From Editor's Cut by Katrina Vanden Heuvel:

The peace majority is real.

A CBS poll finds that 80 percent of Democrats believe the United States should have stayed out of Iraq, and more than 60 percent want US troops home as soon as possible. A Washington Post/ABC poll finds that 70 percent of Independents feel the war was not worth it, and 33 percent of Republicans agree. Even 72 percent of our troops believe US forces should leave Iraq in the next year.

So what are so many Democratic politicians so afraid of? And how do we translate this majority into a politics of change for the 2006 elections and beyond? How do we send a message from the grassroots – the people outside of the beltway – that ending this war matters, and that the time to show moxie and conviction is right now?

From Elisa Cohen, one of our great volunteers:

To those who are thinking about helping out with petitioning-

I am not a fan of stopping people in the street. I am also the first one to wave a person away and not look at them so they won't bother me.

I went out to get people to sign the petition for Jonathan because it is such a simple request that doesn't take much time. And makes someone who believes the war should end and wants change in the democratic party able to do something about it.

And I had a really good time in the process.

I found the best approach was to let people know immediately that they weren't committing to anything. That all they were doing was helping someone have the right to run in the primary. Someone more likely than not, that shares their beliefs.

Tasini will be on NY1 television -Inside City Hall- at 7PM and again at 10:30 PM tonight, Friday, June 9th. For those of you folks upstate, Jonathan will also be on Capital News at 8PM.

Also check out some of our other recent coverage on NY1 and the Villager.

From today's New York Observer:

"Mrs. Clinton, for her part, continues to articulate a plan that is difficult to distinguish from that of the White House, and she barely mentioned Iraq in an otherwise wide-ranging address this week at the state Democratic convention."
...
“'If I weren’t in this race, the two words ‘Iraq War’ would never have been mentioned at the state Democratic convention in Buffalo,' said Mr. Tasini, the pesky personification of Mrs. Clinton’s Iraq problem. 'The fact is that my opponent studiously avoids any mention of Iraq. She doesn’t want to talk about the war.'”

Click here for the full story.

We kicked off the petition drive this morning with a press conference in Union Square. Before the kick-off, Jonathan and Cindy Sheehan were interviewed on Democracy Now! - click here to listen. Reporters from NY1 television and WNYC radio came to the press conference, so be sure to tune into those stations as well. The campaign has also received great print media coverage lately. Visit our press page to read all the latest articles online.