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As the presidential campaign thrashes into its final weeks, one segment of Pittsburgh’s populace is being singled out for special attention from Sen. Barack Obama‘s campaign: the region’s lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender voters.
In the primary, LGBT voters went strongly for Hillary Clinton. According to a poll conducted by New York City-based Hunter College, 63 percent of LGBT voters backed Clinton compared to 22 percent for Obama. And now there are fears that some of these voters, still stinging from Clinton’s defeat, will either sit out the election, write in Clinton or vote for John McCain.
“There was a major disconnect on this side of the state between Obama and the LGBT vote,” says Gary Van Horn, of Pittsburgh’s LGBT-advocacy group the Delta Foundation and owner of Images, a LGBT bar downtown. “There was huge support for Hillary. Obama didn’t spend much time reaching out.
“I was pretty hurt after the primary — I would cut off my leg for Hillary,” Van Horn adds. “I never heard from Obama.”
Obama Pride, the grassroots LGBT arm of the campaign, is hoping to change that. The group is partnering with Hillary Sent Me, a national push to nudge disenchanted Clinton supporters over to the Obama camp. The organizations are working side-by-side in Pittsburgh, and the campaign has sent Jamie Citron, deputy director of LGBT Vote, to Pittsburgh for the final push to the finish.
“Within the LGBT community, support for Hillary Clinton was so strong, people never got properly introduced to Barack Obama,” Citron says. “In the primary, constituency outreach was not our strongest suit. I wouldn’t call it a race to catch up; it’s a push to introduce Barack. There’s a large population here. I think it’s been undercourted. … Here in Pittsburgh, LGBT folks who supported Clinton just haven’t felt the same excitement.”
The weekend of Oct. 17 saw eager volunteers from New York begin the Hillary Sent Me door-knocking campaign, including heavy-hitters like Joan McGarry, past executive director of GLAAD, who shared her story of going from hardcore Hillary fan to ardent Obama supporter. The prior weekend saw a private reception for local leaders featuring Massachusetts Gov. Deval Patrick.
The point, says Citron, is “to unite Democrats, independents, like-minded Republicans to get involved.” But the focus isn’t necessarily on getting voters committed to Sen. John McCain to come over to Obama’s side: It’s getting folks who plan to sit out the election, or to write in Clinton’s name, to make the jump to Obama.
“The vast majority of Hillary supporters have come over. People want to make their voices heard — I’ve heard people saying, ‘I’m going to write in Hillary Clinton,'” Citron says. “I can’t say it’s not admirable, but in a swing state like Pennsylvania, a write-in vote or a decision not to vote is a vote for McCain.”
After the primary, Van Horn says, he got a call from Mark Walsh, Clinton’s national LGBT outreach coordinator, imploring him to take his fervent Clinton support and move it to Obama. He did, and has been working to get friends and colleagues to do the same.
Van Horn is hoping the outreach efforts will help aggrieved Clinton supporters see a larger picture. “This is a lot bigger than Hillary right now,” Van Horn says. “It’s about the country.”
This article appears in Oct 23-29, 2008.
Our beautiful soon to be Vice President Sarah Palin is the best future leader for this nation, not Senator Barak Obama. Our beautiful soon to be Vice President Sarah Palin is also would be better at leading our nation in the future after a McCain Presidency than Senator Barak Obama would be in leading our nation in the future starting in January 2009. There are great reasons our soon to be Vice President Sarah Palin would be a better future leader than Senator Barak Obama. The greatest reason for our soon to be Vice President Sarah Palin’s is ideology. Our soon to be Vice President Sarah Palin is conservative in that she is pro life, marriage, guns, low taxes, low government spending, small government, unintrosive government, traditional and judeo Christian values, Bible reading and prayer in our public schools, and military spending.She is also pro free and private enterprize. Senator Barak Obama is a liberal who is anti every thing that I have described that our soon to be Vice President Sarah Palin is pro about or for. A second reason that our soon to be Vice President Sarah Palin is superior is because of experience. As a governor she has two years of executive administrative governing experience that Senator Barak Obama does not have. A final reason that our soon to be Vice President Sarah Palin is superior is because of political accomplishments. When our soon to be Vice President Sarah Palin came to office she accomplished 3 major things which are as follows: she showed great leadership in the 3 following areas: government reform, the state budget and the economy, and wise use of natural resources. She reformed government by standing up to the big oil companies by breaking up the monopoly on power and resources. She insisted on competition and basic fairness which ended the control that the oil companies had on the state, and thereby returning control of the state back to the people. She also stood up to the special interest and lobbyist, and produced major ethics reform. She lead well in the state budget by generating a surplus which came about by vetoing a half billion dollars of wasteful spending, ending the abuses of earmark spending by congress, and by getting rid of the private jet, the chef, and the chuffer. Economically under her leadership she brought about the largest private-sector infrastructure project in North American history. She also suspended the state fuel tax, and when oil and gas prices went up dramatically, and filled up the state treasury, she sent a large share of that revenue back where it belonged – directly to the people of Alaska . On natural resources she has shown great leadership by beginning a nearly forty billion dollar natural gas pipeline to help lead America to energy independence. When the last section of the pipeline is laid and its valves are opened, will lead America one step farther away from dependence on dangerous foreign powers that do not have our interests at heart. Senator Barak Obama has done nothing, so please vote John McCain for President and give to our beautiful soon to be Vice President Sarah Palin the opportunity that she deserves leading the nation into the future after a John McCain presidency. When our soon to be Vice President does lead the nation as President after a John McCain presidency,she will be the greatest President that we have ever had. Finally she is smarter than Senator Barak Obama
Thank You
John Warren
Obama’s meteoric RISE to POWER, despite his INEXPERIENCE, SOCIALISTIC AGENDA and his FRIENDS/SPIRITUAL ADVISOR’s hate toward America, whites and Jews, has never been question by most of the media. The BIAS and control PRESS we have in this country is dangerous to our democracy. Obama socialist views of ENTITLEMENT will only solidify my belief that we are loosing as a nation. We can never fault a man for what others have said around him, but when those others are his spiritual advisors, friends, mentors, suppliers of money, then we have to question his judgment. Why didn’t he object to it, why didn’t he walked out on it? I believe the reason he lives on the same street as AYER and FARRAKAN is because he has found his comfort zone.
“WHEN the CHARACTER of a MAN is NOT CLEAR to you LOOK at HIS FRIENDS” – Japanese proverb
Know the truth!
Truth
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=blcC_kCnf8U
Bill Clinton saying its the Democats fault about Fredie and Fannie at the end
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cLQU7uNR5bM
Truth on Oil/ Drilling http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VobxUtOEM7M
This one is pathetic and makes me sick http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1teACBS-1cc
Better watch out Obama & Biden are realy aganst Clean Coal!!
Here is proof- Joe Biden sayes no to clean Coal in America
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iJ55UzAsp6M
Obama raising taxes is going to kill jobs and cause the prices of goods to go up.
Cost at the top DOES trickle down!!
Proof- Gas prices went up for factories and farmers during the summer and the prices on food and everything else went up plus many jobs where lost.
That’s just the way it is!!!!