The "Vote for Obama" is not the issue in 2012, the "Work for Obama" is!!!

[KansasVoter]

I'll vote for Obama, and most here will also. I have voted Dem since 1980!

But the huge support for Obama we saw in 2008 is in trouble. The massive donations, the record setting amount of money people donated is in jeopardy. I was a maxed out Obama donor. For the first time in my life I donated more than $10 to a candidate.

People need more that a horrible enemy to make phone calls and to knock on doors. What we saw in 2008 was a never before seen event. People LOVED the man and had so much hope for a brand new Washington and had faith the guy would kick ass and take names once in office.

Blame the GOP, blame anything you want. The fact is that people are not going to support Obama in money or donated time in 2012 if they feel like they do now. You can say "A GOP president will be horrible" or "worry about the Supreme Court" but those issues are ALWAYS there. They were there in 2004 when Bush won again.

People responded to Obama like no one else. They expected more, maybe too much, but the Obama staff and campaign fed into the frenzy and sold him as someone who would walk on water and not take shit from anyone.

I don't care what you think he did, perception is 90% of any job.

2012 is going to be tough without the excitement we had in 2008!

[Hawkowl]

1. He's lost the youth vote

He's finished. Unless he gets back to traditional Truman/FDR/LBJ values, and away from "third way", Republican Lite, he is TOAST.

[Dinger]

43. The Teachers Have Left Too (nt)

[Aramchek]

52. I'm willing to bet that you aren't even a youth. Thanks for speaking for all of them, though.

I'm sure they don't mind.

[niceypoo]

56. Did you not see the polling after the midterm?

In 2008, millennial voters – those individuals between the ages of 18 and 29 – played a key role in then-candidate Barack Obama’s historic victory. While young voters came out in record numbers in 2008, the 2010 midterms were starkly different. Poll numbers appear to show what some call a general skepticism and lack of enthusiasm among young voters – a result that may have had a profound impact on midterm election results.

http://dailycaller.com/2010/11/09/low-youth-voter-turnout-may-have-hurt-democrats-during-midterms/#ixzz175GjiecF">Low youth voter turnout may have hurt Democrats in midterms

Only half the youth voters from 2008 showed up in 2010.

[Aramchek]

58. try looking at the youth vote record from more than one midterm.

you will see that it is always dramatically different from a Presidential election year.

But then it wouldn't support your position that Obama has lost the Youth.
So I guess you'll just have to ignore it.

[Kaleva]

59. There was a 3% difference in youth turnout between 2006 and 2010

"youth voter turnout (18-29 year olds) fell from 23.5% in the 2006 midterm elections, when the Republicans lost many Congressional seats, to 20.4% in 2010."

Interestingly, youth turnout in 2010 matched the national average for 2006 in purple districts where races were tight and thus more interesting.

"According to the CIRCLE data, turnout in "blue," or traditionally Democratic, states was around 18 percent, in comparison with 22 percent in "red," or traditionally Republican, states and 23 percent in "purple" states, where the race is generally very close."

In areas where there was a large youth demographic and where there was a concentrated effort to get out the youth vote in 2010, turnout exceeded 2006 levels.

"In youth-dense precincts in Pennsylvania, North Carolina and Florida, where Rock the Vote and other groups invested in young people, voter turnout among the under-30 age group exceeded 2006 levels."

http://www.michiganreview.com/youth-voter-turnout-declines-in-2010-midterm-elections-1.1773784

[otohara]

54. Hooey

Who else will they vote for?

The hateful anti-everything candidates?

[randr]

2. I will be voting for Obama

I just plan on working just as he has worked for me!

[polichick]

3. I worked hundreds of hours - that won't happen next time...

In fact, none of the people I worked with will do it again.

Even with all the money we gave, corporations gave more - maybe they'll do some door-knocking.

[KansasVoter]

5. I know dozens just like you. People don't get that part.

[ChairmanAgnostic]

8. especially the brain rust in the WH don't get it.

[xchrom]

4. I wonder what the state of the union speech is going to be like?

Should be very interesting.

[jonnyblitz]

6. I guess I am not one of "most here". nt

[KansasVoter]

7. Who in the hell will you vote for?

[BzaDem]

18. They are enabling the Republican, regardless of who else they fill in the oval for.

Then again, I'm not sure why we shouldn't just assume that wasn't their goal in the first place.

[Emillereid]

9. I've been thinking about this a lot lately --

I certainly will vote for the democratic candidate and most likely that will be Obama. In 2008 I not only gave way more money than ever, but I worked more than ever. I even took several trips to Las Vegas to help turn Nevada blue.

