Organizing for America | Sam Graham-Felsen's Blog: Video: Barack on the Picket Line

the big tent | Report to Admin

By rich Jul 17th 2007 at 10:46 am EDT

the big tent (IMO expansion of one's base of supporters, beyond younger voters, is key to winning the dem primary for the Obama 08 campaign):

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Vive la difference

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ANALYSIS
By John Mercurio

Updated: 9:35 a.m. ET July 12, 2007

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Barack Obama is not Howard Dean.

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earlier this week, Edwards tried to defend his own campaign's financial lethargy by downplaying the importance of fundraising as an indicator of a candidate's long-term viability. "Everyone will remember Governor Dean who outraised everyone else by more than 2-to-1 and wasn't able to win the nomination," Edwards told the Associated Press.

Edwards is hardly the first person to compare Obama to Dean, both of whom soared onto the national stage fueled by strong and early opposition to the Iraq war. But as the Hotline's Conn Carroll notes, there are fundamental differences between the two Democrats when it comes to fundraising.

Carroll cites numbers from MyDD's Jerome Armstrong indicating that Obama's fundraising is less dependent on the Internet and more dependent on public speaking appearances than Dean's was. "If the typical Dean Internet donor was a guy in his 40s with an advanced degree, [then] it appears the typical Obama donor is a Tufts senior selling Obama tickets outside his dorm," Carroll writes.

"It is unclear why Obama has not inspired the same voices that fought for Dean," Carroll continues, but he offers one explanation, via bloggers David Roberts and Armando Llorens: that Obama "has let others in the field, like Edwards, outflank him on the left" on issues such as the war, which "would have never happened to Dean."

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Re: the big tent | Report to Admin

By rich Jul 17th 2007 at 11:54 am EDT

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Obama Faces the Test Dean Failed: Broadening Support

By Anne E. Kornblut and Perry Bacon Jr.

Washington Post Staff Writers
Tuesday, July 17, 2007; Page A01

He raises tens of millions of dollars over a few months. His supporters are passionate, almost fanatical. And his grass-roots movement threatens a more established rival.

A description of Howard Dean in 2003 or Sen. Barack Obama today?

Obama campaign advisers -- many of them campaign veterans who watched Dean's slow rise and rapid descent at close range -- reject the comparison, arguing that their candidate and organization won't repeat the mistakes of the former Vermont governor.

But as Obama has shattered fundraising records over the past few months while continuing to trail Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton (D-N.Y.) by double digits in polls, the challenge for the senator from Illinois has become clear: He must turn the intense devotion of his backers into a force that can win primaries, expanding his base of support beyond the narrow band of Democratic elites who backed Dean.

"It looks like a movement candidacy, and it's generating an enormous amount of enthusiasm, excitement and money," said Steve McMahon, a Democratic strategist who was a top adviser to Dean. "The question now -- as in all movements like this -- is whether or not the voters and the votes will follow."

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Like Dean and Bradley, Obama is strongest among elites, whom other Democrats derisively call "latte liberals" -- a group that voices strong opinions but is not big enough to win him the nomination. Polls show that Obama is ahead of Clinton among voters with college degrees, while Clinton has a huge lead among voters who make less than $35,000 and those who have graduated only from high school.

Like his unsuccessful predecessors, Obama is more popular among men and independents, rather than with the women and working-class voters who generally drive the nominating process.

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To help address that trend, Obama's campaign is doing some retooling: He is focusing more on the economy, which was the subject of a town hall meeting in Iowa last week as well as recent events in South Carolina.

Obama has made other subtle changes as well. He recently pulled one of his closest aides, longtime spokesman Robert Gibbs, out onto the campaign trail to help sharpen his message. Aides are working to get the occasionally long-winded senator to speak in shorter, crisper sentences, particularly in debates and town hall meetings.

After spending months organizing major rallies, the campaign is beginning to shift toward smaller venues, giving Obama a chance to interact personally with every voter at times, a tactic Clinton has adopted in Iowa. In particular, Obama will make more stops in diners and small venues in New Hampshire, where a small-town feel is prized.

Advisers have also discussed Obama's going to Europe to help define his foreign policy record.

Yet the campaign rejects questions about whether it needs to do something different to win.

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Cleaning up Washington! | Report to Admin

By Vee Jul 17th 2007 at 11:29 am EDT

This is exactly why we need Obama as our president. This is what he needs to raise often during his campaign. Building bridges, make Washington more transparent, that's the only way the country can start repairing itself & the government can actually get something done.

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