Obama is doing a full court press even in little Delaware

[jackson_dem]

Conyers was in the state today and Michelle Obama will visit. Obama is running state-specific ads here and has sent out mass mailers. I am impressed by his organization here. If he is going this far in a small state like Delaware I can only imagine how much he is doing in bigger states. I wanted to offer my observation. Obamites, your money is being very well spent.

[cali]

1. thanks for the observation

jdem. I know you can't stand Obama, so I appreciate the interesting information.

[jackson_dem]

4. I am now neutral

Even if I become a supporter of one of the remaining candidates I won't passionately support either. Much of my anger at Obama was due to Obamite attacks on Edwards which I thought were unfair, but very effective among the netroots and seeped into the (little) press coverage Edwards got. I tried to do to Obama what Obamites did to Edwards. I think one mistake Edwards made was never really responding effectively to the grassroots campaign against him. But this thread is not about Edwards' strategy and that chapter is now closed. As far as I am concerned we are all on the same squad now. :toast:

[CTLawGuy]

11. im sorry about those attacks

Most Obama supporters respect what Edwards was fighting for. We know that John and Barack are/were both candidates of change.

Cheers!

[jackson_dem]

19. Those wounds will heal over time

I can't wait until the convention when we will enjoy the sight of all Hillary, Obama, and Edwards linking arms and standing together in a united front to take the fight to the rethugs!

[CTLawGuy]

23. hell yah

and think about El-Rushbo spending his time ripping on McCain instead of our candidate.

[jackson_dem]

24. yup the rethugs are in a catch 22

If they want to have a shot at winning they need McCain, and McCain-Giuliani is their best ticket. The problem is that will infuriate their base and risk tearing apart the old Reagan coalition. On the other hand Romney is a weak general election candidate so he isn't much of an alternative, although he is better for them in the long term because he at least keeps the party together. Either way we are in good shape! :)

[Unsane]

2. Wow, thanks Jackson.

Never expected those compliments from you.

His strategy is becoming clear: win the smaller states and the southern states, and try and keep it close in NY/CA.

[jackson_dem]

10. Do you live in a Super Tuesday state?

I am curious about what he is doing in bigger Super Tuesday states. My assumption is he is going all-out everywhere. The way he is running in Delaware no stone is being left unturned. I don't doubt that he is doing the same in big and medium sized states. I do agree small states are more important to him than Hillary because she will win most of the big states. Obama will need as many "W's" as possible. It also serves the purpose of allowing Obama to make an argument that he is the most electable because he will cite his red state wins. That will be especially important if, as expected, Hillary wins most of the big states which are blue. His camp will argue "Yeah, she won the big states but they are blue anyway. We will win them in the fall regardless of who we nominate. Obama is the only candidate who can win in red states and run a truly national campaign."

[Unsane]

14. I live in an April state and he has ads running here!

[jackson_dem]

17. They must be his national ads

He has Delaware-specific ads here which is impressive and smart.

[Unsane]

20. Yeah, it's his "Stars and Stripes" natl ad.

No other candidates are running ads here.

[jenmito]

15. I live in NY and I see his ads and nobody else's. ALL the time. n/t

[elixir]

18. I saw my first ad today - Caroline Kennedy voice over pictures of JFK then BO

drawing analogies between the two. Not a bad concept but it's hard to buy. JFK earned respect through his naval service and gained experience while serving in congress, BO doesn't have that track record.

[jenmito]

21. It's JFK's DAUGHTER. How could you not "buy" it? She's talking about his inspiring people-not his

naval service.

[elixir]

26. The analogy between JFK and BO doesn't work.

[Tatiana]

3. He really believes in the 50-state strategy.

I think it bodes well for the general election that there will have been a democratic presence in all 50 states, no matter who the nominee is.

[jefferson_dem]

5. Thanks for the update Jackson!

:toast:

[jackson_dem]

16. No problemo Jefferson (and some more info for you Obama folks)

:toast:

Hillary has an active campaign here but Obama is miles ahead of her here. I spent much of Sunday with someone working on the Clinton campaign and they are working hard but they aren't being as smart and effective as the Obama campaign is. Conyers was here today, for example. I haven't heard of a high profile Clinton surrogate coming here yet. Bill Clinton was in Camden, New Jersey the other day and that is part of the media market but it doesn't have the same effect as the grassroots that having someone like Conyers here on the ground.

Oh, and Lt. Gov. John Carney sent an e-mail to his supporters (he is in a primary for governor) endorsing Obama. The party leaders here were all with Biden, for obvious reasons, but when he dropped out that opened things up. I was surprised to heard of Carney's endorsement. It is a pretty big deal.

I don't think Obama will win Delaware, although he has a shot. What impresses me is how effective a campaign he is running. If he is doing this here I can only imagine what he is doing in California and Georgia.

