Obama re-election launches with e-mail, website

resident Barack Obama formally launched his re-election campaign Monday, urging grass-roots supporters central to his first White House run to mobilize again to protect the change he's brought over the past two years. 
The official start of his second White House bid, in the midst of three wars, a budget fight with Congress, and sluggish economic recovery, comes 20 months before the November 2012 election.
"We've always known that lasting change wouldn't come quickly or easily. It never does," the Democrat said in an e-mail to more than 13 million supporters announcing his candidacy. "But as my administration and folks across the country fight to protect the progress we've made — and make more — we also need to begin mobilizing for 2012, long before the time comes for me to begin campaigning in earnest."
He told them he was filing the necessary paperwork with the Federal Election Commission, and directed them to his new campaign website where a launch video featured clips from supporters talking about their continued backing of the Democrat.
"I don't agree with Obama on everything but I respect him and I trust him," Ed from North Carolina says, delivering what's certain to become a key part of the president's pitch as he tries to re-energize liberals who have criticized some of his policies and independents who have fled from him in his first term.
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Between now and the election, the incumbent Democrat will work to convince a fickle America that he has delivered change, made the right moves and earned the chance to continue the job. He will have to defend policies that have proven divisive, chief among them his sweeping health care overhaul and his efforts to boost the slow-to-rebound economy.
Obama announced his bid just as the White House is in a budget standoff with Congress that could lead to a government shutdown, weeks after the commander in chief directed U.S. military operations to a third major warfront, Libya, and days after the post-recession economy showed more signs of a rebound with a report that the still high unemployment rate had fallen to 8.8 percent.
Widely expected, the procedural step of launching a campaign was planned to coincide with the second fundraising quarter of the year. Filing paperwork will allow the president to begin raising money in earnest for what allies say could be a record-breaking haul of more than $1 billion for his campaign. That begins this month; he's slated to visit major money venues of Chicago, San Francisco and Los Angeles in the coming weeks.
The campaign is based in Chicago, and many of the same people from his first bid remain involved, including former campaign manager David Plouffe, who now is in the White House, and chief political strategist David Axelrod.
Managing the campaign this time is Jim Messina, who played a senior role in the first bid and in the White House. Messina has spent the past few months touring the country to lay the groundwork with donors in hopes of building a massive fundraising network featuring both large and small contributions. He's asked some 400 donors — called bundlers — to bring in at least $350,000 this year; the re-election website is geared toward raising money from grass-roots backers. Obama raised $750 million for his 2008 campaign.
Obama faces no primary challenger.
On the other side, the race for the GOP presidential nomination is just getting under way; more than a dozen Republicans are considering seeking the chance to challenge Obama in the next election. Only a few have taken the initial steps toward a candidacy, though several more are expected to this month. It's a wide open race with no clear front-runner.
Nevertheless, Obama said he's not taking anything for granted.
"We're doing this now because the politics we believe in does not start with expensive TV ads or extravaganzas, but with you — with people organizing block-by-block, talking to neighbors, co-workers, and friends. And that kind of campaign takes time to build," he said in the e-mail.
"So even though I'm focused on the job you elected me to do, and the race may not reach full speed for a year or more, the work of laying the foundation for our campaign must start today," Obama added. He directed them to the new red, white and blue website for what he said was "a campaign that's farther-reaching, more focused, and more innovative than anything we've built before."
The website features Obama's new campaign logo — 2012 with the rising sun in the background, a version of his 2008 campaign logo — and announces that the campaign is kicking off.
"We're opening up offices, unpacking boxes, and starting a conversation with supporters like you to help shape our path to victory, and this is where you say you're in," it says, urging people to organize and donate.
The video is a montage of testimonials from a demographically diverse group of backers who intend to stay involved in this campaign.
"It needs to reflect the changes that we've seen in the last two-and-a-half years," says Katherine from Colorado. "Then we had an underdog senator. Nobody thought that he had a chance. And now he's the president."

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Posted: at 5-04-2011 03:38 AM (13 years ago) | Gistmaniac

CAN YOU SEE MY DEAR PALS,
                              WHO IS AFRAID OF BUHARI? 
 I write this because of millions of Nigerians who are  below 30 and who constitute a significant chunk of our voting population.   This is the ICT generation that is largely ignorant about the events of the   Buhari era (1983-85) and so can be misinformed and misled by needless   propaganda. I have sat with many in the under-30 bracket and those slightly  above who only have faint recollections of the Buhari era and the level of   ignorance about that era is amazing.

Before being MILITARY Head of State, Buhari had been Governor of one of the Northern States   (under Obasanjo’s Military government) as well as Minister for Petroleum.  He later served as Chairman of PTF under Abacha.   Please consider the following unassailable facts:

 
 •         He birthed and supervised the  establishment of our existing refineries.

  •        There was no religious crisis while  he was Head of State. It started under his successor IBB!

  •        in his time as Head of State he  reduced inflation from 23% to 4%, by fiscal discipline and a homegrown   economic team (not achieved under any other era, even military). 

 •        JJ Rawlings of Ghana took over  2yrs before him, and killed all the corrupt leaders, while Buhari only   sentenced the corrupt leaders here to prison.   

 •        Under his watch as PTF Chairman, what he did in road construction in that short period hasn't been matched by  12yrs of the PDP.
 
 •        Hospitals and universities around   the country never witnessed as much benefits as they got from the PTF from any  government after or before his time.   

•        Despite serving in senior  capacity in the oil sector, first as Minister for Petroleum and then   Petroleum Trust Fund, Buhari has no petrol station, much less a rig, refinery  or an oil block like so many of our leaders.

  •        He could have retired into  nauseating opulence like an IBB or Danjuma or even OBJ but didn't.

   •        Instead of hobnobbing with the  high and mighty, he has cast his lot with the ordinary man most of who follow   him out of hope and belief in his values. People who know him have said of   him... "All I need from Buhari is his word, I can take it to the  bank".

   •        He is the only politician in  the North today who fills rallies without renting a crowd. The Kaduna rally of 2nd   March is eloquent proof!

   •        He refused to collect an  allowance while serving as Chairman of the PTF because he said since he was  already drawing a pension from government, his conscience would not allow him  to draw another salary from the purse of the same government.

  •        He is the only former head of  state that does not own property or land in Abuja .

  •        Every attempt to rubbish him  through probes in time past eneded up vindicating him! The man who was asked  by OBJ to take over the running of PTF before it was scrapped with the aim of   probing and indicting Buhari, was the one who ended up being prosecuted for  misappropriating $100m of PTF funds! Buhari again, was vindicated

  •        He has OPENLY challenged those  who accuse him of religious fundamentalism to come out and show proof. No one  has till today, taken up the challenge. His personal driver of many years is   a Christian from Plateau State !

 
   •        His government initiated the   War Against Indiscipline that has made environmental cleanliness, queuing up,   not urinating by the roadside etc features of our national life even till   today  Does it then surprise you why corrupt people   would be spreading such heinous rumours about Buhari? He is a threat to them and they know what he is capable of doing to corruption and corrupt people when he comes into office! So shine your eyes and make the right decision.

  If honesty and probity are the things you want for Nigeria ,now is the time to choose right. When you cast your vote for the  BUHARI/BAKARE ticket, you would have cast one vote for two honest men.
   Now that you know better, will you please   educate another person BY FORWARDING THIS TO AS MANY AS YOU CAN?

Posted: at 5-04-2011 01:34 PM (13 years ago) | Newbie