Obama's behavior, especially since the last election, has sickened me. I basically agree with Soros -- I don't mind losing so much as I do losing without a fight. A young person who worked a great deal for Obama said he could justify a lot of what Obama has done because it more or less was what he had campaigned on in 2008 -- BUT now we see him caving on what was his signature campaign message in the last election. Does Obama believe in anything? I am beginning to believe that he just doesn't understand what leadership is -- and I'm starting to think that it would better if Obama steps aside and lets someone else run under the Democratic banner -- someone who channels FDR.

[craigmatic]

10. corporations will fill the money void and I'm guessing they think that

they may not need as many volunteers because people already know who he is but I doubt it.

[DrDan]

11. I worked for him, contributed, and voted for him - in 2012 he gets one of those

[KansasVoter]

12. I am right there with you!

[BzaDem]

13. It's good to hear that from you, but plenty of other people have said outright that they will not

vote for Obama in the 2012 general (which means they will enable the Republican).

I agree with you on your post for the most part, though I would say that it was inevitable that any President with the excitement of Obama in 2008 would lose it in 2012.

[Donnachaidh]

28. so basically those voters are doing the SAME THING Obama is doing right now

Enabling the Republicans.

And the difference is WHAT?

[yurbud]

14. I'll work for Obama when he works for me and not Wall Street and the GOP.

[Joe Bacon]

27. +1

I'm tired of an appeaser in the Oval Office giving the Republicans everything they demand.

[yurbud]

31. and sometimes before they even demand it.

[Aramchek]

53. then you are working for the GOP, and they thank you deeply.

[alcibiades_mystery]

15. Anecdotal reference to a lot of people I know

Other pointless statement.

Fit of pique!

[NaturalHigh]

16. Still two years away, but I doubt very seriously that I will vote for him.

[BzaDem]

17. How is someone who doesn't vote for Obama who claims to be left any different than someone who

doesn't vote for Obama who is on the right?

Both support enabling Republican victories. At what point do we simply stop distinguishing? If someone who claims to be on the left does nothing except enable Republican victories and therefore policies, why does a distinction make any sense?

[NaturalHigh]

19. A candidate has to earn my vote.

I'm tired of all the "fine, just see what you get from a Republican president" crap. My vote is mine, not the party's, not Obama's.

[BzaDem]

20. If someone says that candidates have to earn their vote

but then does nothing but enable Republicans at the ballot box, how are they different than a registered Republican who enables Republicans at the ballot box?

If their ACTION is simply to enable Republican victories, how is the purported reason relevant?

[NaturalHigh]

21. What's your point?

If your point is that I should just vote for the guy with the big D next to his name, I can promise that it will never work that way for me. You can use the "enabling" argument all you want. If a candidate isn't forced to earn votes, what's the point of even having elections.

I know that a lot of people seem to think that Obama is the reincarnation of Camelot or somehow divinely entitled to be president, but he's really just another politician.

[BzaDem]

23. Oh, I'm not claiming I'm going to persuade you. I'm just asking why anyone should distinguish

between

a) people who enable Republicans and say they are from the right
b) people who enable Republicans and say they are from the left

Given the identical ACTIONS, who cares what the REASON is?

[NaturalHigh]

24. Make whatever distinction you are comfortable with...

or none at all. Whatever floats your boat.

[BzaDem]

25. Oh I did. I'm just asking DU in general for the justification for making a distinction

or assigning any meaning to one.

[bvar22]

33. How did that "Campaign Strategy" work out for you in 2010?

Insanity....doing the same thing and expecting different results.

[T Wolf]

47. If both candidates will wage wars against the middle east, what is the difference

Given the identical ACTIONS, who cares who is doing it?

[BzaDem]

48. Have you considered the number of issues and actions of the presidency is greater than 1?

That the role of the president is not limited to wars in the middle east, but rather spans across a wide range of issues?

[Donnachaidh]

29. Obama IS enabling Republicans NOW

So you diss voters who will be doing what he has done the past two years?

Really?

[jefferson_dem]

38. Please. Obama has presided over the most impressive list of progressive accomplishments ...

in the past half century. ... Maybe not as much or as pure as you would like but that fact is not even debateable.

[jefferson_dem]

37. Bookmarked.

I want to know who to blame if (not when) a Repug is inaugurated in Jan. 2013.

Shame on you.

