Saturday, February 14, 2009

Here's a Thought

Dowd picked the right horse in the Presidential Race.  He was an early and faithful backer of Barack Obama.  Right now, that's hurting him.  If Obama had lost to McCain, maybe he would have dropped by and did a fund raiser for Dowd the way Clinton (Bill) did for Ravenstahl.  At this point one wonders if Ravenstahl didn't just pick Clinton for the politics of it.

So, if I'm Dowd here's what I do (and it might be he has already tried this), I call up every single person I ever knew and worked with in the Obama campaign.  Let's be honest it's not that many, Dowd isn't exactly a superdelegate, but there's got to be a few.  I ask them, beg them or bribe them to get a personal letter of thanks, an audio clip, a picture, ANYTHING that links me to Obama.  I also ask them to send a couple people to speak at fund raisers (probably some campaign staffers who can tell grand stories of the underdog story in action).  Towards the end of the campaign, I'd love to get one of the leaders of the Obama campaign to speak at a big rally, but I'm not sure if that's too much to ask.  

I remind Obama (or well, at least a staffer), how much a Ravenstahl/Onorato/Rendell endorsement meant in the Burgh and promise him more responsible endorsements going forward.

I'm not saying this would work, Obama is  working on bigger things* and may not make anyone available, but Dowd's not going to win on conventional politics.  He needs to do enough conventional politics to remain relevant and spend the rest of his time focusing on how to pull a rabit out of his hat.  He says he has a great campaign manager?  She should be in magic classes right now.

*for some perspective ONE of the things Obama is working on is the stimulus bill, a bill that would cover the pension fund obligations for almost 10,000 years (787 Billion divided by 6.7 million / month).

2 comments:

Schultz said...

I remind Obama (or well, at least a staffer), how much a Ravenstahl/Onorato/Rendell endorsement meant in the Burgh and promise him more responsible endorsements going forward.

In the city those endorsements didn't mean anything, because Obama won the city during the primary. Outside of the city of Pittsburgh the thing that mattered the most in the overall PA Primary was the support Rendell and his people gave to the Clinton machine.

Okay, so now you're getting on board with the idea of a Dowd candidacy. That is the kind of "change we need" here in the burgherjonosphere. As for Dowd's connection to the Obama campaign, there is plenty of material about Dowd and his efforts to GOTV for Obama during both the primary and the general election. Here is a link to the PBS interview with Dowd, Tonya Payne, and Gwen Iffel. Here is a link to Dowd leading the grand opening of the East Liberty Obama campaign office opening during the primary.

Burgher Jon said...

I wouldn't go so far as to say they "didn't mean anything". Keep in mind in the primaries, winning the city isn't as important as the margin by which you win the city. Also I think had this been a closer election where PA was in play in November the lack of a hearty endorsement might have been more dangerous.

Nice work pointing those things out, Dowd's going to need to keep coming back to them.