Comments on: Helping Obama on the ground

By: digitalcntrl

digitalcntrl — Wed, 22 Oct 2008 02:14:47 +0000

” The Democrats have always been far behind Republicans in mobilising and connecting to their potential voters and supporters.”

I can’t say for the party as whole but the Obama operation from my experience is very impressive. Extremely well organized and well run as compared to the McCain and Clinton campaigns. They helped turn my state, Virginia, from a Republican to a Democratic leaning state.

“Karl Rove built a massive and highly sophisticated database of Republican voters during the Bush years and the Democrats still havenâ€™t caught up.”

Rove’s ideas were revolutionary, brilliant, and frightening all at the same time. His dream of a permanent Republican majority was a nightmare.

http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/video/flv/generic.html?s=frol02p6c&continuous=1

By: Angela

Angela — Tue, 21 Oct 2008 16:44:40 +0000

Way to go Sunny! I’ve been backing Obama from a safe distance here in London, but you’re fighting the good fight on the frontline. Let us know if you convert any floating voters…

By: Leon

Leon — Tue, 21 Oct 2008 16:43:26 +0000

Great update Sunny, looking forward to reading more of your experiences and reflections on how they run the campaign on the ground.

By: platinum786

platinum786 — Tue, 21 Oct 2008 13:50:46 +0000

If John McCain had not taken over from Bush, and had his opponent been anyone but Obama, even if it was Obama, he probably would have won this election. This election was an opportunity to make the republican party sane. He was the liberal face of it, he could have pushed the hawks like Rumsfeld etc to insignificance of he was President.

I still don’t know about the credentials of Obama to lead a country, he just seems to new Labour to me, too much like Cameron and Blair, a lot of flash, I just hope it won’t be all smoke and mirrors like New Labour. Has this guy been around long enough to make the stand when it counts, when in government.

By: MaidMarian

MaidMarian — Tue, 21 Oct 2008 11:28:27 +0000

’8 years of Bush have certainly helped develop Democrat anger’

I always worry when I see a sentence like that.

Take the word, ‘Democrat,’ out of that sentence and you may be a bit closer. In the midst of a campaign it may well be tempting to confuse anger and support but the link between those is tenuous at best. Candidates that live by anger can very easily die by anger. Think New Labour.

Anger is not political as such – however much the new media, especially talkboards, may suggest it is. A malcontent is a malcontent whoever is in power. There is a world of difference between voting for something (or, in a presidential election, someone) for positive and negative reasons.

I don’t doubt that Bush’s legacy to his party will be a severe defeat and alienation. But in saying that a candidacy built on anger looks to me rather like a hostage to fortune.

It took about five years for that anger to be directed back at Blair – it will be interesting to see how Obama handles the governing of the malcontent element, as opposed to the politics it looks to have explioted well.

Best of luck with it Sunny!