Grassroots Hillary. Mission: Restroom

We're constantly thinking of new ideas for the grassroots Hillary campaign in order to give you all a way to get involved without having to invest much time and effort. This past Sunday we got an e-mail from Frank Bremmer with a great idea to spread the word:

Hey VFHO,

First of all, thanks for all that you're doing to help ensure Hillary Clinton's election in 2008. I've never been involved in politics my whole life and it's a good feeling to be involved in something I can be proud of. It's unfortunate that you all had to call off the bumper sticker campaign but I thought of an idea last night that I thought I'd run across you guys. What if we took all the bumper stickers we have left over and put them on the walls and stalls of public restrooms? We could also leave a few pamphlets of information outlying Hillary's proposals next to the sink. It's not too often I see advertising in a restroom, so I really think it would stick out. What do you think?

-Frankie B.

Three words Frank, we love it! I have to admit, when I first read your e-mail I thought it sounded a little tacky. It didn't sound very presidential to be campaigning in public restrooms. But after sleeping on this for a few nights, I've come to the conclusion that this is one of the most genius ideas ever proposed. The key to this tactic is that it's a grassroots effort. We're not paid to promote Hillary on her behalf, we do this because we strongly believe in her candidacy. And by God we're going to do whatever it takes to spread the word about Hillary Clinton.

We are officially starting the Mission: Restroom campaign. Most of you probably have plenty of bumper stickers leftover from the previous campaign, and those of you that don't can simply log on to the official Hillary Clinton campaign website to order more. What we are going to do is plaster Hillary Clinton bumper stickers in restrooms all across the United States. If we all do our part, it will be almost impossible for someone to go to the bathroom without thinking about Hillary Clinton. We want them on the main walls, the inside of the stalls, and on the sink counters. No opportunity should be missed to get the word out.

A few things to go over for this mission:

• Any public restroom is fair game. If anyone of the public has access to a particular restroom, by all means sticker it up.
• Private locations with limited access to the outside public should be skipped over, unless you happen to work there. We don't need anyone getting arrested for trespassing.
  
• Do not place stickers in the restroom in the presence of other people. You're going to get a lot of weird stares, and people will probably just remove the stickers as soon as they see you leave. If you enter a crowded bathroom, simply wait in a stall until the coast is clear.
• Do not, under any circumstances, place a bumper sticker anywhere on a toilet. The reason a restroom is a good place to campaign is because it is frequented so often, but we don't need to be associating a toilet with Hillary Clinton.
• If you can, leave a few Hillary pamphlets by the sink so that people who become curious by the stickers have a chance to take a closer look into what she stands for.
• Last but not least: have fun. If we're not having fun out there, our efforts will start to get tiring pretty quickly. We recommend doing this with a friend.

Let's try to make it so there is no possible way a person could NOT run into a Hillary Clinton sticker within a week's time span. The primaries are approaching very quickly and time is of the essence. The best part about all this? It's absolutely free advertising, besides the mere cost of the stickers. This is 100 times more effective than any million dollar ad campaign. Let's make Hillary proud. I guarantee you that if we all do our part, Hillary Clinton will win this election by an absolute landslide and the opposition won't know what hit 'em.

Click here to get a free bumper sticker from the official campaign. They don't sell these in bulk so we recommend filling out your information and reloading the page as many times as you need stickers.

Hillary Clinton Christmas Ornament Contest

We though it would be fun to take a break from the stress of the grassroots Hillary Campaign. Sometimes the best way to regain your energy and good spirits is to do something fun! Starting today, we're having a contest for you to create Hillary Clinton Christmas ornaments. Now, we don't expect you all to be expert craftsmen, this is something you all can participate in. We'll be judging the ornaments on several factors, so it won't just be about skill. There will be a first, second and third place prize, and we will announce the winners on December 23rd. We do not actually need you to send in your ornaments to us (although we don't mind if you do), all we ask is that you take a picture of it and e-mail us at voteforhillaryonline@yahoo.com with the subject line "Hillary Ornament Contest". We will need about a week to review all of the entries, so please please please have your pictures sent in by December 10th.

Criteria we will be judging the ornaments and their corresponding point values:

• Creativeness (up to 10 points)
• Skill involved (up to 5 points)
• Uniqueness (up to 3 points)
• Beauty (up to 7 points)

As you can see, some characteristics will have more value than others, but the more points you can get from each category, the higher chance you have of winning.

Prizes:

First place winner: $150 cash and a chance to be featured on our site
Second place winner: $80 cash
Third place winner: $25 gift certificate to Best Buy

All winners will receive a pack of 100 Hillary bumper stickers on behalf of Vote for Hillary Online.

We can't wait to see what kind of creative ideas you all come up with.

Note: to be qualified, the ornament must at least A) display a picture of Hillary Clinton, or B) display her name somewhere on the ornament.

We're doing our part, are you?

Remember folks, nothing happens without a grassroots effort. There's a million bloggers out there just waiting to be converted, if only they're pointed in the right direction. We've got to get this great nation of ours back on the right track.

Push Polling: An Underutilized Technique

We're in the process of kicking off a new Grassroots Hillary campaign for all of you to participate in. We'll get more into the details in the coming days ahead, but I thought it would be best to start with an introduction into the topic, because it's fairly unknown to many supporters. This is a tactic called push polling, where a campaign attempts to influence or alter the view of respondents under the guise of conducting a poll. Normal political polling is usually done by third party firms in order to gauge the popularity of candidates and issues. A call center employs a number of workers to make thousands of phone calls to homes all across America. The polling agents in this situation strive to be as objective as possible, so as not to skew the results. What makes push polling different is its objective: instead of trying to gauge the popularity of different candidates, it attempts to get the word out about a specific candidate or issue.

As unethical as this tactic may appear at first glance, it has actually been used for years in various campaigns. George W. Bush used the push polling tactic against Senator McCain while competing in the 2000 republican primary. Obviously it worked, because George Bush ended up winning by a landslide. Push polling also is already being used in the republican primaries this election in order to cast public doubt on Mitt Romney's ability to lead as a Mormon. This is obviously not for the light hearted, but if you took a light hearted approach to presidential campaigning, I'm not sure you'd make it very far.

What we plan to do in this grassroots push polling campaign is 2 fold: increase the public's awareness about Hillary Clinton's strong points, and to raise questions about the opponents' flaws. This is just like marketing, except we're selling ideas, not products. And what we're offering is a chance to take back America and be proud once again to live in this great nation of ours. This would not be such an important time for Hillary if the opposition wasn't so deeply corrupt, but we here at Vote for Hillary Online believe this is our only chance at restoring prosperity.

Now, we're just a grassroots effort. We don't have a major call center, and we don't have enough money to be making long distance phone calls all around the country for hours at a time. This is where you come in. We believe we have enough supporters here in every major city to cover most of the important areas. Obviously some areas are more crucial than others, but don't fret if you're in say Kansas - there's plenty of people to be called there too. We're going to divide these calling areas up according to where you live so most of the calls you will be making are local. You don't need any special license to do this or anything, this is just one neighbor calling another.

We will get into more details in the coming days as I mentioned before. We'll even make scripts for you to follow (don't worry, we don't expect you all to be expert telemarketers). We also want to make sure that we don't double up and accidentally have some homes getting called several times - that could cause a backlash. If you are interested in participating, please send us an e-mail at voteforhillaryonline@yahoo.com with the subject like "push polling" and include your area code in the body of the message. Also, if you have any expertise in this area, feel free to volunteer any tips.

Note: if you have any ethical qualms about this at all, please just focus on another grassroots campaign tactic. You can put out signs, work on the e-mail campaign, or put bumper stickers on cars. We don't want to have you doing something you'll feel bad about later (which seems pretty preposterous, but we realize we have a mixed audience here).

We almost have this completely set up, we just need to know who will be able to volunteer. As soon as we get that information and our lawyers give us the greenlight, we're ready to roll. Expect it to start Dec 5 at the very latest.

We'll keep you updated.

We have got to start making more sacrifices

Folks, we just got a letter from one of our grassroots Hillary supporters that we need to address. Basically this person says they would like to help with the grassroots campaign, but they just don't have enough time. I'm going to post his message here so you can all see what I'm talking about. We won't mention specifically who it was so as not to embarrass him.

Dear VFHO,

I am a huge Hillary Clinton supporter and have following what you guys have been doing for a while. I think this is great that supporters have a resource they can go to and start making some real changes on their own. I really wish I could join in and help with the cause, the bumper sticker campaign sounded like a lot of fun. But I recently went through a divorce with my wife, I'm raising 3 kids by myself, and I'm trying to hold down 2 jobs to make ends meet. It's getting pretty tough...I've just been too busy to help out. Is there anyway someone like me can join in the grassroots campaign? I know a little html, maybe I could help with the website. Just let me know.

