 It's best if you write your own letter. You can send the same letter to each super delegate, or you can make them more individual. Feel free to borrow from these samples. If time does not permit you to write your own letter, you may copy one of these. Don't forget that a short note on a post card can be very effective. It gets through security more easily and saves postage, too.
Email to Friends and Associates #1
Written by Andrea Studebaker
Dear Friends,
I know many of you share my concerns about the election in November. Our party is bitterly divided and neither Senator Obama nor Senator Clinton has been able to pull us together. Many people have come to the conclusion that the best solution is to draft Al Gore as a compromise candidate. Recent polling results suggest that he will be more likely to beat John McCain than either Senator Clinton or Senator Obama.
We are organizing a letter writing campaign to the super delegates to urge them to follow this course. Please visit www.TheAlGoreSolution.com to learn more about what we are doing and how you can take part.
Here are some key facts:
- We are only urging the super delegates to draft Al Gore if there is no nominee after the first ballot.
- It is mathematically impossible for either Clinton or Obama to reach the magic number of pledged delegates (2024), so the super delegates will have to weigh in.
- If about 100 super delegates sit out the first ballot, a second ballot will be necessary.
- Currently over 300 super delegates are not committed.
Please join me in this historic grass roots effort to bring Peace, Unity and Victory to the Democratic Party. I’ll be looking for you at www.TheAlGoreSolution.com
Please forward this to everyone you know who is interested in bringing about a Democratic victory in 2008.
Thank you.
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Email to Friends and Associates #2
Written by Andrea Studebaker
Dear Friends,
I know that many of you share my concern about the current state of the Democratic Party and our chances for success in the Presidential and down-ticket elections this fall. The party is more divided than I have ever seen it in my voting life. Both the remaining presidential candidates are battle-scarred and will likely become even more so between now and the convention. We face a very real and very frightening prospect that John McCain might be elected president and that irreparable harm might be done to our country. I have been searching for something I can do about this worrisome state of affairs and have found a group of like-minded individuals.
We are proposing that we need a better nominee to unite our party and win in November. We need Al Gore.
How can we have Al Gore as our nominee? It all depends on the super delegates. Without the super delegates, neither Barack Obama nor Hillary Clinton will have the requisite 2024 delegates needed to win the nomination. Here is a very handy delegate counter device where you can test out various scenarios and see for yourself that neither will earn the nomination without super delegates: http://www.cnn.com/2008/POLITICS/02/29/delegate.counter/index.html
If the super delegates sit out the first ballot, Gore can be put into nomination on the second ballot. A deal can be struck among the party leaders and Hillary Clinton and Barrack Obama. Many people have proposed various shapes that deal can take. I will leave those specifics to the party leaders. The key factor is that either Clinton or Obama, or preferably and quite possibly both, will direct their delegates to vote for Al Gore.
Will Gore accept the nomination? I feel certain he will. He has never closed the door on serving as President. In fact, he said in Oslo to CNN, "I haven't ruled out the idea of getting back into the political process at some point in the future. I don't expect to. But if I did get back, it would be as a candidate for president, not in any other position." (http://transcripts.cnn.com/TRANSCRIPTS/0712/10/sitroom.03.html) When presented with the argument that his candidacy is best for the party, the country, and the world, he will put aside personal considerations and accept the call to duty.
This idea has already been mentioned in many places in the mainstream media. Here are a couple links to examples:
http://preview.tinyurl.com/35d3ap
http://preview.tinyurl.com/ys9agr
http://preview.tinyurl.com/ysngfs
What can we do? We can let the super delegates know how we feel.
Please join me at www.TheAlGoreSolution.com and learn about the letter writing campaign that is underway. Please forward this email to everyone you know. Please post it everywhere you can. I’m dropping this letter into the public discourse in the hopes that it will act as a pebble dropped into a pond. Please drop your own pebbles.
