Minutes of July meeting

Written by: W A Thomasson on Aug 4, 2008 4:41 PM EDT

Linked to groups: Oak Park DFA Meeting

MINUTES OF OAK PARK DFA MEETING, July 9, 2008

 Four people were initially present for the meeting, which opened with a general discussion of Obama and his stands on the issues. We then turned to the main business of the meeting, which was to plan our participation in Congressional candidate (IL-13) Scott Harper’s “13 for the 13^th” canvassing event. (Ben asked what national DFA had suggested for our agenda. It turned out to be exactly what we were doing: providing support for down-ticket candidates.) The agreement was that we would go to the Berwyn station of the Burlington Metra line and take the train out to the 13^th district, where the campaign would see that we got to the meeting point for the start of the canvassing. As Eric noted, Harper is going to be riding some impressive coattails in November, with not only Obama but Durbin at the top of the ticket. We had trouble even remembering who Durbin’s opponent is.

 At that point, Rob – whose recent tonsillectomy we had discussed earlier – arrived. This led to further discussion of Obama, starting with FISA. There was an interesting suggestion that President Obama may modify some of the worst provisions of the bill, either by executive order or by seeking a revised bill. It was also noted that the bill does not grant immunity to criminal prosecution. If one wants to hold Bushco accountable, the way to do that is to bring criminal prosecutions against members of the Bush administration.

 Rob also noted that Obama has run a really amazing campaign, taking the best of what previous candidates had done and avoiding their mistakes. (Although Rob is primarily affiliated with the Democratic Party of Oak Park, DPOP works so closely with the Obama campaign that he is practically an Obama staffer.) Like the Dean campaign, the Obnama campaign is bottom-up. But, Rob said, the Dean campaign had no top. In the Obama campaign, staff and volunteers are thoroughly integrated. Most campaigns wouldn’t dream of letting a volunteer near the database. In the Obama campaign, volunteers regularly work on the database. But both volunteers and staffers get new passwords weekly.

Meanwhile, Obama is contesting all 50 states, just like Howard Dean suggested. Although somehow nobody expects to see much of a contest in Illinois. But we’re all going to be watching him accept the nomination in Mile High Stadium.

 Who’s going to be the VP nominee? Well, way back in November (I think it was), Eric purchased the rights to the Obama-Sibelius08.com domain name. But beyond that, nobody knows. And which Illinois officials will be joining President Obama in Washington? Will Lisa Madigan become the US Attorney General? Will our own state senator get a subcabinet post? Maybe. Nobody knows. But it’s interesting to speculate.

 Final note: At the time of the August meeting, your secretary will be in Denver. (No, different convention.) So unless somebody else steps up to do the minutes, there won’t be any for that month.

 Respectfully submitted,

 Bill Thomasson

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Location: Oak Park, IL 60302