Thanks

We've gotten a few e-mails like this from various Hillary Clinton supporters. Let me tell you something: if you don't do everything you can to ensure Hillary Clinton is elected in 2008 and she ends up losing, your measly 2 jobs will be the least of your worries. These things that seem important now and justify our time away from supporting Hillary will seem like nothing when you see what the other candidates have in store for ruining America. It's time we quit with the excuses. If you're not out there every day busting your ass for Hillary, then you're working against the campaign. No ifs, ands, or buts about it. We have got to make some sacrifices and stop whining around. That's how you lose a campaign. People start worrying about all these meaningless distractions in their lives. Next thing you know, the opposition will win and in a few years we'll all be speaking Arabic. Yes, it's possible.

And no, we don't need any of your "help" with the website, thanks. I know that most of our supporters think we're doing just fine in that regard. It's time to get off your ass and do something. Nobody ever won an election sitting around on the internet all day long. I'm simply tired of all the excuses, and I know a lot of you out there are too.

I apologize if I came off as a little harsh, but this simply had to be addressed. We appreciate all of the support and effort, but if we could all just sacrifice a little more, victory would be that much more possible.

The Grassroots Hillary Supporter's Law

No, we're not talking about the kind of law you can get arrested for if you don't follow. We've created a grassroots Hillary supporter's law, which is a set of guidelines to live by and encourage others to live by. As Hillary supporters, we represent the Hillary campaign while we're out in public, whether we realize it or not. With this in mind, it's helpful to realize that we need to instill some order and discipline into our thoughts and actions so as not to be disrespectful. Unlike the oath, you don't have to say this one out loud every day, but do keep it in mind and we recommend printing this off and saving it in a safe place.

1. A grassroots Hillary supporter is loyal and can be trusted
2. A grassroots Hillary supporter is useful and helps others
3. A grassroots Hillary supporter is polite, considerate and respects her elders
4. A grassroots Hillary supporter is friendly and a brother to all grassroots Hillary supporters
   
5. A grassroots Hillary supporter is kind to all living things
6. A grassroots Hillary supporter is obedient
7. A grassroots Hillary supporter has courage and is cheerful in all difficulties
8. A grassroots Hillary supporter takes care of her own possessions and those of other people
9. A grassroots Hillary supporter is thrifty and diligent
10. A grassroots Hillary supporter is self-disciplined in what he or she thinks, says and does

What did you do this weekend to promote Hillary?

With the weekend being just about over, we want to know what all of you did these past few days to support Hillary Clinton. We think this is a good chance to get some creative ideas from your fellow grassroots Hillary supporters. Whether it was sending out e-mails, putting a bumper sticker on your car, letting a friend know about Hillary, or putting Hillary pamphlets in library books, let us know! You can either send us an e-mail at voteforhillaryonline@yahoo.com or leave a comment under this post. We hope you all had a great weekend.


Update: Wayne Shamrock from Kansas city sent us this screen shot of him doing the e-mail campaign. Keep up the good work!

Grassroots Hillary: Positive Morale

We have gotten quite a few e-mails lately from supporters worrying that Vote for Hillary Online have gotten too negative lately with our coverage. While I think it's good to be aware of the constant smear campaign going on, and we try to bring that to your attention as much as possible, I feel like you all have brought up some very good points, and it's important that we keep ourselves in check so we don't become exactly what we are so very against.

I want to reaffirm something here: our morale is very positive and unwavering. This is actually a time of celebration for us because this is the one chance we get to take back America and as grassroots Hillary supporters, we all get to be a part of that.

We've made a note of all your concerns, and in the coming days we will try to cover the more lighter sides of what's going on in the campaign, and what we can do to help.

If you haven't already, please refer back to the Grassroots Hillary Oath when you get discouraged. We suggest reading this aloud at least once a day, but everyone is different.

It's a great time to be in America. It's time for some real change that we can all be a part of. Just think, later on we can all tell our grandchildren that we voted for Hillary Clinton. This is history in the making folks.