Thank you,
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Letter to Super Delegates #1
Written by Andrea Studebaker
Dear ___________,
I’m writing to you today because of my serious concern for the outcome of the Presidential Election this November and for the future of our party. Both of the remaining candidates for the Democratic Party nomination for President are battle-scarred. The party is more divided than it has been at any time in my voting life. If we nominate either Senator Clinton or Senator Obama, I feel we will lose the presidency and likely many down-ticket races this November.
We need a better nominee. We need a nominee who:
- Was against the Iraq War from before day one.
- Has a stellar resume.
- Is respected across the country and around the world.
- Who understands and respects our constitution and abhors the damage done to it by eight years of the Bush administration.
- Who understands the threat of global warming and has been able to focus attention and ignite action against it.
- Who has a long and very successful history of winning elections.
- Who can unite our party.
- Who can draw in independents and many Republicans.
- Who can win this election.
We need Al Gore.
Neither Senator Clinton nor Senator Obama can win the nomination without the super delegates. You can influence the nomination by influencing the actions of the super delegates. If the super delegates sit out the first ballot, Vice-President Gore can be nominated on the second ballot. A deal can be struck among all involved for the good of the party and the nation.
Many, many people would have chosen Mr. Gore in the primaries had that option been available to us. Many would have voted for another of the original candidates had those candidates not been eliminated so early on. Those that support Ms. Clinton and Mr. Obama will accept a Gore nomination readily when the proper deal is struck and their candidates endorse that deal.
Will Al Gore accept the nomination? I feel he will. When approached by the leaders of the party and asked to serve for the good of the party, the country, and the world, he will respond to the call to duty, regardless of personal considerations. I hope that you and other influential leaders have already been in touch with him, laying the groundwork for this possibility.
This election is extremely important. The damage that has been done in the past eight years will be very difficult to overcome. We need a president capable of taking on the task. Our nation may never overcome its debilitated condition if we don’t elect Democrats up and down the ticket this November. Please take the strongest of actions to ensure that our nation has a chance to recover.
Sincerely,
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Letter to Super Delegates #2
Written by Rod Bailey
Dear
As a loyal Democrat I am pained to see the current state of the Democratic nominating process. Both Sen. Clinton and Sen. Obama are starting to tear at each other, with Sen. Clinton, especially, giving aid and comfort to Sen. McCain with many of the negative comments she has been making about Sen. Obama’s abilities to lead this country. If, as appears likely, Sen. Obama ends the primary process with the most pledged delegates he still will not have the delegate strength to ensure his nomination at the Convention. If Sen. Clinton and her supporters put pressure on the super delegates in order to deny Sen. Obama the nomination there will be a serious fracture in the Party that could likely lead to a Republican victory in November.
I think we need a strategy that will heal the Party. One possibility I hope you will consider is to have the Party turn to a neutral, compromise candidate who can unite the Party and lead us to certain victory in November. That person is former Vice President Al Gore. He has the stature within the Party to bring major portions of both factions together. As a candidate, he offers the best chance for victory in November. He won the popular vote in 2000. He is a recognized world leader, not only on environmental issues but also the broader issues we need to discuss with our foreign partners around the globe. He is known and respected both here at home and, more importantly, with world leaders where our recent record of dealing with international issues has severely suffered under the current administration. He would offer a fresh voice in the fall campaign that would be untouched by the bitterness that is currently emerging in the primary campaign.
To complete the Democratic ticket, and keep all the young people energized who have participated in the primary process to date (and are becoming more and more disillusioned with the campaign) I would further suggest that Sen. Obama be offered the vice presidential position on the ticket. This would offer a truly unbeatable team that could easily win in November.
I urge you in the strongest way possible to give this some serious consideration and begin talks with Vice President Gore and other leaders before things get any further out of hand in the primaries. We need unity to win in November.
Thank you for your consideration,
NOTE: The third paragraph is certainly optional since we have not taken any position on who we think should fill the VP slot. Feel free to leave any reference like that out of you particular letter if you want. Return to top. |
