Month: January 2007

Cross Posted at Daily Kos and MyDD

Fact #1: Despite twelve listed candidates, a majority of the Netroots want Al Gore to be the Democratic nominee for President in 2008.

Fact #2: Al Gore is on the record as saying he has little interest in running, but has said “I haven’t completely ruled it out.”

Fact #3: There has been little effort to draft Al Gore.

This is largely an extension of PsiFighter37’s diary where he points out that there is little unified effort to draft Gore to run.  I wouldn’t be writing this if I didn’t wholeheartedly agree with him.

The best recent example of a successful draft movement has to be Jim Webb – Webb entered the race and won the primary largely because of the guaranteed support he knew he was going to get if he chose to run.  I was one of the many who pledged to volunteer for the campaign should he run, and sure enough, I trekked down to Virginia on Election Day to help get out the vote in Arlington.

I strongly believe that Al will run if a lot of ordinary people want him to.  As PsiFighter37 points out, there is no single draft that has gained noticeable traction, but DraftGore.com seems to have, by a considerable margin, the most signatures thus far at about 17,100.  I propose we make this the “official” draft for Al Gore supporters.  This means more than just signing – it means emailing and spreading the word to all of your Democratic (and non Democratic) friends.  With about 400,000 visits every day to Daily Kos alone, there is no reason we cannot pump that number into six digits in little to no time.

After writing this diary, I am going to contact Draft Gore and ask that they personally deliver the petitions to Al on behalf of all of us that support him.  If they cannot or will not do so, I will ask them if I can deliver them myself.  But 17,100 is not enough folks – lets get that number up to 50,000 by the end of today…I have never asked that one of my diaries be recommended, but if you want Al Gore to run and represent the Democratic wing of the Democratic Party, you’ll do more than just vote for him in a Daily Kos Fantasy Poll.  A draft movement is necessary and it needs to start NOW!

Another thing that you can do is donate to the Draft Gore ActBlue page.  Remember: the number of donors is far more important than the total money raised.  Al wants to see that he has supporters, not how rich his supporters are.  And your money will not be wasted should he choose not to run: if that happens – and we all hope that it doesn’t – the funds will be to the DNC.

Please get involved.  If you care about the future of our country, you need to join me and the 17,100 others in drafting Al.

Note: I am in no way affiliated with the Draft Gore website or organization.

Research 2000, Iowa, 12/18-12/20, MoE +/-5%, 400 Democratic Caucus Voters:

Obama 22%
Edwards 22%
Vilsack 12%
Clinton 10%
Gore 7%
Kerry 5%
Clark 4%
Kucinich 4%
Bayh 1%
Richardson 1%
Biden 1%
Undecided 11%

ARG, Dec. 19-23, MoE +/-4%, 600 likely Democratic Caucus goers (528 Democrats, 72 no party)

Clinton 31%
Edwards 20%
Vilsack 17%
Obama 10%
Kucinich 5%
Dodd 2%
Kerry 2%
Biden 2%
Gravel 1%
Clark 1%
Richardson 1%
Undecided 8%

Can anyone make any sense of this? These polls were conducted around the same time. OK, side by side comparison time.

Candidates in R2K but not ARG poll:
Gore, Bayh (total 8%)

Candidates in ARG but not R2K:
Dodd, Gravel (total 3%)

Edwards avg: 21%
Clinton avg: 20.5%
Obama avg: 16%
Vilsack avg: 14%
Kucinich avg: 4.5%
Kerry avg: 3.5%
Clark avg: 2.5%
Biden avg: 1.5%
Richardson avg: 1%
Undecided avg: 9.5%

They say that averages are more meaningful than individual polls, but seriously, wtf? There’s a 21 point difference in Hillary’s numbers. The average is outside the MoE for both polls. There’s a 12 point difference in Obama’s numbers. Both are cases of 4th vs. 1st (or tied for 1st).

Oh, but the real cherry comes from R2K – Head to Head numbers!

Obama 42, McCain 39
Obama 43, Giuliani 38
Obama 43, Romney 28

Edwards 42, McCain 39
Edwards 42, Giuliani 38
Edwards 41, Romney 29

McCain 43, Clinton 37
Giuliani 39, Clinton 35
Clinton 40, Romney 30

Of course, the R2K poll seems rather unfavorable to Hillary, so maybe she could beat McCain and Giuliani in Iowa too. I have yet to see a poll demonstrating that, though.

On the GOP side, R2K has McCain by 1%, ARG has Giuliani by 2%.

Next Diary: Nevada (1 poll, ARG)

A few weeks ago, we discussed a few of the swearing-in parties for the 110th Congress in Washington, DC on Jan. 4th.  If you’re going to be in the area, add another one to your list: the first Netroots Swearing-In Party!  Here’s the lowdown:

WHAT:
  Netroots Swearing-In Party

WHERE:
  MCCXXIII, 1223 Connecticut Ave NW, DC
  Dupont Circle metro stop, south exit
  http://www.1223dc.co…

WHEN:
  Thursday, January 4
  9PM ’til Midnight
  Champagne toast at 10PM (Courtesy of the New Organizing Institute)

The host committee will include Moveon.org‘s Tom Matzzie, Roz Lemieux of the New Organizing Institute, Chris Bowers and Matt Stoller of MyDD, Rep. Brad Miller (D-NC), Harry Reid aide Ari Rabin-Havt, and the Swing State Project’s very own DavidNYC.

If you can make it out, stop by and join in on some good conversations and plenty of champagne!

UPDATE (David): If you’re looking for other events to attend, check out this handy PDF I’ve compiled. Just one warning: Some of these events may be very private/very exclusive/require donations/require RSVPs, etc. So if you aren’t sure, please call the campaign or organization in question.