Since it's McClatchy:
Few supporters are answering President Barack Obama's call for nationwide house-party gatherings this weekend to build grass-roots support for his economic stimulus plan.
A McClatchy survey of sign-up rosters for a score of cities across the country revealed only 34 committed attendees in Tacoma, Wash., as of midafternoon Friday; in Fort Worth, Texas, only 54, and in Sacramento, Calif., just 78.
"Before the election, we would have had 500 to 800," said Kim Mack, 46, a Sacramento city-facility manager who's hosted house parties for political figures and causes since the mid-'90s.
Even in Washington, policy-wonk capital of the nation, only about 500 people had signed up.
The overall Obama policy-support effort, known as "Organizing for America," got under way last Friday and received the president's summons to action on the stimulus on Monday.
Despite the tight time frame, LaVera said the effort would yield about 3,000 economic stimulus sessions nationwide.
Some house parties — maybe a quarter — don't appear on the "Organizing for America" sign-up site, the source of McClatchy's tally, because their hosts are inviting only friends. Of those that did appear, the typical house party that McClatchy tallied was less than half full Friday afternoon.
Well, institutionally (as opposed to individual policy outcomes) I don't know which outcome is better: A grasstops effort that fails, or one that succeeds.
Actually, I find the numbers encouraging from at least one aspect. I could be wrong, but I'm betting that if you got a few of the OFB
, you'd get 'em all; they're fans. So, to me, the low attendance could mean that 10% of Obama's supporters were policy wonks. A high number, and encouraging. Maybe I should show up at one of these things. On the other hand, maybe the Obama high command will take this as a sign to bring out the fans next time, and I'll have to deal with drunks groping cardboard images of Hillary, or people calling me racist or yellling at me, and so on, and who needs that?
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gone to the well too many times
it may be too soon after the health care house parties to do this, that may be why not so many have signed up.
or maybe Obama waited too long, maybe he should have called out his troops form the beignning of the stimulous fight.
Or maybe...
... we're in "mile wide and an inch deep" territory on his support.
"First they ignore you, then they ridicule you, then they fight you, then you win." -- Mahatma Gandhi
Dog fights versus prayer meetings
Problem is that most of the more enthusiastic OFBs were going to rallies and rock shows -- that's fun. And getting riled up by the reality-show dogfight aspect of the contests before the election. Obama never had so much support as when the nasty fighting between him and Clinton spiked during the primaries, and then between him and Palin-McCain during the general. Almost a billion dollars later, and not a penny of it went to train the troops to care about policy, or even cultivate some minimal awareness of policy, only for the fight. Obama's created an army of shock troops, not policy wonks. They'll show up for the battle, but not the strategy session. They need the meme of the day fed to them, so they know what to be outraged about. House parties for general discussion of policy -- not so much. Where's the fun if no one staggers bloody and beaten from the ring at the end of the night?
Neither health care nor the 'stimulus' has such an enemy (well, they do have enemies, but not one or two identified by Obama as the Big Bad for the OFB
to get all riled up over).
The policy wonks out there are probably thinking much as you are -- that the House parties will be overrun by the OFB
and are essentially useless. Maybe now the word's out that the OFB
is staying home, we'll see more people come out from wherever they've been hiding during the rallies.
Reasonable men adapt themselves to their environment; unreasonable men try to adapt their environment to themselves. Thus all progress is the result of the efforts of unreasonable men. -- George Bernard Shaw
But even so....
... he didn't even invest the shock troops. Curious.
"First they ignore you, then they ridicule you, then they fight you, then you win." -- Mahatma Gandhi
That
Or clearly gave his troops their mission. They don't know what they are fighting for, really.
For a man praised to the heavens for his uncanny ability to stay on message and shape reality, he sure is having a difficult time articulating much of anything from the White House. It's as if he stepped into a clam's shell and never bothered coming back out. The closest he came was the other night at some function, but it was a fleeting moment. He's not riding the bull, the bull's riding him.
In my mind's eye, when we're about to spend the most money we've ever spent in our history, my president is co-opting the air waves and giving a national address on our grave circumstances and why this is needed. What I'm seeing in reality is a president allowing the senators from the states of Maine and Nebraska co-opting his plan and running over his head. As he displayed during the primaries, his passions never lie with our own. He's only ever animated into action when the issue is about himself.
But, we've always been at war with Eastasia...
i must be special
i've been getting several emails. mostly they're inviting me to host or attend a house party, with no other suggestion on actions to take just yet, just some hints that something will follow the house parties.
as for numbers, possibly not a lot of people are interested in becoming policy wonks, but in my area there are way more of these econ house parties scheduled than there were healthcare and pre-inauguration parties combined.
the daschle house parties would probably have built up into something [and may still]. obama wasn't planning to tackle health until about march anyway.
Maybe they just don't like the stimulus plan
and don't like being taken for granted while their leader caves to the likes of Nelson and Collins.
Or maybe I'm giving them way too much credit.