Update: This race is not over. The primary will be close. The general election will be close. We need every vote we can get to elect Barack Obama. Every possible additional vote.
My fellow delegates (cue patriotic music), I ask for your vote to send me on as a pledged delegate for Barack Obama to the national convention.
Why should you pick me? Very simply - because I can help our candidates win in November. I can help Barack Obama win Colorado. I can help Mark Udall win Colorado. I can help in various state House and Senate races. (CD-2 is a slam dunk for us Dems.)
Colorado is a purple state. It possibly could decide the presidential race. And the critical mass of moderate voters in the center will decide who wins here in Colorado. We need to reach that critical mass and convince them to vote, and to vote Democratic. At the same time, we must keep all of the new voters, energized by Barack Obama's message energized so they show up again in November.
I intend to live blog at the convention. I did so at the Boulder County convention. If I move forward to the national conventions, I will do so there too. My blogging will build up additional interest. Equally important, while I’m an impassioned Democrat I also have a strong reputation on-line for listening to all sides and agreeing with opponents when they have a compelling argument. The upside of this is people in the middle find me a voice worth listening to.
I can bring us numerous votes in the general election from the live blogging. But to be effective, I need to be a delegate so my writing impacts the on-line community, which is huge.
- I am one of the three editors on ColoradoPols - the largest political web community in Colorado.
- I am a regular contributor on DailyKOS where I have had several diaries listed by the Rescue Rangers, including one on the power of blogging locally.
- I sponsored the CD-2 Online Debate which lead to a FOX News piece on the 3 Amigos that was 100% positive. This is what I mean by being able to affect the middle - I got FOX News to air a piece about the 3 Democratic candidates for a U.S. House seat and it was 100% positive.
- I write the #1 political blog here in Boulder. And again it is very popular with moderates (yes there are quite a few in Boulder) - who we need in November.
- As a leading member of the high tech community, I can reach out to fellow nerds via not just my blogging but through email lists, web forums, etc. And these resources are not just local to Colorado but nationwide.
- I brought in cookies and donuts to the Boulder Obama headquarters (does this count?).
A large and growing number of voters get most to all of their information on the web. The interest in a known, respected, established voice on the web live-blogging from the convention floor as a delegate will be significant and will gain us additional votes in November.
So I ask for your vote to enable me to increase the votes for our candidates in November. Who knows, I may even be able to get a FOX News piece about the convention that is positive...
