A Plague of Toadies

What to make of Maureen Dowd? Sometimes she seems to miss the point. Other times she hits it out of the park.

Occaissionally I try to return to the theme of this blog...you remember, pattern recognition. So here is Maureen Dowd on the most obvious current pattern:

"In ancient Greece, the prince of Tyre tires of all the yes men around him. He chooses to trust the one courtier who intrepidly tells him: "They do abuse the king that flatter him. ... Whereas reproof, obedient and in order, fits kings, as they are men, for they may err.''

Not flatter the king? Listen to dissenting viewpoints? Rulers who admit they've erred?

It's all so B.C. (Before Cheney).

Now, in the 21st-century reign of King George II, flattery is mandatory, dissent is forbidden, and erring without admitting error is the best way to get ahead. President Bush is purging the naysayers who tried to temper crusted-nut-bar Dick Cheney and the neocon crazies on Iraq.

First, faith trumped facts. Now, loyalty trumps competence. W., who was the loyalty enforcer for his father's administration, is now the loyalty enforcer for his own.

Those promoted to be in charge of our security, diplomacy and civil liberties were rewarded for being more loyal to Mr. Bush and Mr. Cheney than to the truth."

Read the whole column.

Failing to Grasp the Concept - Condi Rice

In December of 2000, Bush 43 nominated Condi Rice to be the National Security Advisor. Of course, she was a family friend and Bush loyalist. However, she also served in Bush 41's administration as special advisor on Soviet Affairs.

So what did The Economist have to say about her "special advice?" Here is what they wrote in December of 2000:

Condi "deserves blame for a comparable failure: America’s early underestimation of Boris Yeltsin. During Mr Yeltsin’s first trip to the United States in 1989, she overruled the advice of the American embassy in Moscow on how to treat him. Instead of being ushered in to see the president through the front door of the White House, the Russian leader merely saw Mr Bush senior during a stop-by visit at the National Security Council.

This slight culminated in a more fundamental failure: while America was still hoping that Mr Gorbachev could reform the Soviet system, Russia and the rest were declaring independence. Any fool could see the Soviet Union was collapsing. It took the real brainboxes of the Bush White House to get on the wrong side of history."

That's right folks. Any fool. Any fool, that is, except Condi Rice, the special advisor on Soviet Affairs.

On Being There When It All Began

I wonder if 20 years from now, folks will say "remember 2004 when MoveOn PAC did its very first 'Leave No Voter Behind' campaign. It was new to MoveOn and new to the volunteers. Ultimately we lost that election. But we learned. We learned that there is a growing grassroots progressive movement in this country and that people want to be involved and want to make a difference. We found out that 'if you call, they will come.' Or perhaps I should say 'if you email, they will come.' We came together as a community and MoveOn PAC helped figure out how to take the power away from the corporations and the money and give democracy back to the people.

Now, 20 years later, we are getting good at it. But 2004 was when it all started. And we were there."

I wonder.

Report #10 - The Impossible Will Take a Little While

So how did we do? First let's look at the outcome of the election. Statewide the Nevada turnout was 77.59% or a total of 831,829 votes. In Clark County turnout was 79.91%. When the votes from all 1,802 voter precincts in Nevada were counted, Bush won with 50.04% of the vote. His margin of victory was 21,505 votes - 418,691 to 397,186.

In Clark County with 1042 of Nevada's precincts, Kerry won with 51.01% of the vote. His margin of victory was 26,430 votes - 281,767 to 255,337.

Precinct 7084 has 799 registered voters. 73% or 584 voted in this election. Almost half (47.9%) voted early. At the end of early voting on the Friday before election day, Kerry led Bush with 55% of the vote (154 to 118). On election day itself Kerry led Bush with 57% of the vote (140 to 91). With absentee ballots included Kerry got a total of 56% to Bush's 40%: 327 voted for Kerry and 234 voted for Bush.

