Last night, doing fair duty for the local Dems in northwestern Wisconsin, I met the local Obama field officer, Kevin, from the San Antonio, Texas, area.  Friendly, enterprising, looking for people to help with the campaign, he is just out of the Army and working hard.  I asked if he were an Obama Fellow, and it turned out that he was hired by the campaign after having been a one-man whirlwind for Obama in a neglected, rural part of Texas, during its March primaries.

Friday's Countdown, with its puppet show rendition of last week's Obama-Clinton meeting, inspired my child to make his own Obama and Clinton puppets and stage his own summit.

No, this isn't much of a diary, but we had a good laugh and I want to share it with you.

Remember Jason Rae? He's the youngest DNC member, or one of them, I believe.  His home base is my county party.  I had just joined my local party during the '04 general election when he ran a successful campaign to be one of Wisconsin's four DNC members.  The remarkable thing was that he was only 17 years old.

Since then, he's certainly gone places.  Recent news has been that that surrogates for Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama--including Bill Clinton and John Kerry--have been courting him, trying to sway his vote as a superdelegate.  He's certainly been more self-contained and diplomatic than I could have been, had Madeline Albright called me up to chat.

Now he's announced his decision.

EAU CLAIRE, WISCONSIN, February 16, 2008--Barack Obama made a campaign stop in Sawdust City this morning.  He filled the arena of my alma mater, UW-Eau Claire, with over 3 thousand people.  Several thousand more stood outside and listened to him speak over the PA.

His visit came just as the news of Hillary Clinton's canceled February 18th town hall meeting at Eau Claire's Memorial High percolated through the crowd.  "I wanted to go, just to see what kind of crowd she would attract," commented one woman.

I went with my husband and 5-year-old son, and we stood in line along with thousands of others, in 15°F temperatures, with winds whipping down over the Chippewa River.  The line stretched for over ¾ of a mile up the Garfield Avenue hill.  We all wanted to see Obama that bad.  And he did not disappoint.  Make the hop and look at the photos.

Yup, I got an e-mail from Al Gore:

The power of a single individual to create change has always inspired me. Earlier this year, my friend Bill McKibben decided he was going to establish a day of action to fight the climate crisis.

Out of his idea, Step It Up 2007 was born, and on April 14th tens of thousands of people, including thousands of members of AlGore.com, joined together at 1,400 rallies to raise their voices and demand that Congress cut carbon 80% by 2050.

Step It Up 2: Who's A Leader will take place this Saturday. You can find a rally in your area by visiting:
http://events.stepitup2007.org

From the fourteenth floor of the Milwaukee Hilton, I bring you a few of the highlights of tonight's speakers, including Russ Feingold, Tammy Baldwin, Governor Doyle, and a Daily Kos poster from this morning, WI-8's Steve Kagen.

Some of the points speakers emphasized to day were the "+3" needed to turn the Assembly Democratic in '08, the recent vote for universal health care in Wisconsin, outrage at the reversal of Brown vs. the Board of Education and, repeatedly, the fact that the Congress would not be Democratic today were it not for the public's overwhelming will to end our occupation of Iraq.

Below the fold: Feingold vows to push Feingold-Reid again

First of all, I don't care if we impeach the bastard 5 minutes before noon on 1-20-09, I think it is imperative.  If we don't impeach now, let's get rid of impeachment.

But I awoke to find this in my e-mail in-box, from an acquaintance I know through the Democratic party organizations in Wisconsin, John Smart, current Democratic Chair for Price County.  He wrote this anti-impeachment apology and sought a larger audience by circulating it through e-mail.  I'm glad to give it an even larger audience.  So here is a link, as it appeared on FightingBob.com.  An excerpt below the fold:

This is just an opportunity for Wisconsinites to talk about today's elections.  Will Linda Clifford wipe out WMC tool Annette Ziegler?

With 28% reporting, the gulf is narrowing:

Supreme Court Wisconsin
LAST UPDATED: Apr-03-2007, 09:22 PM
PRECINCTS REPORTING: 28%
Annette Ziegler 165,885 (59.9%)
Linda Clifford 110,930 (40.0%)

Source: WQOW, Eau Claire

Any other important races out there for youse guys?

A friend of mine is running as a write-in school board candidate, and if he gets in, it'll be a kind of a schoolteacher putsch.  They are sick of their incumbents, and with good reason.

RICE LAKE October 21, 2006--Despite the damp chill, over 500 people turned out to greet Governor Jim Doyle, Senator Herb Kohl, Attorney General candidate Kathleen Falk, and many other candidates at the pig roast and rally put on by the Barron County Democrats at the county fairgrounds in Rice Lake on Saturday. Conceived only a few weeks ago, the event was intended to showcase the strong Democratic candidates, values and base of support in Barron County.

The theme that emerged was that the tide is turning in Wisconsin, and it will be among the first of the "blue states" to repudiate Republican rule and the fruits of their extremist ideology. A second theme was that there will be a lot of Republican damage to undo, from fortifying Wisconsin's signature stem cell research and clean water laws to restoring confidence in America's trajectory.

I've written before about the Wisconsin State Senate 23rd District race.  The seat is occupied by an 18-year Harley-riding  incumbent who may well be the archetype for everyone's arch-conservative brother-in-law.  You know, the blowhard who sleeps with his gun and glowers at you over the Thanksgiving table.  Republican incumbent Dave Zien is a hard-working politician, as someone put it, but the problem is that he works hard at issues no one seriously should care much about, such as concealed weapons legislation, while neglecting health care, responsible energy policy or well-paying jobs.

