AFL-CIO Joins The Gun Wars With Targeted Mail Blitz Defending Obama On Gun Rights
Micro-targeting is the name of the game in this election, and the AFL-CIO is about to unleash one of its most micro-targeted pushes yet -- a blitz of mailers defending Obama on gun rights that's aimed strictly at union households made up of gun owners.
Here is the first mailer, a piece going to some 80,000 gun owners in Ohio, Pennsylvania, and Wisconsin. It offers a stout defense of Obama on gun rights and ties it directly to an economic message (click on the images to enlarge):
"I want to protect two things: My job and my gun," union member Mike Day says in the mailer. "That's why I'm supporting Barack Obama."
The union's decision to depart from a strictly economic message and to edge into the culture wars is driven in part by a stepped up campaign in the battlegrounds by the National Rifle Association, which has run ads accusing Obama of conspiring to take away people's guns.
The new mail piece is the latest in a broad effort by the AFL-CIO to reach very specific voting blocks in the swing states. Last week the union unleashed a wave of mailings targeting union households with veterans, and union officials promise an intensified -- and targeted -- campaign of mailers, phone calls and door-knocking in the race's final stretch.
I just jumped up and applauded the AFL-CIO for their CONTINUED aggressive support of Obama.
October 14, 2008 9:42 AM | Reply | Permalink
Co-sign, definitely.
October 14, 2008 10:02 AM | Reply | Permalink
Well put Mr. Day. Now get out there and tell a friend... or ten friends.
John McCain and Barack Obama have the same stance on the Second Amendment. Obama is the only one who will help protect/increase American jobs.
http://thepajamapundit.com/
October 14, 2008 9:42 AM | Reply | Permalink
Some MAJOR differences between Obama and McCain on their support of the Second Amendment with the fact of all the gun control proposals Obama has supported in the past aside:
Earlier this year, Obama said that the DC gun ban was constitutional. He passed up an opportunity to sign on to the amicus brief that 55 senators did that supported the individual right of the Second Amendment. McCain did sign on to that. After the DC gun ban was ruled unconstitutional, Obama stated he agreed with the Supreme Court ruling.
He stated he would nominate justices to the Supreme Court in the mold of the liberal justices who ruled that the Second Amendment might be an individual right, but a complete ban on an entire class of guns is not an infringement. Like saying the First Amendment only covers books, not magazines. These are also the justices that ruled the opposite way of the decision that he says he supports and that he says supports his own belief. McCain said he would nominate justices in the mold of those that supported a strong interpretation of the Second Amendment and this time around were in the majority.
Obama voted for a massive increase in tax on ammunition, I think it was 500%. Who needs to take people's guns when you can tax the ammo so much that only rich people can afford to shoot? McCain did not vote for this.
Obama supports a new Assault Weapons ban that would be much more expansive than the 1994 one and would also include some guns that are normally referred to as sporting purpose guns. McCain does not.
And with all the gun control laws he supported while he was in the Illinois legislature, you just can't take a chance that he would support some of the same measures at the federal level and that he's just not advertising it. If as an Illinois state legislator he supported the Second Amendment rights of the citizens of Illinois by supporting massive restrictions that never proved to be effective or fruitful, how can we expect him to show any better judgement as president?
October 15, 2008 7:41 PM | Reply | Permalink
Wow. We got mini-Ditka!
Who would win in a race -- mini-Ditka driving the Bears team bus or Sarah Palin flying her wolf-shooting airplane?
October 14, 2008 9:44 AM | Reply | Permalink
Well Kenny, I'd have to say Coach Ditka would lap her twice before she even got the engines started.
October 14, 2008 10:13 AM | Reply | Permalink
Well Kenny, I'd have to say Coach Ditka would lap her twice before she even got the engines started.
October 14, 2008 10:14 AM | Reply | Permalink
See Kenny, just mentioning Coach Ditka makes me comment twice before I even realize it!
October 14, 2008 10:17 AM | Reply | Permalink
See Kenny, just mentioning Coach Ditka makes me comment twice before I even realize it!
October 14, 2008 10:17 AM | Reply | Permalink
That's some good going when you beat the Republicans on guns. Still, the NRA is solid McCain.
October 14, 2008 9:59 AM | Reply | Permalink
Three cheers for Mike Day and the AFL-CIO! I am loving these mailers. Even if it doesn't work this time, it's making the effort to get these folks' votes, and doing it in an effective way (as opposed to Kerry going duck hunting, etc.).
October 14, 2008 10:04 AM | Reply | Permalink
If the NRA wants to engage in a fire fight with the AFL-CIO, they better not show up with BB guns.
October 14, 2008 10:08 AM | Reply | Permalink
My God what a bunch of pathetic whiners. Is there really such a large contingent of voters that are so afraid of losing their phalli that these mailers are necessary? Unbelievable.
October 14, 2008 10:10 AM | Reply | Permalink
When I was a kid I had friend who loved guns. He even made his own bullets. He took me to the shooting range a couple of times. I shot his 30-06 with a scope and I almost lost an eye from the kickback.
