Texans for Obama

Groundswell of support tries to sway Obama

The grassroots movement continues to grow...

By April Simpson - Boston Globe

He wowed them in New Hampshire last week, and everyone seems to be talking about a possible presidential run in 2008. Despite his flirtation with the idea, Senator Barack Obama, Democrat of Illinois insists that he hasn’t made up his mind.

But the volunteer group Draft Obama has produced a television ad to air this weekend on cable networks in New Hampshire and Washington, D.C. Composed of recordings of his speeches and wildly applauding audiences, the ad shows an image of Obama with voters and of President Bush while Obama speaks to an enthusiastic audience, saying, ‘‘Do we participate in a politics of cynicism, or do we participate in a politics of hope?’’

The ad, viewed 40,000 times since being posted Wednesday on YouTube.com, according to the group — is meant to spark a grass-roots movement and send a strong message to the senator, organizers said.

‘‘We wanted to make sure that ..... [he] knows that there are thousands of supporters ready and rearing to go,’’ said Ben Stanfield, a Maryland computer technician who registered the domain name draftobama.org two years ago and began posting on the site in October.

Draft Obama unveils their first TV ad

Click here to watch this cool new ad.  It's one of the most inpsiring 60-second videos I've seen in a long time.  It's awesome!

WASHINGTON, Dec. 13 /U.S. Newswire/ --  http://www.DraftObama.org , a grassroots movement supporting a presidential run by Senator Barack Obama (D-Ill.), unveiled their first TV ad today. The ad, to run early next week in New Hampshire and Washington D.C., highlights Obama's potential to lead this country in a new direction and demonstrates the movement's growing strength. It is the first paid media buy by any Democratic organization this presidential election cycle.

The sixty-second spot entitled "Believe Again" was produced by Democratic media consultant Bud Jackson, who produced award- winning TV ads for the successful effort to draft Wesley Clark into the 2004 Democratic primary race for president. Jackson's spots to draft Clark were the first-ever produced television ads to draft a candidate for president of the United States. John Hlinko, who founded DraftWesleyClark.com and is now with DraftObama.org was impressed with the new Obama ad: "This is unprecedented. What's amazing about the Obama phenomenon is not that people love him, but the degree of sophistication of an unpaid young, dedicated and diffuse group this early. I've never seen anything like it," said Hlinko.

"We want to show Senator Obama that there is a rapidly growing movement out there ready to support him if he runs for president," said Ben Stanfield, founder of DraftObama.org, "so the organization commissioned a TV ad conveying Obama's message of hope." The ad shows pictures of Obama at rallies and events, and the voice-over is composed of clips from the senator's speeches, including his famous address to the Democratic National Convention in 2004. Stanfield hopes the ad will inspire people to join the DraftObama.org movement and, of course, nudge the senator towards making a bid for president.

DraftObama.org is grassroots organization supporting a presidential run by Senator Barack Obama. The movement, spearheaded by a growing collection of volunteers from around the country, has quickly grown from a single web page created by Stanfield, a computer technician in Rockville, Md., to a national organization with 13,000 members and over 25 state chapters.

Draft Obama

Sign up for this nation-wide Draft Obama movement.