Example from randirhodes.com: "List: Obama's top 50 First Term Accomplishments"
This example of cooperative work was a project Shawn coordinated with Paul Glastris at 'Washington Monthly' during the 2012 Presidential election.
For the massive effect the project had - over twelve thousand likes/recommendations on Facebook, and thousands more downloads of the card file - the project was relatively simple. After getting agreement from Washington Monthly's Editor-In-Chief Paul Glastris, Shawn took Washington Monthly's list of 'Top 50 accomplishments of President Obama' and turned it into a wallet-sized card. As Randi would discuss the topics in the run up to the 2012 elections, she would remind listeners to download the cards, and use them in their daily discussions/arguments with their neighbors and friends. As confirmed by Shawn's contacts within OFA, and a few Redditors, these cards became a key on-the-ground organizing tool in some areas during the 2012 election. They were also a solid way to extend the brand of both The Randi Rhodes Show and Washington Monthly.
Everyone has one of ʻthoseʼ kinds of friends, either on the left or the right - people who keep complaining that no matter what President Obama has done, they still don't seem to believe he's done anything at all.
Now, thanks to the hard-working and talented team at one of our favorite sources, Washington Monthly, there's a list of President Obama's Top 50 accomplishments you can helpufully show to the doubters. Team Randi hopes this is just a starting list from Mr. Obama's first term - what Paul Glastris at Washington Monthly calls 'President Clinton's third term'.
Read Paul's cover story, and check out a few of our favorites from Obama's 'Top 50' list, below.
Obama’s Top 50 Accomplishments
By Paul Glastris, Ryan Cooper, and Siyu Hu - Washington Monthly
1. Passed Health Care Reform: After five presidents over a century failed to create universal health insurance, signed the Affordable Care Act (2010). It will cover 32 million uninsured Americans beginning in 2014 and mandates a suite of experimental measures to cut health care cost growth, the number one cause of America’s long-term fiscal problems.
4. Ended the War in Iraq: Ordered all U.S. military forces out of the country. Last troops left on December 18, 2011.
7. Turned Around U.S. Auto Industry: In 2009, injected $62 billion in federal money (on top of $13.4 billion in loans from the Bush administration) into ailing GM and Chrysler in return for equity stakes and agreements for massive restructuring. Since bottoming out in 2009, the auto industry has added more than 100,000 jobs. In 2011, the Big Three automakers all gained market share for the first time in two decades. The government expects to lose $16 billion of its investment, less if the price of the GM stock it still owns increases.
9. Repealed “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell”: Ended 1990s-era restriction and formalized new policy allowing gays and lesbians to serve openly in the military for the first time.
Check out the full list of 50 HERE.
KEEP IT IN YOUR POCKET...
If you love the full list and you'd like to have a handy reminder, for the times you're having one of THOSE discussions?
Click on the stack of wallet cards and you can download your own prinatable, wallet-sized folding card listing all 50 of President Obama's first term accomplishments.
Print them as you need, laminate them, even give them away.
Just remember what Randi says: When they show you who they are? Believe them.
