Encouraging articles about Obama's ground game .... link

[Alhena]

Polls are one thing- getting people to the polls is largely about enthusiasm and ground game. Obama has them both.

Missouri:

Obama's GOTV concentration in Missouri and other swing states has become an underestimated side benefit of Obama's decision to reject federal matching funds to run his campaign. He can far outspend McCain for such efforts.

Buffy Wicks, Obama's Missouri GOTV coordinator, says volunteers have made more than 1 million phone calls to voters and knocked on 400,000 Missouri doors.

"It is really personal stuff that is motivating people," Wicks said, citing volunteers who have lost jobs or health insurance.

Of McCain's operation, she said bluntly: "We don't encounter them, to be honest with you."

http://www.statesmanjournal.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20081012/OPINION/810120320/1049/OPINION

Ohio:

An aggressive ground war also helps: Thirty-seven percent of Ohio's registered voters say they've been personally contacted by the Obama campaign. That beats the 27 percent who've heard from McCain, and also surpasses the level of contacts by both campaigns in 2004, when Ohio was decisive. . . .

Among Obama's advantages, though, is sheer energy: Fifty-eight percent of his Ohio supporters are "very enthusiastic" about his candidacy, compared with just 30 percent of McCain's. And while that's about the same for Obama as nationally, high-level enthusiasm for McCain is 8 points lower in Ohio than in the nation overall.

http://abcnews.go.com/PollingUnit/Politics/story?id=5963651&page=1

Florida:

Barack Obama’s large and well-financed field operation could prove to be a decisive factor in swing states like Florida, Obama’s campaign manager, David Plouffe, told reporters today in a conference call.

The field operation, which includes paid staffers as well as volunteers, was responsible for the campaign’s unprecedented voter registration drive, which since Jan. 1 has produced at least 360,000 new Democratic voters in Florida.

Now the field operation is concentrating on persuading undecided voters to back the Democratic ticket and making sure Obama supporters and newly registered voters cast their votes for the Nov. 4 election.

“We have a high degree of confidence in states like Virginia, Colorado and Florida, that in these communities where there are battleground, swing voters our organization is outpacing the McCain campaign,” Plouffe said.

The volunteers and field operation will be used to counter negative campaigning from the Republicans in the final days of the race, Plouffe said.

http://www.heraldtribune.com/article/20081014/BLOG8101/810140240/2121?Title=The_Obama_ground_game

Virginia:

The Republicans wouldn't allow me to tag along with their volunteers, so I drove 30 minutes across the county to the Obama field office. Where the Gainesville GOP office that opened last week was still furnished only with a few folding tables and chairs (workers were hanging the McCain/Palin sign out front as I drove away), Obama's in Woodbridge has been up and running since July, and has the dingy, cluttered, lived-in feel that every campaign office eventually acquires. The campaign's "Votebuilder" software — with house-by-house data on every registered voter in the area — dominated a bank of computer screens, and the walls were covered with cartoons, volunteer signatures and lists of "star phonebankers." Young volunteers bustled in and out with stacks of clipboards and canvassing materials to hand to the volunteers who were showing up by the carful in the parking lot.

[Cha]

1. Rec'd~ Interesting..

"The Republicans wouldn't allow me to tag along with their volunteers, so I drove 30 minutes across the county to the Obama field office. Where the Gainesville GOP office that opened last week was still furnished only with a few folding tables and chairs (workers were hanging the McCain/Palin sign out front as I drove away), Obama's in Woodbridge has been up and running since July, and has the dingy, cluttered, lived-in feel that every campaign office eventually acquires. The campaign's "Votebuilder" software — with house-by-house data on every registered voter in the area — dominated a bank of computer screens, and the walls were covered with cartoons, volunteer signatures and lists of "star phonebankers." Young volunteers bustled in and out with stacks of clipboards and canvassing materials to hand to the volunteers who were showing up by the carful in the parking lot."