Tag Archives: NESC

Feb 11 2012

NESC Weekly Update February 10th, 2012

Dear New England Steering Committee,
We hope everyone had a great week. We have a lot of exciting events coming up so please check out our events list and let us know how you would like to be involved.

Steering Committee Meeting
Our next Steering Committee Meeting will be on Friday, February 17, 2012 at 8:30 a.m. at The Law Offices of Foley Hoag, 155 Seaport Blvd, Boston, MA, Room 16A. Bring a friend to the meeting next week to get involved!

Talking Points

Job Growth

Romney – Washington Outsider

OFA Super Pac Decision

GOP Nevada Primary

Contraception Ruling

Have a great weekend,

Kathy, Justin, Ryan and Rachel


Jan 21 2012

NESC Weekly Update

Obama for America
NESC Weekly Update
January 20, 2012 Dear New England Steering Committee,
We hope everyone had a great week! Thank you for everyone who attended and participated in today’s Steering Committee Meeting. Please click here for the 2012 meeting schedule.

CALL NIGHT
We will be holding a call night Wednesday, January 25th at the Massachusetts Democratic Party Office located at 77 Summer Street, 10th Floor, Boston, MA 02111 to help spread the word and sell tickets for our upcoming Chefs for Obama event. Please sign up for a shift (5-6 p.m., 6-7 p.m., 7-8 p.m.) by emailing Ryan Fleury at Rfleury@barackobama.com. If you are not available to attend call night but would still like to make phone calls, please email rfleury@barackobama.com.    

RUNWAY TO WIN
On Tuesday, February 7th Obama Victory Fund will be launching Runway to Win – A project by fashion designers in support of Obama 2012. To view and pre-order designs please click here or go to barackobama.com. To help launch the store there will be a cocktail party hosted by Scarlett Johansson and Anna Wintour on February 7th at 6:00 p.m. in New York City. Please click here to view the invitation.

Don’t forget to watch the State of the Union Address on Tuesday, January 24th. Click here to find a watch party near you.         

Please see below for a list of all upcoming regional and national events.    

Go Patriots!!!

Kathy, Justin, Ryan and Rachel

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News Articles
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How Obama’s Long Game Will Outsmart His Critics
Daily Beast // Andrew Sullivan
You hear it everywhere. Democrats are disappointed in the president. Independents have soured even more. Republicans have worked themselves up into an apocalyptic fervor. And, yes, this is not exactly unusual.  A president in the last year of his first term will always get attacked mercilessly by his partisan opponents, and also, often, by the feistier members of his base.

Taxes at the Top

New York Times ByPAUL KRUGMAN

Call me peculiar, but I’m actually enjoying the spectacle of Mitt Romney doing the Dance of the Seven Veils — partly out of voyeurism, of course, but also because it’s about time that we had this discussion.

The Wealth Issue

New York Times By DAVID BROOKS

Mitt Romney is a rich man, but is Mitt Romney’s character formed by his wealth? Is Romney a spoiled, cosseted character? Has he been corrupted by ease and luxury? The notion is preposterous. All his life, Romney has been a worker and a grinder. He earned two degrees at Harvard simultaneously (in law and business). He built a business. He’s persevered year after year, amid defeat after defeat, to build a political career.

The following is from “The Week,” a weekly journal that is neither liberal nor conservative. They quoted several respected foreign newspapers regarding US GOP politics: (Hat tip: Bonnie Porta)

THE GERMAN PRESS
The Republican presidential contest in America is a “freak show,” said Marc Pitzke in the German Der Spiegel. The candidates vie with one another to spew the most outrageous hard-right positions, denying evolution while endorsing torture and joking about electrocuting illegal immigrants. How did a major party in the world’’s sole superpower become a “club of liars, debtors, betrayers, adulterers, exaggerators, hypocrites, and ignoramuses?” These know-nothings are enabled by a U.S. press that has been “neutered by the demands of political correctness” so that it can’’t say what’s obvious: These people are daft! Instead, it “proclaims one clown after the next to be the new front-runner.” The current favorite, Newt Gingrich, is actually considered an intellectual merely because he can create sentences with multiple clauses. Scarcely a one has even the most basic grasp of foreign policy. One said Africa is a country, another that the Taliban rule in Libya . Collectively, “they expose a political, economic, geographic, and historical ignorance that makes George W. Bush look like a scholar.”