He's a well-known pol, though, and no one has been able to give him a run until now: Pat Kreitlow.  Kreitlow, a recently retired anchorman from the Eau Claire NBC affiliate, has pulled even with Zien--and then some.  The news is very good.

This open letter to Senator Russell Feingold comes from Kossack fredb, author of Health Security America and director of the Coalition for a Health-Secure America.  The letter stems from the coalition's collective consternation that we have spent 2 years and thousands of dollars working on a "Medicare for All" single payer plan and much time and effort trying to get Senator Feingold's (and others') attention.

We have a single-payer plan with solid mechanisms for controlling costs and undue special interest influence. Our party adopted it into the platform.  Did lawmakers pay attention?

We were utterly ignored.  What follows is fredb's own letter, sent to Feingold's office today, in response to Feingold's own plan.  I'll let it speak for itself.

Please make the jump.

All the cool kids may be hanging out at Yearly Kos, but a couple of them came to La Crosse, Wisconsin, for the DPW convention this evening, including Russ Feingold, who gave a speech that set the crowd to standing ang howling several times.

Last year's DPW convention was a long lament for having failed to capture the House, Senate or White House in 2004, with Feingold's win one of the few bright spots.  This year,  the hunger and optimism are palpable.  

Please read on for a quick recap of the night, parts of which will be covered by C-SPAN.

Daily Kos' own Fredb (a.k.a. Fred Bannister, M.D.) will be speaking on Wisconsin Public Radio's Ben Merens' show this afternoon from 5-6 p.m. Central.  Those unable to hear it live on the air can hear it live on the web (and WHWC Menomonie/Eau Claire broadcasts a different show then) or in Ben Merens' audio archives.

Tune in to grassroots politics at its best.

More about fredb's Health Security America project below the fold.

Democrats, get to those punkin doin's, those summer festivals, those parades.  Go as Democrats.  Don't let up.

I have bragged up my local county party many times here at Daily Kos.  We have a high level of interest in our rural county party, and a subset of those members is really focused on getting out the vote, raising the Democratic profile, and attracting volunteers.   Our leaders and a DNC field officer remind us when it's time to do things such as stand up for Russ and much more.  

But the summer air is so tempting, and my strawberries need weeding, and it was with dampened enthusiasm that my family and I went to the local dairy breakfast "as a Democrat," buttons on my shirt.  My husband declined to wear his proud Democrat hat because it didn't feel "campaigny" enough for him.  Boy, were we surprised.  The farm hosting the dairy breakfast was lousy with Republican workers.  They aren't going down without a fight.

Make the jump for a few pictures and some ideas.

BARRON, WISCONSIN, April 22, 2006--More than 130 Democrats gathered to meet their elected representatives and candidates, and vote on numerous resolutions submitted by local party members, to be incorporated into this year's platform of the Democratic Party of Wisconsin.  Congressman Dave Obey, Attorney General Peg Lautenschlager and Lieutenant Governor Barbara Lawton headed the long list of candidates who spoke at the convention.  Most speakers at Wisconsin's 7th Congressional District convention, which coincided with Earth Day, made remarks about global warming and conservation of energy and natural resources, and tied those topics to Wisconsin Senator Gaylord Nelson, the founder of Earth Day.  Nelson died in 2005.

Much more below the fold.

For entirely too many years, the occupant of Wisconsin's 23rd State Senate District, Dave Zien, has been pre-empting the state's business in order to try to pass concealed-carry gun laws, introduce the death penalty into Wisconsin, and a whole raft of divisive pet projects that overhsadow some really needful legislation. A colorful Harley-riding flag-waver, Zien has made himself into a very recognizable brand among his constituents.

So you can imagine the great relief among Democrats in northwest Wisconsin when former newscaster Pat Kreitlow declared his candidacy late last year.  Democrats are strong for Kreitlow, and Zien is in the race of his life.  More beneath the fold.

SPOONER, WI, March 23, 2006 -- In response to a fundraising visit by Republican National Committee Chairman Ken Mehlman and state chairman Rick Graber, over 65 area Feingold supporters gathered for a rally at the Northwest Sports Complex, where Mehlman mixed with local Republicans at a $1,000-a-head cocktail party. Feingold supporters gathered in response to the launching of a new ad campaign targeting Feingold for his effort to censure President Bush.

I made a diary entry last Thursday, trying to alert NW Wisconsin Feingold supporters that there would be a rally.  Considering the short notice we all had, and how out-of-the way Spooner is, I think it was a smashing success.  

Too bad the media decided to take a pass.  (Except for the Spooner Advocate, that is)

More below the fold.

RNC Chairman Ken Mehlman is coming to Spooner, Wisconsin, today to speak at a $1,000 a plate GOP "victory event."  I don't know why Mehlman chose to milk Spooner; northwest Wisconsin has plenty of food shelves that have been emptying rapidly.

The anti-Feingold ads are already rolling.  Of course, local Dems are determined to give Mehlman a proper welcome, with pro-Feingold signs and media coverage.

Are you a pro-Feingold person living in Barron, Chippewa, Rusk, Dunn, Polk, Burnett, Washburn or Sawyer counties?  Well now is the time for all good people to come to the aid of their senator.  Show the RNC--and everyone else--that Wisconsinites trust Russ.

Make the jump with me for directions: