ACORN And Obama: So Much For Non-Partisan

Does this sound like the way a federally funded, non-partisan group should? It's from when ACORN helped Obama win his election in 2006. And if you really want an eye-opener, see below these excerpts to links on the communications strategies of ACORN and much of the Left.

Madeline spoke about the U. S. Senate Primary Campaign of Barak Obama and his astounding victory on March 16th of this year.  ACORN’s initial assessment was that the key to his victory would be the African American vote which put ACORN in a good position to make a real contribution in both voter registration and GOTV.  Therefore last summer some 450 block leaders were chosen, resulting in 12,984 new registrants.

This was done as a coalition effort through the Chicago-based Grassroots Collaborative which brought a number of very active and energized community and labor groups to the joint effort.  From a seven-person field in the Democratic Primary, Obama received  a remarkable 53% of the vote.  Among the Democratic challengers to Obama, probably the most prominent was Dan Hines who, among other things, split labor’s vote.  The AFL-CIO endorsed Hines while SEIU, AFSCME, HERE, UNITE & the Teachers all endorsed Obama. 

There were some real surprises in this race—even with all his Democratic challengers, Obama received twice the votes of all the Republicans put together.  He carried all of the Chicago Metropolitan area, and took five downstate counties.  In total he received 650,000 votes.

What were the factors that brought about this victory?  Madeline’s assessment was that the grassroots efforts at voter registration and GOTV were part of an already existing wave of deep support for Obama.  (It is hard to do a district by district comparison because the districts have been redrawn since the last election.)

As part of the Collaborative’s efforts, a canvass was done for GOTV two weeks before the election.  As a result, a return of 39% was gained with the canvass, and only 19% was gained without the canvass.  ACORN’s strategy involved paid canvassers and aggressive leaders in their strongest precincts.  Madeline believes the leadership efforts provided a certain synergy effect in the successful results.  Events and activities within the Obama campaign also had some very positive effect.  Where he did major TV buys, he mostly won.  It was great timing for the campaign when Paul Simon’s daughter endorsed Obama.  Madeline noted that clearly Obama’s history as a community organizer with both the Gamaliel Foundation and Project Vote developed his political skills which combined with his smarts, charisma and ambition helped bring this election victory home.

Look at the contacts on this list. That's a very small list, ACORN heavy, of organizations that work with SPIN. While ACORN tops the list, they work with almost every group on the far Left.

SPIN seems to be something of a communications hub for the Left - a list of clients - and an outline of how they helped the Left exploit Katrina.

And whose speech do they use as part of their training manual / tool kit - Barack Obama's of course.

Follow the links to The Independent Media Institute through here, you'll eventually end up at AlterNet. And don't think any of this is illegal outsdie of maybe the ACORN stuff. Just realize how badly Conservatives and Republicans have blown it in terms of building a next generation communication strategy to compete in the media today. The Inside the Beltway types that have been financing and running the show are too busy reading NRO, I guess.

Comments

[Magic Dog]

ACORN's website says they don't accept government funding. Please prove that they do.

[Magic Dog]

To flesh that out, you say this about them: "Does this sound like the way a federally funded, non-partisan group should?" What federal funding does ACORN get? How much, and when?

[BobinStamford]

Wow, you guys are really a bunch of sore LOSERS.

[Magic Dog]

You can see the Republican Phony Outrage Machine (TM) cranking up once again! Anything to evade reality, this one being that their candidate John McJerk is crashing and burning as we speak.

[Krys]

Of course ACORN gets money from far lift billionaires such as the Sandlers and even Congress tried to slip in millions to Acorn in the bailout bill - outrageous. If you are too lazy to register to vote which is easy then you do not deserve to vote. I think the election should be put on hold until these states confirm who are the authentic registered voters. It is only fair to the rest of us. This whole mess with the election and the economy besides being the fault of massive corruption by Frank, Dodd, Pelosi and the banks, fall squarely on the shoulders of the Dem media (MSM) who for years would not shine a light on anything significant that could hurt Democrats - resulting in a misinformed public. They spent all their time attacking Bush and let the financial corruption, Fannie Mae and other events go unreported. I think from now on the press should be totally ignored and people should try to get their information from the internet - unless the new marxist corrupt regime under Obama stifles even that option.

[Magic Dog]

Of course ACORN gets money from far lift billionaires such as the Sandlers and even Congress tried to slip in millions to Acorn in the bailout bill - outrageous.

Got any proof for either of those statements, or isn't proof necessary on Planet Wingnut? Wait -- better not answer that!

[Magic Dog]

"Of course ACORN gets money from far lift billionaires such as the Sandlers and even Congress tried to slip in millions to Acorn in the bailout bill - outrageous."

================

Got any proof for either of those statements, or isn't proof necessary on Planet Wingnut? Wait -- better not answer that!

[mary]

Wow, their website actually says they don't accept government funding yet the government tried to funnel funds to them in the housing bill? Well, then what is that called? If they don't call it "government funding" do they call it "government gifts". Anyone connected with the great one (apologies to Mark Levin) seems to know how to parse words like no body's business. They seem to think it is okay to lie if they just don't actually say the lie outright, if they say it in such a way that it may be buried in the statement but most normal people used to taking things at face value would do just that and miss the nuance. Wow, we are going into a situation where lawyerese is the language of the day, courtesy of the dems.

[mary]

I remember Miss Nancy saying she did not have the money to fund campaigns this year. A small blurb in the paper. Makes me wonder where she did get the money and it should make you wonder too.

Didn't acorn get something in the stimulus bill?

[M. Simon]

Do you mean 2006? Or would 1996 be more correct?

[mary]

Nancy said it about four months ago. It was in the MSM,

[Lala]

http://www.bizjournals.com/washington/prnewswire/press_releases/District_of_Columbia/2008/10/10/NEF064

WASHINGTON, Oct. 10 /PRNewswire/ -- James Terry, Chief Public Advocate for the Consumers Rights League, today issued the following statement supporting the calls of House Republican Minority Leader John Boehner, Minority Whip Roy Blunt and Senator John Ensign to investigate the activities of ACORN as well as suspend taxpayer funds to the organization in light of mounting evidence of fraudulent activity in Nevada, Missouri and Ohio. CRL also expressed outrage over ACORN's willingness to accept rampant fraud as the cost of doing business.

James Terry, Chief Public Advocate, Consumers Rights League:

"ACORN says they don't take federal money, but AHC takes millions and from 2004 to 2006 on funneled 4.6 million to ACORN. They have been able to get away with it due to a convoluted, Enron kind of accounting but this must stop. Congress must cut off funds, investigate and prosecute those who are found to be willfully using taxpayer funds to support fraudulent political operations and put in place transparency, reporting requirements and firewall requirements to prevent future abuses.

more at the link

[Lala]

Acorn shakes down banks -

http://www.city-journal.org/html/13_2_acorns_nutty_regime.html

excerpt

But if the CRA is now unnecessary, ACORN has found a use for it beyond wielding it as a propaganda tool to suggest that “redlining” still exists. ACORN has developed a lucrative niche as an “advisor” to banks seeking regulatory approvals. Thus we have J. P. Morgan & Company, the legatee of the man who once symbolized for many all that was supposedly evil about American capitalism, suddenly donating hundreds of thousands of dollars to ACORN. This act of generosity and civic-mindedness came, interestingly, just as Morgan was asking bank regulators for approval of a merger with Chase Manhattan. Not to be outdone, Chase also decided to grant more than $200,000 to ACORN.

The banks that ACORN has shaken down refuse to discuss their contributions to a political organization that, to put it mildly, is hostile to free enterprise. But one prominent consultant to the financial industry, who preferred to remain anonymous, admits: “The banks know they are being held up, but they are not going to fight over this. They look at it as a cost of doing business.” Some of ACORN’s fellow community activists are even blunter. “ACORN knows that corporate America has no starch in their shorts and, therefore, what they try to do is buy peace from groups that agitate against them,” says Robert L. Woodson, president of the National Center for Neighborhood Enterprise, a community-action group that stresses moral regeneration and individual responsibility rather than government handouts. “The same corporations that pay ransom to Jesse Jackson and Al Sharpton pay ransom to ACORN.”

Such opportunism fits an ACORN pattern. The group regularly takes actions that appear blatantly self-interested or hypocritical, as if their pure motives and laudable ends might justify less than elevated means. For example, even while pushing for living-wage legislation in California, ACORN was paying its workers less than the existing minimum wage—and arguing when the state sued it that the minimum-wage law infringed its First Amendment free-speech right, since paying workers more would hinder it in spreading its message. So, too, many of the living-wage laws it pushes exempt unionized companies from the legislation—a powerful tool for union-organizing efforts and a valuable gift to the unions that are ACORN’s biggest allies. A similar gift is ACORN’s effort to unionize workfare recipients and thus swell union membership rolls.