THE FRENCH PRESS
That’’s the scariest part, said Lorraine Millot in the Paris Liberation. The only GOP candidate who knows a thing about diplomacy, Jon Huntsman, is dead last in most polls. The others “careen to extreme positions that include starting new wars and abandoning old allies.” And that’’s when they even have a position. Herman Cain, now thankfully out of the race, was the front-runner even though he couldn’’t find a single coherent word to say about President Obama’’s policy on  Libya . He even boasted of knowing little about foreign countries. And yet it was his adultery, not his astounding ignorance that brought him down.

THE BRITISH PRESS
There’’s a simple explanation for this bizarre phenomenon, said Max Hastings in the London Daily Mail. In the “lunatic, gun-toting badlands of America’’s Hicksville, Tea Party country,” it’’s considered suspiciously elitist to show any interest in modern science or the world beyond America ’’s borders. “Say what you like about British politics, no MP of any party would dare to offer themselves as town dogcatcher while knowing as little about the world as the Republican presidential candidates.” We take public service seriously. Yet we in Britain , and everyone in the rest of the world, will suffer if “one of the lunatics” vying for the nomination makes it to the White House. “The American political system has seldom, if ever, looked so inadequate.”
Don’t worry, said Matthew Norman in the London Independent. The fact that Gingrich is the latest threat to Mitt Romney’’s inevitability just “confirms how inevitable” Romney’’s nomination is. The thrice-married, ethically challenged Gingrich is unlikable in the extreme. Which means the nominee will be Romney, “the slimiest, phoniest opportunist to run for president since…well, ever.” So sit back and enjoy this circus passing for a presidential election. It can’’t possibly end in a GOP victory. Can it?
Jan 6 2012

NESC Weekly Update

Obama for America
NESC Weekly UpdateJanuary 6, 2012
Dear New England Steering Committee,

Happy 2012! Thank you to everyone who joined us at today’s Steering Committee Meeting. Please click here for the complete schedule of our future meetings. Also, thank you to everyone who attended our Iowa Caucus Watch Party at Del Frisco’s on Tuesday night. A big congratulation goes to Larry Drake who won first place in our Iowa Caucus Prediction contest!

Election year is underway and we hope you will help us hit the ground running. Please see below for a list of upcoming events and let us know how you would like to be involved.

Talking Points

Talking Points: Romney’s Jobs Claims Debunked

Organizing for America

OFA-MA will be organizing events across MA to support Barack Obama in the January 10th, 2012 NH primary.

January 7th and 8th:  At 10am there will be cars heading from MA to NH to knock on doors.  We will be meeting in Boston in the Bed, Bath and Beyond parking at Fenway Station.
Sign up here for January 7th: https://my.barackobama.com/page/event/detail/canvass/gpzw5b
Sign up here for January 8th:  https://my.barackobama.com/page/event/detail/gpzw5b

January 10th:  There will be events starting at 8am and 11:00am starting in MA and going to NH.  There will also be phonebanks throughout the day.  To meet at the Bed, Bath and Beyond parking in Fenway Station at 8:00am RSVP here:  https://my.barackobama.com/page/event/detail/gpzw5b

To look for other event locations, click here: https://my.barackobama.com/page/event/search_simple?source=primary-nav

See you soon,

Kathy, Justin, Ryan and Rachel

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NEW ENGLAND EVENTS CALENDAR
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Chefs for Obama – January 31, 2012
Time: 6:30 PM
Location:  The Cyclorama at the Boston Center for the Arts
Tickets:
$1,000 host (raise/write) – includes pre-reception with Chefs
$500 per individual – includes chef’s cookbook
(Entry to event is automatically entered into a drawing to judge the competition)
$250 per individual – General Admission
RSVP: http://my.barackobama.com/chefsforobamacookingcompetition
For more information please e-mail Ryan Fleury at rfleury@barackobama.com

Save the Date: Roundtable with Vice President Joe Biden – February 13, 2012
Boston, MA
$10,000 per person
Contact Justin Brennan at jbrennan@barackobama.com for more information.

