Kos has documented anecdotal evidence of Obama's superior Texas and Ohio ground games and has argued that this aspect of Obama's campaign is what ultimately explains his success at eating into Clinton's support in those crucial states. If Obama goes on to win the nomination, expect it to be a central part of the post-mortem narrative.
In an article that's been featured among Yahoo's top headlines for much of the day, Time Magazine has already begun to explore this unsung aspect of the Democratic primary race. Take this telling contrast between the two campaigns' Ohio organizations:
All winter, the heart of Hillary Clinton's campaign in central Ohio was Jamie Dixey's apartment in the affluent Columbus suburb of New Albany. She started by inviting nine friends over to listen in on a national conference call with Clinton. She organized two monthly meetings, both of which attracted about 10 people. "It was very hard to get people interested because it was so early," Dixey says. In the world of traditional Democratic Party campaigns, this was enough to qualify Dixey as a star volunteer. She won an invitation to Governor Ted Strickland's rally on Jan. 19 formally kicking off Clinton's grassroots campaign in Ohio.Dixey's counterpart on the Obama campaign, Valli Frausto, signed up to volunteer for Obama on Feb. 11, 2007, the day after he announced his candidacy. Immediately she found the social networking section of Obama's website, my.barackobama.com, which campaign insiders affectionately call "MyBO." Frausto posted a personal profile, just as she would on MySpace, and met other supporters online. Within six months, her group of three women had grown to over 200 members. Together they used the website's event planning tools to organize Obama for President picnics, neighborhood cleanups, phone banks and a 5K fundraiser run.
After Super Tuesday, as national staff for both campaigns descended on Ohio, Obama's state leaders began flexing the power of MyBO and the grassroots network it spawned. Across the state, Obama's 300 web-based groups started canvassing neighborhoods three days to a week before Clinton's campaign, supporters on both sides say.
As has been discussed before, the Clinton campaign doesn't seem to have planned for post-February 5th and only recently has learned the error of its ways relying on paid staffers over an army of volunteers. But her campaign also appears to have relied far too much on the advantage establishment support brings you.
Clinton supporters say they're not worried about Obama's early grassroots advantage in Ohio. Building Obama's network from the ground up took months. One advantage of a top-down approach is that, with just a few phone calls, the Democratic Party machine can mobilize thousands of volunteers in just a few days.
The problem with that is sometimes, the grassroots don't cooperate.
Cleveland City Councilman Kevin Conwell came out early for Clinton, winning a trip to the national convention to vote for her.Then Conwell's constituents sat him down for a little chat. "I met with my residents and tried to get them to go with Hillary," Conwell says. "Not one of them would move. All of my volunteers, all my block club presidents, every last one of them was going for Barack."
Conwell was forced to relinquish his seat at the convention. He spent last Saturday canvassing his ward for Obama.
I've written often about the under-estimated enthusiasm that Hillary Clinton inspires among voters, but harnessing that into an actual national ground game does seem to be one of the areas where her campaign has under-performed. For example, they discovered late the power of their online fundraising potential -- even they seemed surprised that they were able to raise as much money as they did as quickly as they did earlier this month, and they've only recently launched a drive on the website to get supporters to pledge to make 1 million calls. An e-mail blast from Chelsea Clinton went out today to mobilize Hillary's largely untapped army in advance of March 4th.
My favorite part of working on my mom's campaign is talking to people one-on-one about why they should vote for her. We can use all the help we can get to tell people about why my mom is the leader we all need! There are two great ways for you to help us all win on March 4:1. We need as many people on the ground in Texas, Ohio, Rhode Island, and Vermont as we can get.
If you can travel to any of these states to volunteer March 1-4, you can make a huge difference for my mom's campaign. And take my word for it -- there is no more exciting place to be than on the campaign trail right now!
2. We need you on the phones, making calls right from your own home.
Earlier this month, I asked our online community to commit to making a million calls. We blew right past that goal, making record numbers of calls into key states. First, congratulations everyone and thank you!! Second, let's keep it going and try to make more than 1.5 million calls this week!
They're doing all the right things but is it translating to a truly mobilized army on the ground and is there enough time for this to make a difference? I guess we'll know in a week.
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