Organizing and Fundraising for McCain

Valentine card from Hillary Clinton to America: "Roses are red/Violets are blue/I'll raise your taxes/And there's nothing you can do."

I'll be writing today about the state blogs (see examples of New Mexico and Pennsylvania.Why an emphasis on independent state blogs? Because they will bring in many volunteers for the McCain Campaign.

Also, to be clear: most of the people who sign up as Volunteers will not be bloggers, who are the "tip of the iceberg" in regard to online activity. Many bloggers will sign up at the state sites, but many more will not be bloggers, but rather people with e-mail addresses.

If you want to volunteer to become one of the managers of your own state's blog, please let me know at: TalkTop65@aol.com -- or, if you wish, so indicate by using the blog's "Comments."

The main purposes of the state sites are to organize people at the state levels and to raise money through the use of secure "widgets." The people who manage the state sites will never see or handle any money going to the McCain Campaign. In fact, those who click on the widgets will find themselves taken directly to McCain's campaign site.

Money is critical to McCain's being able to run an effective campaign. John McCain is a great campaigner, but he's not so great when it comes to raising money. In fact, Barack Obama has raised more money in the past month-and-a-half than McCain has in the previous year.

It's critical that we -- McCain supporters -- turn that situation around, and secure widgets that funnel money directly to McCain will be a criticla element.

Do independent efforts, ones managed exclusively by volunteers, really work? Yes.

Consider what one college student did for Obama. About a year ago, he established an Obama MySpace page . On his own, he brought into the Obama camp 160,000 friends. After the student had brought in all those friends, the Obama Campaign not-so-gently kicked him to the curb. That is, they took over the site from the creator, and he ended up on the outside looking in. How that fits with Obama's stated view that "change comes from the bottom up," you can figure out for yourself.

Of course, most of the 160,000 friends were just verbal supporters and presumably didn't contribute money to the campaign. But many of those people were among the huge number of "small donors" ($200 or less) who did contribute. That's one of the reasons Obama was able to generate enough "early money" to launch an effective campaign against Hillary Clinton.

Note that the originator of the important "MySpace" effort was not a paid member of the Obama staff. He didn't get direction "from the top." He was a truly independent volunteer.That's what the state sites are designed to do: to organize volunteers for John McCain -- and to get those who so desire to send money. If you want to donate NOW to John McCain you can do so by clicking on the link to your right (the one with the word "contribute").

If you'd rather send a check to John McCain, you can do so at this address:

Senator John McCain
P.O. Box 7802
Merrifield, VA 22116

If you do send a check, make sure you also include your address and your employer. Doing so puts you in line with Federal Election Commission rules. I've contributed $200 to McCain and listed my employment situation as "Retired."

You can get the recent financial numbers for presidential candidates by going to http://opensecrets.org and clicking on the candidates (top of the home page). The good news is that Obama may end up spending a hundred million dollars, an unprecedented sum, campaigning against Hillary Clinton -- but not against John McCain.

The overal point is this: the state blogs are not an effort to stamp on the toes of http://McCainVictory08.com, which I urge you to join. Instead, they're an important attempt to get volunteers working right away to get John McCain elected.

Frankly, if McCain is to win, it won't be because of people waiting for instructions from "headquarters." In fact, it will be a result of millions of people around the country taking the initiative. My friends, carpe diem, "seize the day."

NOTE: THIS POSTING WILL ALSO APPEAR AT THE FOLLOWING: http://pennsylvaniaforjohnmccain.blogspot.com and http://camp2008victorya.blogspot.com. Eventually, the pennsylvaniaformccain site will take on a life of its own, but for now I'm cross-posting.