FR Exclusive: Obama Campaign Manager David Plouffe Insults Michigan Voters

Wednesday, September 17, 2008 | Kristinn

[kristinn]

David Plouffe, campaign manager of Democratic presidential nominee Sen. Barack Obama of Illinois, issued a campaign fundraising video today that includes an insulting reference to Michigan that shows a lack of concern for the voters in that key swing state.

Plouffe e-mailed the You Tube video to Obama supporters and the media to explain to them why the campaign needs a lot more money from them. He used a map of the United States to highlight the seventeen swing states the Obama campaign is targeting, but the main point was to inform the supporters the campaign was budgeting a whopping $39 million for Florida alone.

Plouffe used the map many times during the video presentation. Part of his job is to know the targeted swing states down to the city, town, county and precint level.

Yet his map had a glaring error on it that any fifth grader would catch. The Upper Peninsula of Michigan was not colored in as part of the swing state of Michigan. It was left blank like it was another state, perhaps one of Obama's mythical 57 states.

[iloveluci]

I live in California and Elko,Nv is not that big. That was probably the whole town and Obama probably paid them. I think Obama is getting desperate if he's trying to hit these small towns in Nevada, he isn't going to make it....

[kristinn]

Thanks. I’ll get the hang of this one day.

[txroadkill]

maybe more like this.

[txroadkill]

beat me to it

[leapfrog0202]

Thanks TX - I wasn’t sure how to downsize mine. You did it much better.

[KoRn]

Here ya go!

[ari-freedom]

Michigan...they didn’t seem to care about it during the primary

[maine-iac7]

molehill

[Tammy8]

I admit I haven’t been to Elko in years, but I can’t imagine that it has grown as much as that rally would suggest. One thing I found odd, when I was there the town was ranchers, cowboys- definately clinging to God and guns country people. The people I saw today did not look like the Elko I knew at all.

The Hillary supporters claimed Obama bussed in crowds during the primary...if true those people should be well traveled by now.

[HIDEK6]

Yoopers.

[Yossarian]

It isn't just that the UP is it's own state, but the Keewenaw Penninsula is just totally missing from map!

What did it do? Fall into Lake Superior?!?

Houghton-Hancock, AKA "Yooperopolis"

Hey - maybe Obama is part of the UP independence movement, and this is a coded message that he's a Sooper Yooper at heart!

[curth]

If you mean The Fraud’s rally in Elko, this article says 1,500.

http://apnews.myway.com/article/20080917/D938NSQO1.html

[Yossarian]

Whoops - how embarassing - "Keewenaw" should read "Keweenaw".

What the hey - I are a inguneer, after all.....

[kristinn]

Thanks for the help. Maybe you could do a You Tube video highlighting Plouffe’s idiocy.

[ride the whirlwind]

We live 3 miles from the Portage Lake lift bridge in your picture. Currently we are in WI on a trip and already have our tickets for the McCain Palin rally in Green Bay tomorrow! Am sooo ready for this!

[Aussiebabe]

Perhaps the Upper Peninsula is one of Obama’s 57 states?

[airedale]

The upper peninsula of Michigan is sparsely populated (3% of states population) and has a lot more in common with Sarah Palin than Barack Obama and his ticket. If you go to the county by county red blue map of the 2004 election you’ll see that the UP is red except for a small area around the Northern Michigan University in Marquette and a small incursion near Iron Mountain
http://www-personal.umich.edu/~mejn/election/ The problem is that the area around Marquette has a large percentage of the population in the UP and since that’s where a large state university is located it skews the vote. There are 3 other universities in the UP (Lake Superior State University in Sault Ste. Marie; and Michigan Technological University in Houghton. Finlandia University is a private university located in Hancock, Michigan, on the Keweenaw Peninsula.) again that concentration of liberals is going to skew the area’s vote results. As a whole the UP votes Democrat and so Obama doesn’t have to pay it any attention.

Now why would it be white on the map? The UP gets no respect from the lower part of the state and when you talk to a lot of people they don’t know it’s part of Michigan. BTW there is a secessionist movement in the UP to make it the 51st state. Perhaps that’s one of the states Barack was talking about. Some people think it’s part of Wisconsin. They could also consider it a safe area and not part of something that would swing away from them like the lower part of the state. However, I’ll put it down to carelessness and stupidity.

[buckeye12]

Doesn’t matter. MI will continue to disappoint the GOP as it always has, I have several republican family members in the area who are voting for Hussein because “wall street is greedy.”

Not sure what that means but I know enough about the state to know that its going to that moron.

[ninergold3]

The Elko Area Chamber of Commerce
"The Voice of Business"

A group of local citizens and businessmen met on April 1, 1907, to further develop the concept of a Chamber of Commerce for Elko. According to a Free Press article that was published on April 12, 1907, there were 37 citizens representing almost every business in town, at this initial meeting. This enthusiastic and farsighted gathering, led by J.A. McBride, felt that the organization of a Chamber would do "great things for Elko and Elko County." The motto that they adopted was progress, and the goal was to advertise the many resources that Elko County had to offer.

Today, the Elko Chamber of Commerce continues to be progressive and involved in the issues that affect Elko businesses and the community. The Chamber membership has grown to over 600 businesses. With a township population of about 36,000, Elko is known as the hub of Northeastern Nevada.

Through economic diversification, we hope to ensure continued prosperity as we face future economic changes. The future will see our population continue to expand. With this growth will come new opportunities, as well as problems. The Chamber is preparing now for the challenges of the future, just as our predecessors did in 1907.

[ninergold3]

From Wikipedia:

Elko is the principal city of the Elko Micropolitan Statistical Area, a micropolitan area that covers Elko and Eureka counties[8] and had a combined population of 46,942 at the 2000 census.[9]

As of the census[9] of 2000, there were 20,732 people, 8,505 households, and 5,287 families residing in the city. The population density was 1,153.3 people per square mile (445.2/km²). There were 6,948 housing units at an average density of 479.6/sq mi (185.1/km²). The racial makeup of the city was 81.5% White, 0.3% African American, 5.4% Native American, 1.0% Asian, 0.1% Pacific Islander, 8.6% from other races, and 2.94% from two or more races. Hispanic or Latino of any race were 19.4% of the population.

There were 8,505 households out of which 40.6% had children under the age of 18 living with them, 54.8% were married couples living together, 9.8% had a female householder with no husband present, and 29.8% were non-families. 23.5% of all households were made up of individuals and 5.7% had someone living alone who was 65 years of age or older. The average household size was 2.72 and the average family size was 3.26.

In the city the population was spread out with 31.1% under the age of 18, 9.8% from 18 to 24, 31.2% from 25 to 44, 21.0% from 45 to 64, and 7.6% who were 65 years of age or older. The median age was 31.5 years. For every 100 females there were 104.6 males. For every 100 females age 18 and over, there were 105.3 males.

The median income for a household in the city was $48,656, and the median income for a family was $52,263. Males had a median income of $42,155 versus $26,823 for females. The per capita income for the city was $19,680. About 6.1% of families and 8.2% of the population were below the poverty line, including 8.9% of those under age 18 and 8.4% of those age 65 or over.