[Donnachaidh]

30. those folks you dis are doing what is being done by this admin right now

Not much difference dude. :shrug:

[Donald Ian Rankin]

46. Massively so, because they place opposite pressure on candidates to earn their vote.

It is absolutely vital that the Democrats know that there are people who are not voting for them because they are too right wing, but would do so if they moved further left.

Otherwise, the only sane electoral strategy for them is to drift rightwards.

[COLGATE4]

22. The excitement has been replaced with dejection and disgust.

Don't look for it to reappear. He will have the obvious advantages a sitting President does when seeking reelection, and the Rethug field doesn't look to have any inspiring candidate, but if he's counting on the surge of excitement we saw in his election to get him over the top, then he's in real trouble. He has played fast and loose with his base too often and now there are a whole lot of us who are just fed up.

[Joe Bacon]

26. Last time I made sacrifices for Obama. Not anymore

I went without test strips to contribute to the campaign of a man who promised health reform.

That man sold us out to the insurance companies and the pharmaceutical monopolies.

He will not get a single penny from me in 2012.

[polichick]

32. Oh man, that's bad - sorry to hear you had to give up something like that...

One guy who worked at our Obama office was too broke to pay for the gas to get there, but he was such a good worker and believed in the cause so much everyone else chipped in for his gas money.

[OhioBlue]

35. I made sacrafices in '08 too - I spent a lot of volunteer hours,

contributed what i could and was missing my baby! As a mom with a full time job - I already felt enough guilt for spending so much time away from him. But, I knew I was doing it for a good cause - for his future.

I didn't make those sacrifices for Obama. I made them for me, for my son, for my family, neighbors and Country. I would and will do it again. The stats show how bad things go in this Country when the Republicans have control. Obama may not be perfect, and you may not be happy with him, but things are way better with him in office than with an R.

By the way tho - I would never ask you to forego test strips to donate. If you skip a date night or something to donate - that is fine as a sacrifice ... but please don't skip buying any meds or things you need to keep you healthy to donate. :hug:

[Joe Bacon]

41. As far as I'm concerned, I flushed my money down the toilet.

I wasted my time working my ass off for a President who turned his back on me the moment he was elected.

I feel just the same now as I did in 1978. I was so angry with Carter moving endlessly to the right that I was one of those who started the Draft Kennedy movement. And I worked my ass off in Pennsylvania for Kennedy in 1980. Never saw a dirtier campaign than the one Carter ran against Teddy. We still beat Carter as Teddy won and it was a sweet moment.

I'm ready to work for Feingold, Grayson, Bernie Sanders, hell I'd even work to elect Pee Wee Herman over Obama. I've had it with him.

[BzaDem]

44. How long will it take for you to realize that there will never be an elected president that you are

satisfied with?

You didn't like Carter, Obama, probably Clinton. You might have liked Mcgovern/Mondale/Dukakis, but they lost 49, 49, and 40 states respectively. How many more examples do you need?

[Joe Bacon]

45. I want somebody who will stand up to the rich!

Neither Carter (who was David Rockefeller's puppet), Clinton (Deregulate everything) or Obama stand up to the big money. They all sold out and made America weaker.

[BzaDem]

49. Once again, how many examples do you need before you realize you won't ever get a President that you

are satisfied with?

[Joe Bacon]

50. I'm not going to lay down and die.

I'm going to keep fighting to get a REAL Democrat elected. You may be satisfied with someone who repeatedly surrenders to the GOP, but I'm not!

[BzaDem]

55. So maybe you will recognize reality after 10 examples? 12? 15?

I mean at some point there is probably a limit.

[Joe Bacon]

57. I'm not going to give up fighting for a real Democrat

And I won't ever settle again for a phony one that merely surrenders to Republicans like Obama does.

[treestar]

34. That describes a few people on DU but not most people

Something about posting on DU causes people to think that because they give up, so does everyone else.

[jefferson_dem]

36. I really can't believe it! I worked like a mutha for this guy in 2008...

and I'll do the same (and maybe more) in 2012.

:) :patriot:

[impik]

39. Then don't work for him. Don't even vote for him. I don't get why you have

to vote for him if he's so bad. Don't vote for him.

[KansasVoter]

40. I'll never vote GOP! So I vote dem. Working takes more motivation in the candidate!

[AlabamaLibrul]

42. I don't know what I'm doing between now and 2012.

I'm watching the names that are being floated for the primary very closely.

[Aramchek]

51. are you going to work for Obama, or just post threads like this?