[Joe the Revelator]

6. Whoa

I like the new, neutral, Jackson_Dem.

[jackson_dem]

12. Let me just say this

I will still criticize Obama, like I will with Clinton, but most of my criticism will be of Obama. This won't be because of a preference, at least not immediately, but will be because of me "calling BS", in my eyes, on claims made by partisans of both sides. Since there are far more Obamites here than Clintonians I will do this more with Obama. I just wanted to get that out there before you see me saying "Yeah, but he funded the war" and thinking I've turned against him. :)

[KittyWampus]

22. IMO, you're opinion carries more weight. It's value being from a more stoic place.

[Joe the Revelator]

28. As long as you are consistent, you will hear not whining from me.

[CreekDog]

7. The 50-tollbooth strategy

:applause:

[Dr. Strange]

13. LynneSin needs to send him one of these:

[sasquatch]

25. LOL!!

:rofl:

[EmperorHasNoClothes]

8. That's great to hear

I think Obama knows that it's critical for him to make a very good showing on Tuesday to keep his momentum going.

[BeyondGeography]

9. Good info

thanks.

[milkyway]

27. Obama's campaign is very much the maturation of Dean's campaign: small online donors,

grassroots, bottom-up, boots-on-the-ground (as opposed to top-down, television ad-driven campaigns), 50-states.

Obama, however, is a much better organizer than Dean was. He has always considered himself an organizer more than anything else. From an article about him in 1995 when he was running for Illinois Senate:

http://www.chicagoreader.com/obama/951208/

<snip>

What makes Obama different from other progressive politicians is that he doesn't just want to create and support progressive programs; he wants to mobilize the people to create their own. He wants to stand politics on its head, empowering citizens by bringing together the churches and businesses and banks, scornful grandmothers and angry young. Mostly he's running to fill a political and moral vacuum. He says he's tired of seeing the moral fervor of black folks whipped up--at the speaker's rostrum and from the pulpit--and then allowed to dissipate because there's no agenda, no concrete program for change.

<snip>

"In America," Obama says, "we have this strong bias toward individual action. You know, we idolize the John Wayne hero who comes in to correct things with both guns blazing. But individual actions, individual dreams, are not sufficient. We must unite in collective action, build collective institutions and organizations."

<snip>

"What if a politician were to see his job as that of an organizer," he wondered, "as part teacher and part advocate, one who does not sell voters short but who educates them about the real choices before them? As an elected public official, for instance, I could bring church and community leaders together easier than I could as a community organizer or lawyer. We would come together to form concrete economic development strategies, take advantage of existing laws and structures, and create bridges and bonds within all sectors of the community. We must form grass-root structures that would hold me and other elected officials more accountable for their actions.

<snip>

[Hippo_Tron]

31. He also had the advantage of learning from Dean's mistakes

Obama supporter here but I think people definitely don't give Dean enough credit for pioneering the way he raised money.

[milkyway]

33. Not my intention at all. I love Howard, and the campaign was truly historic.

He did pioneer raising money, but Trippi pissed much of it away. Like many, I was shocked when a couple of days after Iowa it was revealed that the campaign was nearly broke.

Also, while the Dean campaign was truly different than any we had seen before, the organization sometimes left a lot to be desired. In Iowa they used mostly out-of-state volunteers (in orange hats) to knock on doors trying to persuade voters who had already been inundated with commercials and mailings for a year. It must have seemed like an invasion to some people in Iowa. From what I've heard, the Obama campaign in Iowas relied much more heavily on local volunteers rather than people from across the country. From many reports I've seen, the Obama campaign is very well run, taking the best of the Dean campaign while learning from its mistakes.

[Hippo_Tron]

34. Yea Trippi crushed Dean it seems like...

And it's a shame too because if Dean had won the nomination and especially if he'd won the Presidency, he would've gotten far more credit for what he did with internet fundraising.

Because it happens so subtly people don't realize that every single candidate both Democrat and Republican is doing what Dean did in 2008, getting supporters all over the country to give small amounts of money over the internet instead, allowing them to spend less time and money doing fund raisers to get big donations.

I often wonder what it would be like if we could go back in time and apply the same strategy to Al Gore's campaign in 2000. Certainly enough people had computers and internet access back then, but the Web 2.0 didn't really exist yet. In 2003 Web 2.0 was just beginning and Dean's campaign was certainly a part of them. If it had been possible to implement back then, I think that could've tipped the election.

[NJSecularist]

29. Thanks for the report.

From a person who has been (fairly) critical of Obama the last week or so, when you compliment Obama, it holds more weight because I know you aren't biased like the Obamabots are.

[ursi]

30. they run a good campaign ...I saw that here in Reno and in rural Nevada

[Egnever]

32. Go see Michelle!

She is pretty cool in person. Worth the time if you have it.

Glad to hear his campiagn is working well there. They were solid here in a state set up against them from the begining.