As much as the Republicans were able to focus on these districts, Dems have had that luxury as well.  It isn't as though the Dem side of CA-50 was organic either.  It's not nearly as stark of course, but once all the races are getting decided on the same day, sources of hype and dollars like the netroots won't be able to pick a race or two at a time to hammer away at (a la Edwards/Wynn for a week) before moving to the next round of primaries.  Just sayin...it cuts both ways.

Turnout only matters when there are voters out there who will actually vote for you.

The key for the Democrats to defeat the GOP GOTV operation is to turn voters against the GOP, so there are fewer GOP voters to turn out.

That means relentlessly hammering them on the one hand, and on the other hand relentless pumping up the Democratic brand, and demonstrating self-respect, projecting confidence and looking like a "winner."

This turnout stuff is a myth. I don't believe for a minute that GOP's turnout machine alone has saved Chafee. The story is purely based on reporters' desire to find any reason to explain Chafee's victory.

The truth is this is a very high-profile primary by the very end. For RI with over 600,000, an increase of 10,000 to 20,000 in a small GOP primary is absolutely nothing. You just can't compare it percentage wise.

CT primary was hotly contested and turnout was huge even independents were not allowed in D's primary. Has any reporter contributed to Democratic Party's secret turnout recipe?

The truth is people are just interested in participating in a very hotly contested race. This is ZERO evidence that chafee was actually lagging in the poll before the primary. The two polls on this race were completely at odds.

I don't believe the fancy 'micro-targeting' stuff. It's an absolute myth. Their turnout machine may be better. But It's hard to imagine you can erase a deficit more than 2 points by just turning out your base.

All the polls before 2004 election showed Bush had a slight lead. He won because of this not on some turnout myth.

Jerome, Matt & Co. --

I agree with your gut feeling that the GOP's ground game, however prodigious, may not be able to cover each and every vulnerable seat this fall. But as Markos and others have noted, at the end of the day, those people know how to close the deal and deliver their people to the polls. In droves.

Although I'm a progressive who has lived for eighteen years in New York, I grew up in Chattanooga, Tennessee, in a devout Baptist family, so I know first-hand how a plurality of voters in red and even purple states viscerally loathe liberals (even when they may agree with them on specific policies). I consider myself a denizen of the netroots but frankly, I don't see ANY effort on the progressive blogosphere's part to understand -- let alone win over -- swing voters in the South and Midwest. (There's been some effort to reach out to libertarians in the Rocky Mountain states, which is terrific.)

What are you doing to bolster, say, Harold Ford's chances in Tennessee? He's running a hell of a campaign but I've only read harsh criticism of his television ads in your posts, his "Republican lite" approach. Trust me on this one: there's no friggin' way he can win in Tennessee if he were to cast himself as a progressive. So why not pull out the stops as if he were Ned Lamont?    

Personally, I'd like to see the netroots show that they, too, can organize and compete in the groundgame arena, since it's plausible that control of Congress may pivot on GOTV. I wonder if all the obsession with Lieberman and "The Path to 9/11" and Fitzmas and Chuck Schumer could somehow be channeled into real, concrete strategies for winning elections.

Any way you could coordinate efforts with Jane Hamsher, the Kossacks, Matt Yglesias and the rest of the progressive blogosphere to target swing/moderate voters in competitive races?

Charlie Cook's comment was about the 1982 election I think, for context.

Rather than concentrating on their turnout machine- i would like to know how the Dems GOTV machine is gearing up?

So, if they are so good at GOTV, tell me why? If their grassroots are so thin, how can they do effective GOTV? Can someone list the 10 most effective strategies that they are using?

There is a secondary utility in sending "every GOP staffer East of the Mississippi" to Rhode Island. Two months before the Elections, they just trained up all their staffers on GOTV strategies. They'll spend the next couple months analyzing, retraining and disseminating the skills.

All that money "wasted" on RI, was actually a good investment in training.

The Dnc and state parties seem to be continuing their failed Urban centric turnout policies. They fail to see that Cities are tapped out wells and they need to spend more time on turnout in the suburbia  

It is up to all of us to support the Democratic GOTV effort.  I believe that it is similar to the the GOP effort, but not as finely tuned, nor is it likely as technologically advanced.  Still, we have the mechanism in place and it is working better than ever. I have been involved in MD state party activities, plus work for Ben Cardin in the primary.  The Cardin campaign had the best GOTV effort I have ever seen.  Still, we all need to volunteer and get our friends to volunteer, as well.

Well, preference is undeniably more relevant than GOTV. In 2004 Bush unquestionably won via preference, namely white women preferring him due to national security concerns. But that reminds me in September 2004 we were denouncing security moms as a myth on liberal blogs. Result: 55-44, white women in favor of Bush.

So now we're similarly downplaying Republican GOTV. Interesting. And I would be very careful to define or project GOTV based on number of staffers. I've read dozens of articles on the subject and the GOP methodology has moved to relying on local contact via churches and neighbor to neighbor contact, along with pro-Republican businesses encouraging their employees to vote. I think we're stuck in the traditional mindset of evaluating GOTV by number of people in a small rented office making phone calls and sending out direct mail.

opps hours

and i'm watching the same stupidity replay itself all over again this year