The Young Democrats of America Conference - Edwards to Win

[jsamuel]

John Edwards was the only presidential candidate to come to the YDA Conference in Dallas, Texas last week. Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton each sent a representative to speak on their behalf. It says a lot that Edwards showed up to an organization that needs attention. It shows that he is committed to helping young people in the Democratic party. We are the ones who will get out your vote, candidates. As one of the presenters said, "you guys aren't the future of the Democratic Party, you're the present."



(I'm second on the right of John in the front row.) originals


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Part I - WOOOOOO PIG SOOIE! RAZORBACKS!
I got to go to this conference thanks to the Arkansas Young Democrats getting sponsored. Arkansas was the second largest delegation (60 strong) behind Texas (which has the population of Arkansas in Dallas alone). The Arkansas Young Democrats benefit from having an Executive Director Gary Moody and President Will Gruber. As a result of all Arkansas' hard work, we won Chapter of the Year!




Arkansas Young Democrats


Arkansas also won for "Outstanding Program of the Year" (by Executive Director Gary Moody and former UA Chapter President Cody Bassham) for a training and recruitment program using Facebook.com as a political networking tool.


Part II - Edwards' Impact
The Edwards campaign had a small meeting with supporters asking them what they would like to see from the Edwards campaign and other announcements. I took the opportunity to try to help by passing out stickers and such. I suggested we put fliers with Edwards' issues, policies, and plans on people's seats before the speech, but a very capable campaign manager, Brian Jung, said he thought we should pass them out at the door as people go in. That was a much better idea. Anyway, I also helped by passing out the John Edwards '08 signs to the audience. After the speech, I got to take the photo above with some other supporters.

Now as for the speech, I'd have to say that John Edwards was a hit for this crowd. Most were undecided and some had already made up their minds for Obama or Hillary. However, those who had already decided for Edwards were fired up and so were the undecideds.

Here is an excerpt from Young Democrats of Atlanta live blog:

Senator Edwards is getting a VERY warm reception.
...
I don't understand why Edwards can't catch up to Obama and Clinton when he gives these great speeches.
...
Edwards is telling a story about a man with a cleft palate, who didn't get the condition fixed until he was fifty years old. Gotta say, that's *insane*. The Edwards signs are out...
...

Edwards has just wrapped up, and I have two words for everything he said - "fuck" and "yeah". To say that Senator Edwards was well-received here would be a huge understatement. He put out the call to action to young people - he didn't just give the stock stump speech, he knew his audience and he spoke right to them. After that speech, and coupled with the fact that Senators Obama and Clinton are apparently too high and mighty to grace us with their exalted presences (they still have time to change their minds), I'd be very surprised if Edwards didn't come out of here with a lot of converts....

I have to agree. It was a wonderful speech and the energy was very high. There were several standing ovations and people came out of there with a great idea of what Edwards is about. If you were wondering where Edwards got his energy for Monday's debate, he got it here...

From TheTexasBlue.com:

...

The next standing ovation was elicited by one of his strongest themes — universal health care for all Americans. "I want everyone to understand that a plan like this costs money," he said, "and my plan will cost approximately $90-120 billion. And how do we pay for it? By getting rid of George Bush's tax cuts!" The Two Americans theme was intermixed with every topic, and especially this one. He offered a story of a man in Kentucky who was born with a cleft pallet. He was 51 years old and someone had finally offered to fix it for him for free. "What made my blood boil, and made me physically get truly upset, is that he had this surgery when he was 50," Senator Edwards said while getting even more animated, "It shouldn't take 10, 20, 30, 40 or 50 years to treat someone for something that was entirely fixable years before!"

Senator Edwards closed his speech by stressing the importance of youth in politics and in America in general. He said, "It is young people like you who are the ones trying to end genocide in Darfur, and trying to stop global warming, and trying to end poverty. No matter who you vote for as President, he can not do it alone."

After his speech ended, we had a brief Q&A with Senator Edwards in the Press Room. Dallas Morning News columnist Gromer Jeffers Jr. asked him what he says to those who criticize him for spending $400 on hair cuts, while talking about poverty. "Typical partisan politics," Senator Edwards responded. There was also discussion of the importance of Southeast Asia, as well as China in the area's role in the world. Edwards said he was concerned with China and their need for oil, as well as their trade policies. But the one question that stood out was if the March primary in Texas made the state any less significant. Senator Edwards responded that he believed that he has raised the most money in Texas out of any other state (or pretty close to it). The session concluded with the Senator being whisked away by his staff.

Overall this night for Senator Edwards was one of his best. If the response from the Young Democrats are any indication, we could be looking at the next Democratic Presidential Nominee.

Part III - As for Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton
Barack Obama was represented by Steve Westley and Hillary Clinton was represented by Congresswoman Jackson-Lee.