Newton for Obama Reception with Diane Patrick – February 23, 2012
Newton, MA
https://my.barackobama.com/february23newtonreception
Tickets: $1,000 (Host)/$500/$200/$44
Contact Ryan Fleury at Rfleury@barackobama.com to join the host committee.

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News Articles
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Re-election

Obama Campaign Teams in Early States Dwarf Republican Operations
Bloomberg // Kate Andersen Brower
The biggest presidential primary campaign team in New Hampshire is tucked on a Manchester side street inside a four-story brick building and it belongs to the best-financed candidate seeking nomination: President Barack Obama. The office is one of seven in the state and his re-election campaign has about 20 paid employees. Massachusetts Governor Mitt Romney and former Pennsylvania Senator Rick Santorum, the two front-runners in the Republican presidential primary after they emerged first and second in the Iowa caucuses, each have one office. Romney has nine paid staffers in the state and Santorum has eight.

Obama announces new, leaner military approach
The Washington Post // Craig Whitlock and Greg Jaffe
The U.S. military will steadily shrink the Army and Marine Corps, reduce forces in Europe and probably make further cuts to the nation’s nuclear arsenal, the Obama administration said Thursday in a preview of how it intends to reshape the armed forces after a decade of war. The downsizing of the Pentagon, prompted by the country’s dire fiscal problems, means that the military will depend more on coalitions with allies and avoid the large-scale counterinsurgency and nation-building operations that have marked the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.

Donors, Secrecy and That Loophole
The New York Times // Editorial
The Federal Election Commission ended another abysmal year with its three Republican commissioners blocking an attempt to unmask the secret donors flooding the 2012 hustings with unlimited special-interest money. The three Democratic commissioners favored closing an F.E.C. loophole from 2007 that requires disclosure only if a donor’s stated “purpose” is to electioneer — as if any would-be secret donor would admit that. It has been particularly exploited in the wake of the Supreme Court’s Citizens United ruling, which allows corporations, unions and other heavy hitters to spend unlimited amounts.

Report says global climate deal hinges on Obama reelection
The Hill // Ben Geman
Prospects for striking a binding global climate deal by 2015 are probably toast if President Obama loses in November.  That’s among the conclusions in a wide-ranging new climate and green energy outlook from banking giant HSBC’s research branch.

Positive Signs for Jobs Market
The Wall Street Journal // Eric Morath and Luca Di Leo
Fewer people sought new unemployment benefits in the U.S. last week, further signaling that the labor market began to stabilize as 2011 drew to a close.  Separately, the private sector added a white-hot 325,000 jobs in December, according to Automatic Data Processing’s monthly hiring report.

Globe v. Herald

Caucuses give lift to Obama’s campaign
Boston Globe // Bobby Calvan
Democrats in Iowa delivered President Obama a resounding vote of confidence yesterday, gathering for caucuses that provided an opportunity for Democrats to test their ability to mobilize the party faithful. Overshadowed by caucuses being held by Republicans, Democrats assembled across the state in groups big and small, hoping to rally the troops for Obama as he sows support among Iowa’s 2.1 million voters, including 780,000 independents.

Voters make Obama the real loser in Iowa
Boston Herald // Joe Battenfeld
Mitt Romney’s strong showing in the heartland last night is not only a boost for his campaign, but bad news for the man he’s trying to replace: President Obama. Romney may not emerge from the Children of the Corn caucus as the winner, but Iowa was no field of dreams for Obama, either. Obama’s biggest nightmare was a clear victory for the former Massachusetts governor, who early results showed was in a tight, three-way battle with Ron Paul and Rick Santorum.

GOP

Romney goes to heck
Politico // Roger Simon
For Mitt Romney, it was the event from hell. Or from heck, since Mitt Romney does not use words like hell. Or any of the other bad words that any other candidate might have used after this event on the day following his narrow victory in the Iowa caucuses. Let’s start with the mic check, that part of an event when a staffer comes out, pings his finger against the microphone and says, “Testing. Testing. One, two, three.”

