| Submit your comments on this article |
| Home Front: Politix |
| Obama to Out-Rove the 2004 Rove Plan |
| 2008-10-12 |
| In 2004, Democrats watched as any chance of defeating President Bush slipped away in a wave of Republican turnout that exceeded even the goal-beating numbers that their own side had produced. And you thought your vote didn't count! Four years later, Sen. Barack Obama's campaign intends to avoid a repeat by building an organization modeled in part on what Karl Rove used to engineer Bush's victory: a heavy reliance on local volunteers to pitch to their own neighbors, micro-targeting techniques to identify persuadable independents and Republicans using consumer data, and a focus on exurban and rural areas. But in scale and ambition, the Obama organization goes beyond even what Rove built. The campaign has used its record-breaking fundraising to open more than 700 offices in more than a dozen battleground states, pay several thousand organizers and manage tens of thousands more volunteers. In many states, the Democratic candidate is hewing more closely to the Rove organizational model than is rival Sen. John McCain, whose emphasis on ground operations has been less intensive and clinical than that of his Republican predecessor. "They've invested in a civic infrastructure on a scale that has never happened," said Marshall Ganz, a labor organizer who worked with César Chávez's farmworker movement and has led training sessions for Obama staff members and volunteers. "It's been an investment in the development of thousands of young people equipped with the skills and leadership ability to mobilize people and in the development of leadership at the local level. It's profound." Community organizer. But sheer size and scope guarantee little, especially for an operation that is untested on this scale, and the next three weeks will determine whether Obama's approach will become a model for future campaigns or yet another example of how not to do it. The campaign faces no shortage of challenges. It must meet its ambitious goals for voter contacts - with repeat visits to undecided and first-time voters - while being careful not to turn people off by being overly persistent. Though it relies on homegrown backers, it must still incorporate thousands of out-of-state volunteers. And above all, its foot soldiers must make the case for a candidate who remains an unknown to many would-be supporters. Jane Goodman, a city council member in South Euclid, Ohio, who is leading the Obama effort in her ward, said she has never seen such a grass-roots push in her Cleveland suburb of Jewish voters, Russian immigrants and African Americans. But she has also never seen such a need for it. "We haven't had much Democratic outreach here before because it was assumed the Democrats are going to win," she said. "This year, we can't make that assumption." Don't they read the papers in Ohio? |
| Posted by:Bobby |
| #4 too bad we couldn't find a real republican... :( seriously, i had to preface who i was planing to vote for wiht a long list of 'even though mccain...' short list.. McCain-Feingold, McCain-Kennedy, The gang of 14... any one of them should have excluded him from serious consideration. but i must hold my nose and vote against O-man. |
| Posted by: Abu do you love 2008-10-12 15:32 |
| #3 To be honest, it's appearing more and more as if McCain would rather lose gracefully than scrap for the win. It was a mistake to have him as the candidate this year. |
| Posted by: Jolutch Mussolini7800 2008-10-12 13:32 |
| #2 It's not that he thinks it is unnecessary, he just doesn't have a history of doing it well. McCain was ahead of his peers in using the Internet for political purposes (see the 2000 primaries), but he's always been behind in the GOTV side of politics. |
| Posted by: Steve White 2008-10-12 13:02 |
| #1 If McCain thinks it's unecessary to make an all-out effort at the micro level on at least the scale that Rove did, it is a catastrophic mistake. |
| Posted by: Ulusoling Hatfield4645 2008-10-12 10:40 |