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Obama for America

"One Million Person-to-Person Conversations" +
  4:14 web video from Nov. 16, 2011.

[Music] Jim Messina: Hey everybody it's Jim Messina, the President's campaign manager.  I wanted to check in with you about one of the core promises we made to you when we launched this campaign and then tell you about a really important milestone we just reached a couple days ago.

When President Obama announced his plan to run for re-election we made a commitment to reach out to every single person who donated or volunteered to the 2008 campaign to get them involved for '12.  Not a mass email or a telemarketing call, but a one-on-one conversation, in person whenever possible on the phone otherwise, between everyday Americans about what they want to see from this campaign and why they want to be involved. 

A few days ago we passed a very big number: one million person-to-person conversations held between supporters.  The millionth conversation was between a Colorado volunteer named Betsy and a Denver man named Gregory, a 66-year old who'd never gotten involved with us before, not even in '08.  As a result of the conversation he had with our organizers in Colorado, Gregory attended a one year out event in his area on November 6th and moving forward he's planning on continuing to volunteer in his community.

Think about this for a sec.  One million conversations between volunteers and supporters in communities all across this country.  97,230 of these conversations happened in Florida.  83,959 happened in North Carolina.  74,170 happened in Nevada.

These conversations aren't the only amazing thing happening on the ground.  Two weeks ago we had our biggest day of action yet on the campaign, with more than 2,000 volunteer-led events all across the country.  And, a few days ago we also reached another big number, our 1,000th neighborhood team leader signed up to lead this campaign at the local level.

Meanwhile a lot of reporters and DC pundits are questioning whether this campaign has what it takes to win, questioning your commitment to seeing this thing through.  But we didn't pay any attention to that kind of cynicism in '08, and today's milestone just goes to show we aren't paying a single bit of attention to it now.

You're keeping your head down, you're organizing person-to-person the way we know how to win, and you're proving them dead wrong whether they're noticing it or not.

You hear me talk about metrics all the time, and it's true, I believe very deeply in them.  But we're a people campaign based on person-to-person contact talking about the President.  You know volunteers all come in because they're excited about the President, but the reason why they stay is because of you—your commitment, your passion, what you bring to this campaign.  You are our secret weapon.

Now look, our opponents can't match this kind of campaign for two reasons.  One, they simply lack the broad base of grassroots support that we have.  Two, they don't believe in it.  They don't have any interest in bringing everyday people together to make real change for this country.  In fact the Republican National Committee actually brags about the fact they're distributing their resources to focus less on low-dollar fundraising and more on high-dollar donors.  They follow the dollars; we follow the energy.  And that energy has always come from our grassroots supporters.  That's how we won so big in last week's local and state elections and that's exactly how we're going to win in 2012.

We're all incredibly proud of the one million contact milestone we just reached and all of the work that we've gotten done in the past few weeks, but we're now less than a year to go until Election Day and we have so much more work to do.  We have millions of people who need to hear from us, and that work has got to start today. 

Go to our campaign's call tool at call.barackobama.com and start reaching out to voters in your area.  All you have to do it dial the number and start a conversation of your own.  If you're waiting for a better or more urgent time to help build this campaign, I'm telling you right now, there won't be one.  If we want to win this thing on November 6th 2012 we need to make every single day count.  That starts with you.  Thanks for what you've done; thanks for what you will do between now and Election Day.  Thanks everybody.

Notes: Campaign manager Jim Messina continues to focus on the grassroots.  It is difficult to believe that Messina's first video of the campaign was issued more than six months ago.