If it’s not clear to you why we must elect Barack Obama the next President of the United States, please watch Fmr Sec of State Colin Powell’s stirring endorsement of Obama’s campaign.

But while endorsements help win a news cycle or two, they don’t win campaigns. Here in Ohio, the most pivotal state in the 2004 election and once again “ground zero” for electing our next President, we need more ground troops in the final weeks and days leading up to the election. We need you knocking on doors and talking to swing voters.

Why do we need people? Because McCain’s ruthless strategy of sowing doubt about a Black man with a middle name of Hussein is working.

Dozens of folks I’ve talked to ask me, “Is it true he’s not a Christian? Is it true he doesn’t pledge allegiance to America?” Folks here know Obama’s policies are best for America, but they’re being lead to doubt him as a person.

And this is where YOU, as a person, come into play.

More powerful than any dishonest robocall or fear-mongering mailpiece is your presence at someone’s door.

The media may lie (talk radio is powerful business in these parts), but a friendly face with an earnest and respectful desire to talk about the election never does.

So, this is my ask for you to come and help. And here you have two options:

1. Visit the Come to Ohio site on BO’s website and get placed in the right area by the campaign experts.
2. Come to Cincinnati and work with me and other local organizers. Use my contact form to let me know when you plan on coming.

Ohio needs you. I know you can give up a weekend — so please do.

These numbers really mean something to me, because they prove a feeling I’ve had for some time.

I don’t think Obama’s people *really* “GET” web video. At all.

With 7-house-gate last week, the Obama campaign finally showed a little viral + rapid turn around skills with “Seven,” but this is really the best, first example of such productions.

And yet, it’s still not a web video. It’s a damn TV ad.

The Obama folks (or anyone, for that matter) need to be producing stuff for the web that only belongs on the web.

“Like?” you ask? Like this:

You may remember when my friend Josh Sugarman (and his organization TruthThroughAction.org) put out the short film “Blue Balled” a few months ago, and got it picked up on ABCNews, CNN, MSNBC, FOX, and The Huffington Post. It was a funny, effective (if kinda inappropriate) political message that hit McCain, well, below the belt.

Good thing we all evolve

Today, the TruthThroughAction.org guys are releasing a truly powerful film called American Centurion which offers a breathtaking and stark assessment of how the war in Iraq will effect America for the next hundred years. The film, which is embargoed until Monday (so please do not blog until then), shows a bloodied soldier in Iraq, in the year 2108. The soldier then has an encounter with a young Japanese girl who has teleported from her history class to ask the soldier “Why are you here?”

The lesson is clear: sending $10B a month to Iraq for the next 100 years will keep America from advancing itself, and will only fan the flames on our burning pedestal of international leadership.

Powerful stuff.