One time, he called me up to his attic where he had set up the same 30-06 pointing out a window. At three stories high, the perch looked out over trees and across the highway. He set the gun on a sandbag to steady it and told me to look through the scope at the Donutland on the other side of the road. He had trained the scope on the pay phone inside the Donutland. I looked and saw very clearly someone talking on the phone. As the person turned around I recognized the face, another friend, holding the phone with the cross hairs firmly centered on his head.
I quickly gave the gun back. I said, "not funny," but he was laughing. This is the same guy who said that it would be easy to kill someone and get away with it as long you didn't know the victim. We were 14.
By the end of the year I was hanging out with the friend on the phone.
I am sure the ad will work for gun owners.
October 14, 2008 10:18 AM | Reply | Permalink
I saw those NRA TV ads here in Colorado the past couple weeks. Interestingly, Obama ran a positive TV ad against it featuring an NRA member endorsing him, basically negating everything the scare ad said.
The poll numbers seem to suggest this issue is a non-starter.
October 14, 2008 10:19 AM | Reply | Permalink
Reminds me of a bumper sticker I once saw that was put out by the Idaho AFL-CIO:
October 14, 2008 10:21 AM | Reply | Permalink
Seems to me a better way to get the point across about loosing the right to bear arms would be for Obama to point out the many of the rights guaranteed in the Bill of Rights have been lost under the Bu$h administration. And if they keep it up, soon there won't be any rights left.
October 14, 2008 10:26 AM | Reply | Permalink
Greg, I hate to nitpick, but this is at least the third time on this site I've seen the AFL-CIO referred to as a union. Rather, the AFL-CIO is, as its website notes, "a voluntary federation of 56 national and international labor unions."
In other words, it is an umbrella organization for the labor movement, though since 2005, it no longer includes six of the largest unions because they left and formed their own federation, Change to Win. But it is not a union, does not have individual members, does not negotiate with employers, etc.
October 14, 2008 10:28 AM | Reply | Permalink
Glad to see a gun owner (via the AFL-CIO) calling BS on the nonsense that Barack would repeal the Second Amendment.
Gun owners who support Obama (I'm one) need to get out there and testify.
October 14, 2008 11:19 AM | Reply | Permalink
True Oskie, A repeal of the Second Amendment has about as much of a chance of passing as an anti-gay marriage amendment. Maybe even less.
October 14, 2008 12:38 PM | Reply | Permalink
I've seen a lot of Obama-Biden sign around my neighbourhood. But around the corner,there's one house that has, among its yard signs supporting down ticket Republican candidates and its perfunctory McCain-Palin sign, one disturbing sign that says:
Voter. Gun owner. McCain-Palin 2008.
This brings to mind a question: The NRA always comes out with its usual sci-fi like scenarios of government goon squads kicking down people's doors and confiscating their hunting rifles and shotguns whenever some politician mentions the word "gun control".
But whenever there is a mass shooting by some unstable person or persons, you don't hear a peep out of the NRA.
It makes me wonder what the NRA's agenda really is. Or if they even have an agenda other than increasing membership (and membership dues) and selling their accidental death and dismemberment insurance. What does the NRA even stand for? (yes, I know what the letters NRA stand for).
Anyway, I'm glad that organised labor is beginning to reassert itself. Republicans have worked relentlessly over the past three decades to destroy unions and crush the working class.
October 14, 2008 12:32 PM | Reply | Permalink
The lack of thought here is appalling. In the event of a tragic school shooting or similar event, you will note that these take place in 'Gun Free Zones'. The NRA feels, as do I that if a few of these folks had been allowed to carry concealed it would not have been as serious, as has been proven in other situation. And the NRA does not advocate kicking down doors. They are the ones who took the fight to New Orleans to get the illegally confiscated (Democrat Mayor / Governor) guns back. Come on guys, I know you have to be smarter than this. Or are we seeing trolls here?
Lynn McFadden
Retired Ironworker
October 20, 2008 9:49 PM | Reply | Permalink
Poor old Mike Day is going to look dumber than a rock when they pick up his guns. I really thought some of you guys would be smarter. McCains stance on guns has never been the best, but Obama and Biden are the worst ever seen. If I may present a quote from the Illinois State Rifle Association Newsletter:
"Fellow Sportsman,
Hello, my name is Rich Pearson and I have been active in the firearm rights movement for over 40 years. For the past 15 years, I have served in the Illinois state capitol as the chief lobbyist for the Illinois State Rifle Association.
I lobbied Barack Obama extensively while he was an Illinois State Senator. As a result of that experience, I know Obama’s attitudes toward guns and gun owners better than anyone. The truth be told, in all my years in the Capitol I have never met a legislator who harbors more contempt for the law-abiding firearm owner than Barack Obama."
Time to wake up lads.
Lynn McFadden
Retired Ironworker
P.S. I don't see many names above. If you can't sign what your saying, don't say it at all.
October 20, 2008 9:34 PM | Reply | Permalink