Precinct 7071 has 632 registered voters of whom 78% or 493 voted. Kerry won this precinct with 63% of the vote - 312 to 170. At the end of early voting Kerry led with 60.3% of the vote (157 to 97) and on election day, Kerry won a stunning 68.4% of the vote - 145 to 62!

All the precinct results for Clark County can be found here. Nevada results are here.

Report #9 - The Final 24 Hours

My team stopped canvassing on Monday night around 7:00. Back at headquarters, new volunteers had arrived over the weekend with tech expertise and additional computers. This seemed to be a great omen and immediately eased the data entry crunch. But now the Internet connection has slowed dramatically. Can we send out for food and coffee? Panda Express or In-and-Out Burger? Volunteers are stymied because they have questions nobody has time to answer. No matter, everyone keeps hustling and figuring it out as best they can. We can overcome all obstacles. We are tired but upbeat and we are working together to accomplish something very important.

By 9:00, there is concern that new walk lists will not be available. Is it possible to print back up walk lists for the 1,042 precincts in Clark County before 7:00 AM? Can I go to Kinko's and check out the status of printing? Of course. Where can we buy another printer? Who is open after midnight? Walmart. I am back at headquarters at 1:30 AM. Technical glitches in the database have been resolved and all early voters have been removed. So I enter my data from today's canvassing and print my election day walklists as well as my poll watching list. In bed and asleep by 2:30 AM.

Up at 6:00 AM to get to my precint by the opening bell at 7:00 AM. The polling place at Jack Dailey Elementary School opens on time and is running smoothly. At 9:00 AM in Nevada, polls must provide updates of who voted between 7:00 AM and 9:00 AM. Around 9:20 I get to review the list and cross off the new voters from our precinct walk lists. Then we start election day canvassing. "Have you voted yet?" When will you be voting?" "Do you need a ride?" At different times in the day, there are six of us working the precinct - 4 from California, two local.

On election day our team knocks on a total of 204 doors and speaks with 64 voters. When we check the polling results at 9:00 AM, 43 votes have been cast in precinct 7084 - 6 from our lists. We cross those voters off the list and keep knocking on doors. Between 9:00 AM and noon, 57 votes are cast and 12 are from our target list. Between 12:00 and 3:00 PM, 52 new votes are cast and 15 are from our list. We hear encouraging news from precinct residents who have heard that Kerry is leading in the exit polls of the battleground states. We do our final check when the votes from 3:00 to 5:00 PM are posted. There are 58 votes cast and 23 are from our Leave No Voter Behind target list.

By now we have crossed off 56 voters from our list and it no longer makes sense to walk the streets. Instead, we drive to specific addresses where we know that target voters have not yet voted. At 6:50 PM we call it a day and head back to headquarters. Our hopes are high despite a few vague but inauspicious cell phone reports about Florida.

Report #8 - Bringing it home

Now it is Sunday, October 31, Halloween - two days left. The goal of the the Leave No Voter Behind effort is now clearly focused on mobilizing thousands of voters, who already support Kerry, to actually vote. We are combining "feet-on-the-street" with database and Internet technology that constantly updates our walking lists of target voters. Provided the data gets entered into the database, voters who have already voted in Nevada can be eliminated from the list, together with bad addresses, Bush supporters, unregistered voters, etc. And now we hear there are some new voters who have been discovered by the data miners and added into our lists. Of course, it still remains to print out new lists and the crunch is upon us. Thousands of volunteers are furiously entering data all across the country and then trying to print out new lists. Some of the volunteers are computer savvy, some less so. For those from out of state, they need access to a computer and a fast Internet connection. We are advised to take the precaution of printing our old walk lists...just in case. My laptop is being used by others back at headquarters and still others are waiting for a computer to use. But I am lucky. I have printed out extra lists and maps generated by MapQuest before I even left the Bay Area to return to Las Vegas on Friday October 29. On Sunday and Monday I will use the older, less optimized lists. At many houses no one has ever answered the door. Now residents are really getting tired of all the canvassers. During this sprint to the finish, we can feel the sense of urgency rising. But we are also hearing from precinct voters that Kerry is going to win.

