Pep Talk for Webb Supporters

My Fellow Volunteers:

As we go into the critical last few weeks of this campaign, I want to share with you how I feel and why I am still working my tail off to get Jim Webb the Democratic nomination to the U.S. Senate.

I started my career on the +óGé¼+ôLeft+óGé¼-¥ wing of the party, with the idea that the Progressives represented reform, a fight against the influence of money in politics. I thought the moderates controlled the party, and were selling us out for campaign donations.

When I arrived in Washington several years ago, I went through a long, painful period of realization that it was not the moderates, but my own precious Left who had  made this devils+óGé¼Gäó bargain: If you (the big donors) let me keep my position of power as the leader of one of the interest groups that make up the Democratic Party coalition, I will avoid addressing the big economic issues that are crushing the very people I represent.

Many do not know they have done this. They have simply decided to do the best they can given the circumstances - the circumstances being that money rules Washington. I do not blame them for doing so. They are either trying to make some small gains for the particular needs of the people they represent, or they are too busy repelling attacks from the Right to think about larger strategic goals.

But I believe the time is long overdue to fight for the soul of the Democratic Party. I have found few in the Democratic Party establishment, either political leaders or among the ranks the consultanting industry, who do not, on some level, think themselves to be better than the people they claim to serve.

It is our great fortune to have Howard Dean, who may lack finesse in front of a camera, but has the balls to stand up the the consultants and to spend the Party+óGé¼Gäós money on actual party building by people in their communities, instead of the mindless attack ads those consultants make their money on.

Our campaign industry is broken. It is drowning in people who have never held a job ouside of Washington or the industry. Harvard graduates and Hill interns who got their positions because Daddy was somebody+óGé¼Gäós big donor. It+óGé¼Gäós full of people who think they know better how to win because they+óGé¼Gäóre +óGé¼+ôinsiders+óGé¼-¥ and they+óGé¼Gäóre all just dying to latch on to the campaign that will make them a star, or someday - god willing - a pundit.

Some of us believe that the answer is not in automating every part of the campaign, data mining, hyper-targeting, cable ads by zip code, issue targeted direct mail, and robo-calls - the +óGé¼+ôwhy deal with volunteers you can+óGé¼Gäót control+óGé¼-¥ school of campaign management.

Some of us believe that the only way to win the hearts of the people is through good candidates and personal contact, supported by a clear and honest message. Mail and ads and calls are an important part of the operation, but they merely bring name recognition or remind people of election day. People are not persuaded by advertising or even logic, they are persuaded by the impassioned words of their respected peers. Inspiration is highly contagious.

The campaign we are involved in right now is, in many ways, the front line of this battle for the soul of the Party. We have on one side, an independent and outpoken man who can+óGé¼Gäót be bought, who is a true populist, an anti-elitist to the core (if you read his book, Born Fighting, it traces his anti-elitist roots back literally thousands of years.)

On the other side, we have a man who carefully does what the party expects him to do, and says what the party expects him to say, while amassing a personal fortune selling our livelihoods down the river. Are we still so blind as to be able to nominate such a man?

So we find ourselves at a crossroads. Miller has piles of money and some of the best campaign operatives money can buy. We+óGé¼Gäóve got a small but scrappy team and far fewer material resources, but we+óGé¼Gäóve got something he+óGé¼Gäóll never have - YOU.

Jim Webb is a rare man. He is honest and unafraid to speak his mind about the complex truths that exist in our political world, and for that reason he may be a target for finely tuned attack machine. But we+óGé¼Gäóre not going to let that happen, are we.

I know some of us are very tired, and frustrated by the lack of resources. But we need to get past our personal issues, and recognize that this campaign is far more important than any of us individually. The despair I would feel if we lost this particular battle, in this particular time, and this particular place, would be staggering.

I feel that we, as Democrats, must look into our souls and figure out what it truly means to be a Democrat -  and if it doesn+óGé¼Gäót mean we fight to be represented in our government by people who will stand for us in the face of awesome power, then I don+óGé¼Gäót know what it means.

So we have fifteen or sixteen days left. We must reach every person who may vote in this election, and ask them to stand with us, to get past the knee-jerk orthodoxies of our Party+óGé¼Gäós recent past and remember why we are Democrats, or why we should +óGé¼+ôcome back to the Democratic Party+óGé¼-¥ or, in some cases, why we should become Democrats for the first time.

We must ask people to put their faith in this man, Jim Webb, as the potential leader of a small but determined and growing movement to take back our country from the unbridled greed that has made so many lose faith in government all together.

So today, I know without a doubt why I will get up and go put in another long campaign day. I hope you do too.

So get out there today and do whatever it is you do for this campaign, and know that there are many, including Jim Webb, who appreciate you and believe in you.

Thanks, everyone.

I+óGé¼Gäóll see you soon.

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