WP,pg1: Obama Faces the Test Dean Failed: Broadening Support [View All]

[DeepModem Mom]

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


Despite a big fundraising edge, Sen. Barack Obama has been unable to close a double-digit deficit in polls. (By Charlie Neibergall -- Associated Press)

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....

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Senior advisers to Obama say they are not troubled that he has not overtaken Clinton. They talk often about a "sequential strategy" that focuses exclusively on building a robust campaign organization in Iowa, where a caucus victory could provide a springboard to success in the New Hampshire primary and the early nominating contests beyond.

They argue that Obama's potent fundraising -- if managed wisely -- will allow him to compete directly with Clinton in the raft of states holding primaries on Feb. 5. And, they say, he is holding his own in the early-voting states on which his strategy depends.

"The national polls are irrelevant," David Plouffe, Obama's campaign manager, said in an interview last week....

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/07/16/AR2007071601831.html