Report #7 - A Small Break

Beth and I promised each other some quiet time on Saturday night. We quit working at 6:30 and went with two friends to The Pamplemousse, a French restaurant off the strip. To our surprise we were given a very quiet, private room. Just what the doctor ordered. The food was great. Highly recommended - ask for table A.

Report #6 - The Final Push

We are energized and exhausted at the same time. The early vote totals are really encouraging. Saturday morning MoveOn PAC organized a Leave No Voter Behind rally headlined by Arianna Huffington. Lisa Loeb opened with a couple of songs. She was followed by Kathy Najimy and then Arianna. By my count, 300 volunteers were gathered to begin the final canvassing push in Clark County to get Kerry supporters to the polls. Many more would arrive as the day progressed. Interestingly, many, many more volunteers are from California than from Nevada, most have driven from the L.A. area just that day. Late arrivers will head directly to the MoveOn PAC headquarters at 1700 East Desert Inn Road to get checked in, trained and assigned.

At the end of the rally, the MoveOn PAC staff took over. First they divided the new volunteers into 5 or 6 groups and assigned them to Precint leaders. Then they handed out materials and helped the precinct leaders do an initial training. Our group included our friend from Paris, Texas who had already canvassed, an L.A. writer who had canvassed on Friday and three new canvassers - all teachers - from LA. These memebers of my team would all be gone by Sunday afternoon and I would be assigned and train a new team on Monday.

My precint had been covered really well during the week so I turned my team's attention to helping precint 7071 - just a few blocks away from 7084 but quite a different demographic. This precint was peppered with apartments and with fourplexes. The voters skewed much younger. This precint had not been canvassed as much and consequently few names had been eliminated from the original walk lists.

The drill is the same. Working from walking lists printed just that morning, you knock on doors of targeted households. The objective is to identify Kerry voters, determine if they have voted early and get a commitment as to when they will be voting on Tuesday. You quit when it gets too dark. On Saturday night many residents in this area were headed out for the evening.

Report #5 - The Votes So Far

Beth and I and friends and a great many volunteers have been working feverishly in Las Vegas to identify John Kerry supporters and then get them to vote. Early voting ended at 9:00 PM on Friday October 29. The results are encouraging.

John Ralston of the Las Vegas Sun reports that "an astounding 35,403 people voted early Friday in Clark County, bringing the total to 271,465. Add in the absentees (44,512) and the total number of those who voted in Southern Nevada before Tuesday is 315,977.

That is about 46 percent of registered voters in Clark County and probably more than 60 percent of the total Clark County turnout for this election. The partisan breakdown shows the Democrats with a nearly 14,000-voter lead here and a 44.6 percent to 40.1 percent lead."

But what about conservative Washoe County (Reno) you ask? Good question.

"Final early voting numbers from Washoe shows Democrats essentially tied the Republicans in this heavily GOP county, which could bode well for the presidential race:

Total: 33,025
Democrats--13,974
Republicans--13,992
Others--5,059"

That's right, the Republicans eeked out an 18 vote advantage. Independents in Nevada and elsewhere are expected to break for the challenger Kerry.

Then for good measure both the Las Vegas Sun and the Reno Gazette Journal endorsed Kerry for President.

In 2000, Bush won Nevada by 21,597 votes. This year it will come down to who does a better job actually getting their supporters to vote.

Report #4 - Leave No Voter Behind

MoveON PAC
Originally uploaded by johneaton.

Kerry was in Las Vegas this week. So was Bill Clinton and Madeline Albright. And on Saturday morning to kick off the final weekend effort to get out the vote, MoveOn PAC held a rally for volunteers who are canvassing and identifying Kerry Voters. Among the featured speakers were Arianna Huffington. You might also recognize Kathy Najimy and Ricki Lake in the photo.