Via email, I hear some pretty big news.
In a resounding vote today, MoveOn.org Political Action’s members nationwide voted to endorse Senator Barack Obama for the Democratic nomination for President. The group, with 3.2 million members nationwide and over 1.7 million members in Super Tuesday states, will immediately begin to mobilize on behalf of Senator Obama. The vote favored Senator Obama to Senator Clinton by 70.4% to 29.6%.
Senator Obama accepted the endorsement stating:
“In just a few years, the members of MoveOn have once again demonstrated that real change comes not from the top-down, but from the bottom-up. From their principled opposition to the Iraq war ā a war I also opposed from the start ā to their strong support for a number of progressive causes, MoveOn shows what Americans can achieve when we come together in a grassroots movement for change. I thank them for their support and look forward to working with their members in the weeks and months ahead.”
Eli Pariser, MoveOn.org’s Executive Director, issued the following statement on the group’s endorsement:
“Our members’ endorsement of Senator Obama is a clear call for a new America at this critical moment in history. Seven years of the disastrous policies of the Bush Administration have left the country desperate for change. We need a President who will bring to bear the strong leadership and vision required to end the war in Iraq, provide health care to every American, deal with our climate crisis, and restore America’s standing in the world. The enormity of the challenges require someone who knows how to inspire millions to get involved to change the direction of our country, and someone who will be willing to change business as usual in Washington. Senator Barack Obama has proved he can and will be that President.
“With 3.2 million members nationwide and over 1.7 million members in states that vote next Tuesday, we’ll be able to immediately jump into action in support of Senator Obama’s candidacy. We’ve learned that the key to achieving change in Washington without compromising core values is having a galvanized electorate to back you up. And Barack Obama has our members ‘fired up and ready to go’ on that front…”
A seventy-thirty split is stunning. MoveOn.org set a 66% threshold to endorse and I figured that Obama would never reach that level. But he did. Let’s watch carefully to see whether Team Clinton turns their back on MoveOn now.
BAD MOVE!
why?
Clinton voted against the legislation condemning MoveOn. Obama passed up the vote, although he had a really, really good reason…
That’s why Chris Bowers voted for Clinton in the moveon.org poll, even though he supports Obama.
BooMan, how about a reminder to us – which of super-duper states are “winner take all, or are proportional on delegates”
In Tennessee Primary Poll (PDF)- a surge for Obama – gained 11 points. Edwards’ support shifting to Obama.
In NJ, “primary now in play with Clinton’s lead down to 6 points.”
(H/T; The Daily Dish
only the gop has winner take all.
Thanks. That’s the reason HRC’s camp is so silent…and also silent on the fund raising thingy.
WHEEEEEEEEeeeeeeeee. Yes. we. can.
Hope the man keeps the trend.
Gore may be wondering if he endorses this week it may look like he’s piling on. Come on Gore. Bill was silent when you needed him.
I’m a Moveon member and think this was a very bad move. It will harden the divisions among Dems when the general election comes around and weaken Moveon’s cred in the general, when its voice will be essential to getting a strong majority in Congress. We need Moveon to be a partisan voice against Republicans, not Dems, and I think this will hurt our effectiveness in that role. It sets a bad example for pols who are deciding whether it would pay to support Moveon next time there’s a move to censure them, or worse.
It’s also a self-defeating move: Clinton will now have the perfect soundbite saddling Obama with the “Betray-us” ad and all the emotions it stirred up. Her campaign will be almost forced to get a twofer: hit Obama and weaken Moveon at the same time.
The lesson? Instant Mobs are not necessarily a good source of political strategy.
And BTW, I don’t plan on voting for Clinton — this is not a partisan rant.
Sometimes in life people just have to follow their conscience and take a chance. Yes, take a chance. Like Mrs. Clinton’s husband said, follow a throw of the dice. As if he hasn’t proved to be the diciest of all dice in the U.S., apart from, of course, georgie. Now it’s all or nothing for Obama. John Edwards has stepped aside. Let’s mass behind Barak Obama,
let’s vote, applaud that Bush suspends the already trashed Constitution and run for a 3rd term – he has endorsed Clinton to maintain his legacies and policies or did you miss that?
Can progressives get behind The Choice or do we need a multi-party system?
The Progressive Party coming up.
BTW, we need Moveon to counter-balance Freedom Watch.
70-30 is stunning, but out of the 3.2 million members they claim, less than 10% voted (totals – BHO : 197,444, HRC : 83,084).