[Worst President Ever]

The world's in collapse and all Republicans can find to talk about is Acorn, Acorn, Acorn.

And Nero fiddled while Rome burned.

[mary]

Watch and learn WPE, you will see how the dots start to connect. That's not coming from me, it's coming from a lot of people on the morning programs today.

[BobinStamford]

I'd love to meet that addled hilljack woman who told Grandpa that Obama was an arab. She defines the conservative movement in America. Backward backwater fools.

So to you, addled CONSERVATIVE woman with messy hair:

THANK YOU for your SERVICE!!! The surge WORKED!

[mary]

i don't think that was a McCain supporter or a conservative. I think it was a professional actress plant. In fact, real people, you know, Jane and Joe Sixpack, are saying that. They're saying that because they know they are gracious enough not to interrupt anyone's speech, even if they didn't agree with them. So, they are thinking it was maybe someone from another campaign who wants you to think it is one of them. And. lo and behold, the whispers are that, besides being "not nice", that is downright sneaky. Now the american people have had 8 years of "downright sneaky" so maybe they are starting to realize that they don't want another "sneaky snake" in the white house.

[Worst President Ever]

"Now the american people have had 8 years of "downright sneaky" so maybe they are starting to realize that they don't want another "sneaky snake" in the white house."

Which would explain Obama's ever-growing lead in the polls.

http://www.realclearpolitics.com/epolls/2008/president/us/general_election_mccain_vs_obama-225.html

[mary]

Wow, SP is really hitting the connection with an "unrepentant political terrorist" hard.

Biden is charging that McCain doesn't want to talk to the issues. I guess they think this is not an issue, a judgment of one's character isn't important.

The dems created this entire financial crisis. Yet they have yet to take responsibility. They want you to think it was bush. But, the more research one does, the more it points to the dems. Interesting, Biden is going after McCain's record of voting for Bush. Well, ofttimes it was the right vote. Guess Biden still can't wrap his brain around that, maybe the hair plugs have addled it.

[mary]

Not really WPE, people are starting to look very carefully and seriously at BO, you never know what conclusions they will draw. After all, when you are alone with your vote, it comes form what you truly believe as opposed to what you say when you want to be "politically correct" and don't want someone to "get in your face" like a pit bull.

[mary]

"

Posted by diablo, Oct 11, 2008 2:34PM

@40

Bush started this market manipulation story yesterday in his morning speech. It was rebroadcast this morning in his radio message.

Here's what he said:

"Third, we are concerned that some investors could take advantage of the crisis to illegally manipulate the stock market. So the Securities and Exchange Commission is launching rigorous enforcement actions to detect fraud and manipulation in the market. "

So from that allegation, we now hear Huckabee's nonsense, plus other nonsense in wingnut blogs. Like this one:

"Someone once said that there is no such thing as coincidence in politics. My observation that the near inevitability of a weak, or failing, or disastrous (pick an adjective) economy when a Republican is in the White House leads me to believe that statement. I am of the opinion that a large part of the current crisis on Wall Street is due to manipulation. It's a gut feeling, like the feeling I had that Bob Rubin and crew were managing or at least assisting the market's rise during the Clinton years. I have the feeling that George Soros and gang may be up to the same thing now.

But I'm not an expert, just an interested observer. So I pose the question to the more knowledgeable in the Freeper audience: Is the market crash being managed for the benefit or Barack Hussein Obama?""

http://tinyurl.com/4j249v

So now people are starting to really want to discuss this economic crisis.

[Magic Dog]

"Wow, their website actually says they don't accept government funding yet the government tried to funnel funds to them in the housing bill? Well, then what is that called?"

-----------

Once again, got any proof that anyone "tried to funnel funds to them?" Or do we just accept the fervid imagination of anyone from Planet Wingnut?

[mary]

I'm going to answer you like I have been answered here by the people who are the trolls, "got google?"

There is a ton of proof, it comes right up.

[Magic Dog]

Yeah, mary, there is a ton of "proof" on other Planet Wingnut websites. The fact is that you can't provide any proof, because facts aren't anywhere on your radar screen. On Planet Wingnut, facts are inconvenient and proof is far too high a burden. It requires you to WORK, and WORKING is the last thing a zealot ever wants to do.

[Magic Dog]

p.s.: Mary, just wait. Those Obama neighborhood campaign organizations are going to turn into Cuban-style block committees. You're on the list. Don't say you weren't warned, Wingnut! Ha ha!