Romney and Santorum demonstrate hugely different bases of support
The Washington Post // Aaron Blake
Mitt Romney and Rick Santorum wound up in a virtual tie in the Iowa caucuses on Tuesday. And they did it from extremely different bases of support. While Santorum relied on very conservative voters, born-again Christians, and social and moral conservatives, Romney relied on voters who were most concerned about the economy, who just want to beat President Obama, and those who don’t identify as born-agains. And the difference, in almost every case, was stark.

Here’s What Romney’s Unreleased Tax Returns Almost Certainly Hide
Talking Points Memo // Brian Beutler
Mitt Romney still says he’s unlikely to publicly release his tax information, even if he clinches the Republican presidential nomination, and Democrats have a pretty good idea why. Romney is a privileged poster child for the “Buffett Rule” — President Obama’s principle that the tax code should make it impossible for a person of great wealth to pay a lower share of their income in taxes as than ordinary people. The DNC knows it, policy wonks know it, Romney certainly knows it. But the reasons why are technical and illustrate just how different Romney is from the vast majority of Americans who will cast votes for him — in either the GOP primary or the general election.

Mitt Romney is stumped on differences between Rick Santorum and him
Boston Globe // Shira Schoenberg
Former Massachusetts Governor Mitt Romney, after winning the Iowa caucuses last night with just eight votes more than former Pennsylvania Senator Rick Santorum, showed today how unexpected an opponent Santorum is.  Asked on MSNBC’s “Morning Joe” for two issues where Romney and Santorum differ, Romney couldn’t name one. “We really haven’t had much opportunity to get to know Rick Santorum on the issues,” Romney said. “Over the past several months, our efforts been focused on comparing and contrasting with Speaker [Newt] Gingrich, with Rick Perry, with Herman Cain. These are the guys who have led in the polls.”

Kamikaze Newt: Trying to Win, or Out for Revenge?
ABC News // Rick Klein
The much-awaited first Newt Gingrich attack ad on Mitt Romney is out, blasting Romney as “timid” when it comes to creating jobs.  But here’s the thing about that ad: It’s timid. It quotes a Wall Street Journal editorial, but uses none of the most damaging details and footage from Romney’s past, parts of Romney’s past he himself has, remarkably, managed not to have to face directly from his rivals this election cycle.
Paid for by Obama for America
Nov 4 2011

NESC Weekly Update

NESC Weekly Update
November 4, 2011Thank you to everyone who came to the Steering Committee Meeting this morning with Obama for America Finance Director Rufus Gifford. As discussed at the meeting, this Sunday, November 6th, we will be celebrating ‘One Year Out’ from the 2012 election at The Beehive, 541 Tremont Street, Boston, MA.

We will be joined by Governor Deval Patrick, Special Counselor to the President Pete Rouse and Obama for American Finance Director Rufus Gifford. This is a great opportunity for us to celebrate what we have accomplished this year.

Please RSVP online by clicking here.

Ticket prices are $44 (gen 44 admission), $100 (general admission) and $750 (Host Committee Reception). **Please note the updated ticket prices**

As you know President Obama has been urging Congress to pass the America Jobs Act. Please click here to see slides on why we can’t wait.

See you soon,

Kathy, Justin, Ryan and Rachel

May 22 2011

Day of Service at the Tobin School in Boston

by guest blogger – Barbara Weniger

On Saturday May 21st a gathering of volunteers came together at the Tobin School in Boston for a day of Community Service.  Three years ago President Obama called on all Americans to find projects in their own communities to get involved with and members of the New England Steering Committee and Women for Change have been volunteering at the Tobin School.  At 9 a.m. a group of us arrived and began working on clearing the grounds around the school and planting flowers and shrubs.  This seemingly small step does a lot just to enhance the experience of the students as they come and go to school each day.  Saturday was a nice cool day and with a large group of us helping it did not take long to get the job done.  There are so many ways we can each contribute to improving things and this is one of them.  When President Obama was in Boston on May 18th he spoke about how when the quality of life is improved for any one person it makes life better for all of us.  Thanks to everyone who helped at the Tobin School on Saturday!!