hollywood movie where Kevin Costner built a baseball stadium in Iowa (Field of Dreams); a voice just kept saying: “build it and they will come”. So these young novice Brooklyn activists, along with a few old hands at politics, plus other Obama supporters (who seem to be turning up just about everywhere in the world nowadays), started building something of a political-campaign in Brooklyn, with the hope that the national campaign would eventually come. Well it seems that they are coming around.
On Wednesday, 22nd August, 2007, Barack Obama comes to the Brooklyn Marriott for a $25 per person grassroots fundraiser. Tickets are now selling like crack was during the nineteen-eighties. Tickets for this event are the hottest tickets in town right now.
My information is suggesting that there are at least half a dozen Obama groups operating in the NYC area, and it appears that they are vibrant and determined groups of relatively young people of all races and ethnicities. Obama has surely pulled diverse peoples together. Whenever I speak to members on the phone or in person, I get the sense that they are driven. They are passionate about their candidate and genuinely concerned about the political future of this country. The common denominator is that they are relatively new to politics.
Some of the names behind all this (and there are many others/ believe me) are: Jordan Thomas, Lauren Dula, Daniel Lavoe, Jacki Esposito, Chris Owens, Terry Hinds and his wife, Madari Pam Miller and Keith Kinch.
For more info on all this, you can page me at 1-917-641-5505. After Sunday night you can also call: 1-718-801-9416; or 1-917-501-4377; or 1-917-776-3756. Or go to the website: brooklynforbarack.org.
Stay tuned-in folks.