Stories from the Obama grassroots

[ProudL...@aol.com]

Stories from the Obama grassroots
by kos
Tue Feb 26, 2008 at 03:24:12 PM PST
Time:

That level of energy was apparent at a Monday rally of several thousand
people in Cincinnati. Obama opened his remarks by telling the crowd that early
voting is already underway in Ohio and urged them to go vote immediately after
the rally ended. He even told them the location where they could go cast their
ballots. It was candidate-as-precinct-captain, and it showed both the
intensity of the fight for votes going on daily as well as the benefits of having a
candidate who used to be a community organizer and has run a voter
registration drive.

Obama's successful recruitment of outsiders was born of necessity — Clinton
enjoys endorsements from Ohio's popular governor and many Democratic
officeholders. If she retains her (albeit shrinking) lead in the polls, it will mean
that a traditional, top-down campaign rooted in the party establishment still
can win in the clutch. But if Obama scores an upset, it could prove that a
new breed of grassroots campaign — viral, internet-based, built from the ground
up by neophytes like Antoinette McCall — is finally ready for prime time.

I've long betrayed my fetish for ground-game organizing. In fact, I'm
convinced that the only endorsements that matter are mayors precisely because they
have a patronage machine they can deploy on behalf of their endorsed
candidate.

I've been getting lots of emails lately from people on the ground. Here's a
few, unedited. This one from an Obama organizer in El Paso, Texas:

Two weeks ago, before the campaign showed up, fifty of us El Pasoans got
together at the Taco Cabana. I bought the 2004 Democratic Primarly voter list.
I sorted it by all 170 precincts here in El Paso. When the meeting was
about to begin, the campaign showed up like the cavalry.

They came swooping in with their sophisticated software and refined voting
lists. By the following Saturday, we had over 100 people getting trained to
be precinct captains. Staff couldn't show the powerpoint because the power
was off in the office. No phone line. No internet. It did not matter.

Once unleashed the El Paso PCs hit the phones and we are, precinct by
precinct, getting El Paso organized. This is ground game. This is how you win in
50 states. This is how you go to Washington with a mandate. This is how you
break 50% as a Democratic candidate in the last 44 years.

In Western Travis County:

I am a precinct captain for small precinct in western Travis county in the
Austin suburbs. The area I'm in is VERY red. In 2004 my precinct went 75% in
favor of Bush. There was a grand total of 21 votes in the democratic primary
in 2004 in my precinct (not caucus goers, TOTAL VOTES in the primary).

Almost every precinct in the district has several Obama precinct captains,
with many larger precincts having 5 to 10 precinct captains apiece. Each
precinct captain has been placing more than 500 calls to precinct residents and
feeding the results of those calls back into the campaign database. Every Obama
supporter or leaner is being called back to ensure that they voted early, and
that they will attend the caucus. So far the results are very positive.
Almost everyone I speak to plans to vote, and many of the republicans are
seriously considering switching over to vote for Obama. We are also recruiting the
enthusiastic supports to volunteer themselves. In many of the precincts there
are parties planed this weekend where the precinct captains plan to caravan
the supporters to the polls to vote early. So far the results of our efforts
are very positive. Almost everyone I speak to plans to vote, and many of the
republicans I speak to are seriously considering switching over to vote for
Obama (and not just because they hate Hillary). We are also recruiting the
enthusiastic supports to volunteer themselves.

And yet another one, from Burnt Orange Report's Karl-Thomas, which was
emailed to me four days ago:

I have to say- about the Obama operation in Texas....it's all so much to
take in but the speed with which hundreds of paid staff came into the state
within days of Feb 5th, opened over 10 regional officers all over the state, were
trained in our bizarre primacaucus system by Glen Maxey and I ... it's hard
to describe.

