Wednesday
Feb202008
Progressive think tank, NDN, holds discussion on "Unchartered Political Terrain" with Joe Trippi
Wednesday, February 20, 2008 at 3:24PM
The progressive think tank, NDN, held a discussion on the “Unchartered Political Terrain” in the 2008 Presidential Campaign. Speakers included Joe Trippi, former chief strategist for John Edward's presidential campaign, and Amy Walter, editor in chief of the Hotline at National Journal.
Trippi gained notoriety for popularizing the internet as a political campaign tool while hired as the campaign manager for former Governor Howard Dean during the 2004 presidential election. At the discussion, Trippi told the audience that political campaigns are fundamentally shifting strategies of garnering funds and support from a traditional “top-down” approach to an increasingly popular “bottom-up” method. He said that the Dean campaign proved the effectiveness of online social networks and grassroots campaigning. He said the Clinton campaign is in trouble now in large part because it failed to adopt an Obama-style bottom-up campaign. According to Trippi, Obama has raised more campaign money than Clinton with only about three percent of his donors maxed out compared to ninety percent of Clinton's donors maxed out.
Amy Walter built off of Trippi's address saying that Obama had no choice on how to run his campaign. She said that Obama did not have the resources or connections to run a top-down campaign. She also noted that Clinton was in a position that made it much more difficult for her to run a bottom-up campaign since she already had already established important connections throughout her years in the White House and Senate. Walter said that Obama “stole” independent voters from the other candidates while depicting McCain as very unpopular with independents. However, she warned that Obama's success with the bottom-up strategy in the primaries may not necessarily work to his advantage in the general election.
Trippi gained notoriety for popularizing the internet as a political campaign tool while hired as the campaign manager for former Governor Howard Dean during the 2004 presidential election. At the discussion, Trippi told the audience that political campaigns are fundamentally shifting strategies of garnering funds and support from a traditional “top-down” approach to an increasingly popular “bottom-up” method. He said that the Dean campaign proved the effectiveness of online social networks and grassroots campaigning. He said the Clinton campaign is in trouble now in large part because it failed to adopt an Obama-style bottom-up campaign. According to Trippi, Obama has raised more campaign money than Clinton with only about three percent of his donors maxed out compared to ninety percent of Clinton's donors maxed out.
Amy Walter built off of Trippi's address saying that Obama had no choice on how to run his campaign. She said that Obama did not have the resources or connections to run a top-down campaign. She also noted that Clinton was in a position that made it much more difficult for her to run a bottom-up campaign since she already had already established important connections throughout her years in the White House and Senate. Walter said that Obama “stole” independent voters from the other candidates while depicting McCain as very unpopular with independents. However, she warned that Obama's success with the bottom-up strategy in the primaries may not necessarily work to his advantage in the general election.
Reader Comments (2)
[...] Progressive think tank, NDN, holds discussion on “Unchartered Political Terrain” with Joe Trippi [...]
As I've made clear in my articles on Stop Obama, the story about Obama and grassroots is false.
He began his campaign with millions of dollars from lobbyists, which he later claimed to have returned.
At present, he is more popular with Wealthy voters over Hillary by about 40 percent.
As for donations bellow $200 Hillary has a 52 % share of her most recent monthly totals, to Obama's 56 % share, hardly the talk of grassroots run amok.
Again, Obama's support among the wealthy, is now greater than Hillary's, and he is steadily beating her in all top money contributions.
As for his internet strategy, it was NOT a matter of necessity- nor was CLinton's inability initially go after it, a necessity. At no point would he not have survived without donatins bellow 200, and at no point would Hillary survive without them.
These were two different strategies each side chose, and eventually converged.