Grassroots Hillary Oath

This is the grassroots Hillary Campaign Oath. It was originally created by James Beckleheimer in Utah, and it has caught on among thousands of grassroots supporters. We suggest you write this oath down on an index card and put it in your wallet. Whenever you start to feel discouraged, whether it's a smear campaign against Hillary getting you down, or you start to become fatigued about your efforts, take this note card out and read it outloud. James tells us that it's not unusual for him to repeat this oath more than 10 times a day, and I know he's not the only one.



This is James's oath card. You can either print this one out, or make your own. In case you have trouble reading his writing, this is the oath:

I, _________________, promise to do whatever it takes to get Hillary Clinton elected and ensure that peace, prosperity, hope, and patriotism once again return back to the fabric of our nation. I will stand strong and not let the opposition hurt my morale. This is our only hope. This is....our only hope. (repeat 5 times)

Grassroots Hillary. Mission: Bumper Sticker

We here at Vote for Hillary Online have mentioned this a few times before, but I don't think we spent enough time focusing on this specific grassroots tactic. This is something we like to call Mission: Bumper sticker.

Everyone knows that putting your candidate's bumper sticker on your car is a good way to spread the word and get the name recognition out there. Btw, if you haven't done this by now, shame on you. One thing that isn't done so often though is putting bumper stickers on cars besides yours. Now, I understand this is a very controversial topic and there has been a lot of debate on this among the grassroots supporters. However, it is the opinion of Vote for Hillary Online, that despite some issues a few of you may have with this, it's actually a very effective way to increase exposure.

I'm going to address a few concerns:

• It damages private property. This is absolutely false. It's a sticker and it can be pulled off just as easily as it was put on.
• People will be turned off if they feel the message is forced. Again, in our experience this hasn't been found to be true. For every one jerk that doesn't appreciate us putting a Hillary bumper sticker on his car, there are 99 other people who realize that politics plays a very important role in sustaining freedom and prosperity in America.

Here are some tips:

1. You want to go to a highly concentrated parking lot where new cars are constantly coming in. Think Wal-Mart. You can get a lot more cars done in a smaller amount of time in this environment.

2. Bring your kids with you. This is something I learned a long time ago in previous campaigns. When I would do this alone, people looked at me with suspicion - some even thought I was up to no good. When you have your kids there with you, it puts people at ease and portrays a more positive image not only to yourself, but the grassroots Hillary campaign.

3. Place the bumper stickers on each car very quickly, you don't want to be crouched down next to someone's car for very long. We had a guy in Indiana who had a bad back, so he had to take his time with crouching down and placing the bumper stickers. What happened was, this car owner arrived and got in his car without even seeing the grassroots campaigner and almost ran him over. We don't want to have any accidents out there, please be safe. The last thing we need is another negative headline involving the Hillary Clinton campaign.

4. Don't stay in one area. You don't want to have your individual grassroots effort limited to one very small geographical region. What some supporters have suggested is changing what parking lot you go to every 3 days.

5. Most important: Have fun. We're all doing this because we want to take back America but let's not forget that if we're not having fun, we probably won't do a good job.

Hopefully I've covered all the bases here but if I've left something out, please shoot us an e-mail. I look forward to seeing all those bumper stickers out there!

Edit: A commenter has suggested that this may actually be illegal in some states. Please check the laws in your state before proceeding with this grassroots tactic.

Vote for Hillary Online

Vote For Hillary Online is noticing a recent flood of new visitors, which gives us all here great hope that the message is finally starting to catch on. People are starting to wake up to the fact that Hillary Clinton is the only candidate that can take back America and get it under control. We've started to hire more staff at Vote for Hillary Online in order to keep up with her changing positions on various issues. Our latest hire is Steve Zimmerman, and he has a background in business journalism that we feel will help us move in a more competitive position.

All you Hillary supporters out there, we need everyone to do all they can to promote the message of Hillary Clinton. Bill from Arkansas just sent me an e-mail saying that he has been spending all morning long putting Hillary Clinton bumper stickers on cars. I think this is a great way to get out the message. Another thing you can do is send e-mails to all of your friends and tell them to vote for Hillary Clinton. If we each do our part, you'd be surprised how effective we can be.

We're going to have daily updates, alerts, and tips at Vote for Hillary Online. We suggest you make this your homepage so you never miss an important message. The other candidates are running scared because Hillary Clinton is gaining momentum. But we can't run out of steam, because that's when they will take over. You must always remain in fear, and always keep promoting the good message of Hillary.