It has been less than 2 weeks. In that time, the "Texas Two Step" (Voting in
the primary & the caucus) has come into full force, a slogan that was yelled
out from the back of the room at a caucus training in Austin I ran and is
now emblazoned on every piece of organizing material. Of the 8,200 precincts we
have in Texas, there are now over 8,200 precinct captains signed up, 4,000
trained in the last weekend alone, covering more precincts than there are even
current party chairs. They have built a new voter file from scratch, not just
for the primary, but also for the caucus pulling together every list
possible of past attendees and off year activists. There are only 83,000 precinct
level delegates (which are never filled) and the Obama campaign has over
110,000 supporters in Texas already as of last week. The online phone calling for
in-state precinct captains I believe has now exceeded 100,000 calls in the
three short days the system has been up- built from scratch but very user
friendly. They've done smart things like offer higher level rally passes to those
who make over 200 calls for example.

My mother, out in rural Texas west of Austin, wrote me tonight saying 100
people showed up at the monthly Gillespie County Democratic meeting. When they
broke out into preference groups, it was 80 Obama, and 6 Clinton. For my
hometown, where a Democrat hasn't been elected or even run in decades at the
local level- there were 2 paid presidential staff for Obama training them on how
to GOTV and GOTC. Unheard of and completely unresponded to by Clinton.

I have to put together some more data to analyze, but I wanted to share this
with you as I've spent some quality time with Obama Texas data and
leadership teams- Buffy and Mitch have their shit together and it's all happened in 2
weeks. The Obama campaign has singlehandedly done more to rebuild the
Democratic Party of Texas in 2 weeks than the TDP has been able to in probably 10
years. The challenge now, is making sure it doesn't blow away after March 4th
which is a very real concern- but in the meantime, we're living in history.

I love these stories. Keep 'em coming.

Update: A wise comment from duha, and dead on:

for all the people bellyaching over dkos-Obama love, isn't it obvious why?
It's not really about the candidate, kos likes both of them. It's about HOW
they are pulling off successes in the primaries. Obama's campaign shows the
fruits of the very things kos and dkos in general has promoted. People powered
politics, 21st century grassroots/netroots, internet fundraising, raising
the level of involvement among the electorate, run a 50-state campaign.

Hillary's campaign represents the old way of running a political race. Lock
up the establishment. Get endorsements, and do the usual GOTV operation,
focus on the democratic strongholds, do traditional fundraisers with big
spenders, etc.

The story of the 2008 democratic primary if Obama wins will not be the cult
of Obama meme, or the people hate Hillary meme, or the media hates Hillary
meme. When the dust settles, and people look back and analyze how Obama pulled
this upset off, they will look at the kind of things which are so exciting to
kos to see utilized in a victorious campaign.

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[Preda...@aol.com]

In a message dated 2/26/2008 6:37:44 PM Central Standard Time, ProudL...@aol.com writes:

The story of the 2008 democratic primary if Obama wins will not be the cult 
of Obama meme, or the people hate Hillary meme, or the media hates Hillary
meme.  When the dust settles, and people look back and analyze how Obama pulled
this  upset off, they will look at the kind of things which are so exciting to
kos to  see utilized in a victorious campaign.

Don't forget the Texas GOP says get out and vote Obama since McCain is set. Obama has no chance of election, and Hillary is a threat.

---

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[ProudL...@aol.com]

That's fine - we were never going to take Texas in the general and if the Texas GOP wants to help nominate the next President, that's fine too.  I understand that the Ten Gallon Neanderthals think Obama is easier to beat with him being a "Negro" and all, but the Southern neoconfederate wing of the GOP has been having trouble with reality for quite some time now.  I'd suggest that the state and state party that was stupid enough to elect George W. Bush 4 times should be careful what they wish for but they'd never listen to me anyway.

[Peach]

The story will be ..............the CAMAPIGNER won the CAMPAIGN.

[Peach]

Don't forget the Texas GOP says get out and vote Obama since McCain is
set.
Obama has no chance of election, and Hillary is a threat.

*********************************************************************
True, the image lovers in the Democratic Party are handing the
election to McCain by the choice of the Obama as the nominee. He has
done nothing for most of his adult life but travel, campaign & pose.