Four picked for "Dinner with Barack"

Barack Obama's presidential campaign announced the winners of the "Dinner with Barack" contest.

The dinner will take place in July at a Washington restaurant with all expenses paid for by Obama for America.

No details were given on the number of participants or the amount raised by the effort.

Here are the four winners:

Haile Rivera (Bronx, N.Y.): He works as a community program specialist with the Food Bank for New York City during the day which includes work with food pantries, youth programs and soup kitchens. In his spare time, he founded “Hands on New York,” a non-profit organization in New York City dedicated to getting school age kids involved in civics.

Michael Griffith (Fernley, Nevada): He is a miner in western Nevada whose health care costs have tripled over recent years. This is his first time donating or participating in politics and he felt that as his family grew, so did his concern with the direction of the country.

Margaret Thomas-Jordan (Gonzales, La.): She is a working mother of two boys, age nineteen months and eleven years and she is attending school to become a nurse. Her husband was shipped to Iraq last month and he is currently serving a 15-month tour. Health care costs have grown especially difficult for her and she is struggling with access to health care because she does not qualify as a traditional student.

Jennifer Lasko (Lake Worth, Fla.): She used to be an active member of the Republican Party and was a member of the College Republicans at Cornell University. She served as an officer in the army after graduating and is now a full time firefighter and paramedic in Lake Worth. The last campaign she participated in was Reagan-Bush in 1984.

Obama wins straw poll

Sen. Barack Obama won a straw poll held today at the Take Back America event:

Politico and Democratic pollster Stan Greenberg conducted a straw poll among the liberal activists attending the Campaign for America's Future "Take Back America" conference. Obama came out on top with 29% of the vote, followed by Edwards at 26%, and Clinton at 17%. Richardson was fourth with 9%, and Al Gore got 8% as a write-in candidate (his name wasn't listed on the ballot).

This may bode well for Obama's chances in obtaining endorsements of progressive unions.

Take a little photo tour of Obama's Chicago campaign headquarters.

Obama coments on Culinary Workers Union settlement

Barack Obama released a statement on the Culinary Union Workers 226 settlement with Harrah's casino.

This is a positive step forward, but this is bigger than one contract or negotiation and it is time for other companies to follow suit. I pledged my support for the workers when I met with the negotiating committee two weeks ago and I'll be there with them on the picket line until every worker has a fair contract.

What we are fighting for is making real the idea that in this country, we value the labor of every American. That we're willing to respect that labor and reward it with a few basic guarantees - wages that can raise a family, health care if we get sick, a retirement that's dignified, a home you can afford. We will not achieve success for all workers until we have fair contracts that make it possible for workers to achieve the American dream.

Sen. Obama's rally speech in Greenville, South Carolina

Barack Obama rocks AFSCME forum

Barack Obama's speech at the Take Back America Conference organized by the AFSCME labor union was reportedly stole the show and was one of his finest on record.

Ezra Cline wrote of the speech:

Obama gave the best speech I've seen him give -- and I was at the 2004 Democratic convention.

[Obama] argued that when citizens turn away and the voters accustom themselves to disappointment… a vacuum opens up. And politics, like nature, abhors vacuums. So the lobbyists and the special interests and the lawyers rush in to fill it.

Sen. Obama at Take Back America



Obama campaign releases text messaging feature

Moving forward in its efforts to connect with young people, the Obama team introduced a new texting feature at barackobama.com:

We are excited to announce that we just launched TXT to OBAMA (62262). This is a great and easy way for everyone on the go to stay connected with our movement.

Anyone can simply Text “Go” to OBAMA (62262) to sign up for text messaging.

If you text “GO” to OBAMA (62262) between now and June 30th, you will also receive a free bumper sticker.

Visit www.barackobama.com/go

There is no charge from our campaign for text messaging—participants will only have to pay their standard text messaging rates from their own providers.

More information is available at www.barackobama.com/mobile

Maintaining discipline in the Obama camp

I've been hearing a buzz among some Obama supporters who think the candidate should go on the offensive against Hillary Clinton. They seems to be disturbed at the constant barrage of negative media coverage and Obama's performance in some polls.

I suspect such anxieties may have driven the recent memo mishap, which some supporters were quick to defend even though it clearly went against Obama's own declared intentions of practicing a "different kind of politics."

While it may be relatively easy to get the staff in line, the task of keeping volunteers in sync with Obama's message may prove more difficult.

There really is no reason to get upset with the early polls.

In previous presidential elections, Edmund Muskie in 1972, George Wallace in 1976, Ted Kennedy in 1980, Gary Hart in 1988, Mario Cuomo in 1992 and Joe Lieberman in 2004 were early front-runners among Democrats who eventually lost.

Rudy Giuliani has been the front-runner among Republicans who generally are better at predicting eventual winners, but few Republican insiders think he will win. This is because most Republican voters right now don't realize Giuliani is pro-choice. The polls show this and they also indicate that Republicans will not elect a pro-choice nominee.

So, as the election nears and voters begin to learn more about where candidates stand on the issues, Giuliani's support will drop, or so say the pundits.

In the same sense, as the election nears Democrats will be more focused on the Iraq War and Obama is the natural choice for this issue, especially if the campaign pushes hard on this matter with their television ads and volunteer push.

Barack still rules the Internet

Barack Obama regained his lead in the alexa.com ratings for traffic and reach over other Democratic candidates. Hillary Clinton had temporarily grabbed the top spot due to increased traffic arising from her YouTube campaign song contest.

Ron Paul though continues to lead among all candidates after his website shot up in the rankings a little over a month ago.

Barack though continues to have the most popular candidate site in the alexa.com directory though, which takes into account both site traffic and reach over a three month period. Barack's MySpace is ranked 9th among candidate sites and his YouTube page is 13th.