Wednesday
Jun252008
Obama is building a "persuasion army"
The Obama campaign manager Davide Plouffe spoke about the goals and attitude of the Obama campaign as they look toward the fall campaign season. In looking over the electoral map of the 2004 campaign, Plouffe said that Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.) will not hold much sway in the Kerry states. Obama is looking to have more of an offensive campaign and will be campaigning harder in Ohio and Florida then any presidential nominee in history, Plouffe said.
In New Mexico and Colorado the Obama campaign feels they have a significant lead and a big lead with Hispanic voters, 60 percent more saying they will vote democratically then in 2004, Plouffe said. The “west is a place of enormous opportunity for us,” Plouffe said, while the Midwest will be the battleground states. Many independent voters who self identify with democrats are growing and will be the votes that the campaign is fighting for.
The Obama campaign has several goals it is looking to focus on and accomplish my November: having a historically high African American turnout and a high turnout with voters under 40, register people to vote, help elect democrats down the ballot and to build grassroots organizations in every state. The state by state grassroots organizations will give the campaign a “persuasion army” to pull independents and others to vote for Obama.
In New Mexico and Colorado the Obama campaign feels they have a significant lead and a big lead with Hispanic voters, 60 percent more saying they will vote democratically then in 2004, Plouffe said. The “west is a place of enormous opportunity for us,” Plouffe said, while the Midwest will be the battleground states. Many independent voters who self identify with democrats are growing and will be the votes that the campaign is fighting for.
The Obama campaign has several goals it is looking to focus on and accomplish my November: having a historically high African American turnout and a high turnout with voters under 40, register people to vote, help elect democrats down the ballot and to build grassroots organizations in every state. The state by state grassroots organizations will give the campaign a “persuasion army” to pull independents and others to vote for Obama.
tagged 
Barack Obama, Florida, democrats, election 2008 in Election '08, News/Commentary
Barack Obama, Florida, democrats, election 2008 in Election '08, News/Commentary
Reader Comments (1)
The tactical advantage of having a persuasion army is potentially big. Why? For people struggling to get by, dealing with the challenges of a worsening economy, or just trying to keep their lives together day to day, the media circus is at best an afterthought, and the horse race of presidential politics a point of perceived irrelevance. By engaging people with a grassroots approach, and if done wisely, Obama has the opportunity in this information age to deliver a stunning new kind of campaign and result to the body politic. It would be a service to all of us to have the current system shifted to something more functional, as the smear and dirty politics campaigning of the past has gotten us only more polarization and ignorance of the real issues facing us. I, for one, am eager to see someone break out of the mold, think different and run a different kind of campaign, as this puts pressure on others to keep up or fall farther and farther behind. Obama already demonstrated the power of this in his race against Hillary Clinton, defying the odds and turning a long shot candidacy of a relative newcomer in a pre-ordained race into an upset that still has many scratching their heads. Can he do it again?