From Young Democrats of Atlanta live blog

Woohoo, only 30 minutes late! We're underway here and we're hearing from Steve Westley from California who is going to speak on behalf of the Obama campaign, to which I say "lame", or maybe "whoop de doo". I'm sorry, Obama shold have been here himself and I'm going to think twice before I support him. There's a little jeering section back here...

The guy just mentioned "Atlanta" and got probably the only cheers from this section he's going to get. Hope he enjoyed it. In other news, on the way in here, Oklahoma and New York chanted and bore up their banners and generally called undue attention to themselves. This blogger is settling in for a long afternoon...

3:10 P.M. "Once per generation, an individual can truly inspire that generation." Sorry, Howard Dean beat Senator Obama to the punch... I wish we had had a pen over here to play "buzzword bingo", we would have done pretty well in this one speech! At least Mr. Westly is finishing up here.

From Young Democrats of Atlanta live blog

3:19 P.M. We've just been introduced to Congresswoman Sheila Jackon-Lee to speak on behalf of the Clinton campaign, and even though Hillary gets the same jeers for not being here, the Congresswoman is already proving herself to be a much more entertaining speaker.

Republicans have been compared to grasshoppers in this speech; we've been asked not to step on them :-)

3:27 P.M. Quite frankly I'm more ready to vote for Congresswoman Jackson-Lee than I am for Senator Clinton at this point - great speech, but how much does it reflect Hillary's personal agenda? Hopefully more rather than less. The Congresswoman is reminding me of John Lewis! She's just mentioned Hurricane Katrina, so we can credit Senator Edwards for at least making that much of an impact on the campaign. Ridiculous that Obama's guy didn't mention it.

3:34 P.M. Well, this is a big improvement over what we got from the Obama campaign - a personal video message from Senator Clinton. What the hell is the Obama campaign's problem? I'm ready to forgive Senator Clinton for not personally being here, but the Obama effort strikes me as REALLY weak.

Truthfully, Obama's presence here was made up of a speaker and two volunteers passing out stickers. With all the money he has, you think he could have had a table or something. Even Clinton had a table and was signing people up while passing out signs.

What did Edwards speak about? The issues, his policies, and his plans. He talked about why we need change and how he is going to make it happen.

What did the Obama rep. speak about? The Obama campaign ROCKS! Nothing was included about plans, policies, or issues. Only topics were that Obama is a rock star, he has lots of donors, and he has lots of money. It was really quite sad. The crowd was not happy.

What did the Clinton rep. speak about? Grasshoppers and tree-shakers. Metaphors for going up and down and for change. Nothing about issues. However, Clinton did one-up Obama by including a personal video that did cover some of the issues that we are looking at, but only in generic terms. One problem with that was that it got out of sync (not her fault) with the sound and I couldn't stop laughing. Plus, watching Hillary Clinton on the big screen in the crowd made me think someone was going to run in with a hammer and throw it at the screen.


Part IV - It had to end
One anecdotal story is that a roommate of mine went from being a "waiting for Gore" to a "I now have a horse in this race" while wearing a John Edwards '08 sticker.

The conference overall was great. Training sessions taught some of us how to get involved with politics including how to run for office and how to do peer-to-peer networking. I will use some of those skills working for Edwards on the ground at a local level.

(I wish I could post these pictures, but you must click on the links to view them.)

One of the posters in an Edwards supporter's hands.

Gen. Wesley Clark was also there on Friday.

John Edwards happy with the warm reception.

One of many standing ovations for John Edwards.

Newly crowned President David Hardt who is an openly gay Texan.

[Gloria]

1. Thanks for the VERY full report!

[draft_mario_cuomo]

2. Thanks for the info. Are you going to the fall meeting in NH?

I went to the winter meeting in Washington, since it was within driving distance of me and I am strongly leaning toward attending the NH meeting.

[jsamuel]

4. I don't know, being from Arkansas, it seems unlikely

The only reason why I got to go this time was because we bussed there from Arkansas. Can't do that with NH.

[draft_mario_cuomo]

5. Ok, well if you do let me know

I am from NJ and NH is about 7-8 hours from me so I may make the trip.

I am happy for David. David Hardt is a good guy, as is Omar Khan.

[jsamuel]

7. Will do. Yes they are.

[benny05]

3. Excellent Report

Thanks, the M$M doesn't bother to cover these events. I guess they think Young Dems don't vote.

Wow, Edwards was the sole Presidential candidate at this gig. That illustrates his commitment to Young Dems. Too bad Cate was busy with an internship this summer and couldn't go.

[ashling]

6. My daughter Abby was there too

She was a delegate from Missouri and on the platform Committee.

[jsamuel]

8. Great!

[snowbear]

9. Awesome photo of Senator Edwards in that first shot!

for sharing jsamuel!

[goodhue]

10. great post

I don't understand why other presidential candidates were not present.
The YDA folks can have a huge impact if motivated.