That’s still impressive for an email vote campaign, but I also think it’s an important piece of information to know.
Probably because most people MoveOn.org claims as ‘members’, such as myself, don’t actively participate in the organization.
To be fair, though, I did vote for Obama in their poll.
On its own, I don’t think I’d give this a whole lot of importance. I don’t know how much moveon can motivate its members between now and Tuesday to do much. Maybe they can raise him some money. Maybe they can get some of their phone-banking going like they did in November 2006 – but they are running out of time for that.
Where this is important is that, combined with the SEIU CA endorsement, it keeps headlines in the news that show people and groups moving toward Obama.
He needs maximum momentum going into Super Tuesday and for that he needs media narrative. And he’s pretty much had it. He had good narrative Sunday coming out of South Carolina (combined with bad media for Bill), then he had the Kennedy endorsement(s) narrative from Sunday into Monday, then Hillary tried to force the media narrative back to her by going to Florida Tuesday, but John Edwards grabbed the spotlight away from her on Wednesday, Obama had some other endorsements Thursday going into the debate.
He did fantastic in the debate – but so did Hillary. So its good to follow up with two more “big” media worthy endorsements to keep the narrative on him. imo that’s why this helps him, not because of what moveon brings to the table.
Members in the street and the money could make a difference.
Hillary’s lead in the polls is getting everyone to commit now lest it be too late. Glad MoveOn is following its membership.
Interesting numbers but I feel considerably less than excited by either candidate.
Taking MoveOn in context with the others offering endorsements in the past 48 hours…bringing to mind Paul Volker; Obama is attracting attention from the entire spectrum. Best endorsement of the day though is still from Ann Coulter who whines that if John McCain is the nominee she’ll vote for Hillary. Oh yipee!
Email from STAUNCH Rep friend, from a raging red part of the state, coffee shop Sunday talk after church. Church ladies are buzzing about that handsome colored man to the tune that they’re giving a fundraiser tomorrow AND my friend will actually open up the squeekiest pocket book on the planet and offer some coins to Obama’s campaign. The ladies are all in their ’90’s and ALL are the grand matriarchs of their respective families. Never thought I’d see it in my lifetime.
A principled position at this particular point serves only to create a divided party. Move On needs to keep its powder dry. Its focus should be the presentation of the Democratic party and their positions on the issues. For them to offer another gooper talking point is just as negative as, in essence, any act of division.
Sure, for a voter to take a position with respect to a candidate and supporting that candidate actively is terrific and what that individual voter really needs is “The Facts”! That should be their roll.
Once the candidate is determined, then Move On can assume that roll. WE are putting up either a Black or a Woman. Either will need the most unified voting block in the history of this country. Not a divided and potentially turned off non voting electorate! BOO!
I’m delighted. So, quite clearly, is the majority of MoveOn’s voting membership. This is the whole point of grass roots organizations, to find out what their members want and then do it.
So, Kelly, if MoveOn had endorsed Clinton would you feel the same way? Especially if you were really supporting Obama and had given MoveOn some bucks because you thought they would stay out of progressive/progressive campaigns and, instead, spend you bucks on contests against Blue Dog Dems and Republicans?
Just asking, though, if you are honest, I bet not.
Did you say, ‘progressive/progressive’ campaign? Who are those candidates? Obama has spent time (rightfully) distancing himself from whacked out online progressives while chilling with all 2 of them in the Senate. Clinton…well, I remember that back in July and August, she definitely kept saying, “I’m a progressive Democrat” or “I’m a progressive liberal Democrat”, but she only said like 5 times an it never made it to her website.
I’ll be the first to admit that I don’t give a rat’s ass about what comes out of MoveOn, but I’m really trying to see how an endorsement is the same as campaigning. Unless you know something that I don’t…They gave an endorsement based on membership votes. Lots of places do that. It does not mean that they’re going to campaign on behalf of someone.
Stunning? No, this was a phony set-up designed for a preordained result, much like nondemocratic regimes all over the world who stage phony elections to pretend to be democratic. It is very typical of MoveOn.
When you actually run the numbers MoveOn claims voted for Obama against the membership they claim, it turns out that 6.2% voted to endorse Obama. They stacked it by excluding all MoveOn members who favored someone other than Obama or Clinton, or who favored no endorsement. And 91% of their members are not counted at all in the so-called poll.
See MoveOn’s 6.2% Landslide for further analysis.