Obama's superior ground game

[Chris]

STERLING, Virginia -- A giant chalkboard takes up a wall in this unassuming office suite hung with Obama signs, one of more than 60 campaign offices for the president in this battleground state. On it is drawn a calendar of the final weeks before the election. Phone banks, canvasses, and campaign events are marked in color-coded chalk. And every Saturday through Nov. 6, in capital letters, is marked "DRY RUN" -- a precision-timed Election Day simulation drill, where everything from data reporting to snacks is rehearsed down to the minute.

Forget the polls, the debates, the last-minute ads and volleys of insults. This is how the Obama campaign plans to win the election.

Four years ago, Barack Obama built the largest grassroots organization in the history of American politics. After the election, he never stopped building, and the current operation, six years in the making, makes 2008 look like "amateur ball," in the words of Obama's national field director Jeremy Bird. Republicans insist they, too, have come a long way in the last four years. But despite the GOP's spin to the contrary, there's little reason to believe Mitt Romney commands anything comparable to Obama's ground operation.

Obama's Edge: The Ground Game That Could Put Him Over the Top - Molly Ball - The Atlantic

 

[Claudette]

Well. You can always hope.

 

[chikenwing]

Just like the Wisconsin recall??

Yep ya called that one right

 

[theDoctorisIn]

I'm a firm believer that a good ground game is what wins elections - and I don't say that just because I'm a campaign field director.

 

[Oddball]

Obiedoodle, you're no Adrian Peterson.

 

[Procrustes Stretched]

Ask Hillary Clinton and John McCain



next

 

[Procrustes Stretched]

STERLING, Virginia -- A giant chalkboard takes up a wall in this unassuming office suite hung with Obama signs, one of more than 60 campaign offices for the president in this battleground state. On it is drawn a calendar of the final weeks before the election. Phone banks, canvasses, and campaign events are marked in color-coded chalk. And every Saturday through Nov. 6, in capital letters, is marked "DRY RUN" -- a precision-timed Election Day simulation drill, where everything from data reporting to snacks is rehearsed down to the minute.

Forget the polls, the debates, the last-minute ads and volleys of insults. This is how the Obama campaign plans to win the election.

Four years ago, Barack Obama built the largest grassroots organization in the history of American politics. After the election, he never stopped building, and the current operation, six years in the making, makes 2008 look like "amateur ball," in the words of Obama's national field director Jeremy Bird. Republicans insist they, too, have come a long way in the last four years. But despite the GOP's spin to the contrary, there's little reason to believe Mitt Romney commands anything comparable to Obama's ground operation.

Obama's Edge: The Ground Game That Could Put Him Over the Top - Molly Ball - The Atlantic

Ralph Reed and the Right Wing Christian Bigot Brigades are there too. In Ohio, it will be a battle of Churches versus Unions.

A ship is sinking and there aren't enough life boats for everyone. Three men come into focus .. a Rabbi, a Minister, and a Priest.

The Rabbi is over heard to say "Woman and children first" and the Minister says "Fuck the children" while after a few seconds pause, the Priest chimes in with "You mean we have time for that too?"

 

[Dont Taz Me Bro]

Yes, the polls and debates no longer matter. LOL

Funny how the Obamabots keep moving the goal post.

 

[Procrustes Stretched]

Polls are tools, debates do not matter all that much in the great scheme of things

 

[JimH52]

Yes, the polls and debates no longer matter. LOL

Funny how the Obamabots keep moving the goal post.

Believe me, if you are a Willard guy, you don't want to talk about polls or the last two debates....

 

[percysunshine]

If the polls are accurate, this ground game is shovel ready.

 

[TruthSeeker56]

"Ground game" is Democrat code for VOTER FRAUD.

The Democrats have fought very hard to make sure that people don't have to identify themselves in any way before they vote.

The Democrats don't care if a voter is alive or dead.

The Democrats don't care if a voter is a U.S. citizen.

The Democrats don't care if a voter is a convicted felon.

The Democrats don't care if a voter votes multiple times in the same election.

The Democrats don't care if absentee ballots magically appear or magically disappear.

The Democrats don't care if the votes of overseas military servicemen are counted or not.

The Democrat "ground game" is to make a mockery out of our election process, and to model our elections after the Venezuela/Hugo Chavez faux elections.

 

[Dont Taz Me Bro]

Yes, the polls and debates no longer matter. LOL

Funny how the Obamabots keep moving the goal post.

Believe me, if you are a Willard guy, you don't want to talk about polls or the last two debates....

Why would a Romney supporter not want to talk about the polls when he has closed the gap and is leading in many of them? As for the debates, while I agree that Obama had the edge in the second and third, Romney in no way performed nearly as badly in either of those as Obama did in the first one. That first debate was a disaster for Obama and may very well cost him the election.

 

[Procrustes Stretched]

Yes, the polls and debates no longer matter. LOL

Funny how the Obamabots keep moving the goal post.

Believe me, if you are a Willard guy, you don't want to talk about polls or the last two debates....

Why would a Romney supporter not want to talk about the polls when he has closed the gap and is leading in many of them? As for the debates, while I agree that Obama had the edge in the second and third, Romney in no way performed nearly as badly in either of those as Obama did in the first one. That first debate was a disaster for Obama and may very well cost him the election.

Many people thought the race would tighten up as it neared November. It has. The debates can put momentum into play, but it does not move the partisan and committed votes.

The debates saved Romney's campaign, not Romney's overall chances in the Electoral College as far as I can tell. It kept his campaign in play where they got to raise more money and energize the base.

Obama's base and committed vote was down after the first debate, but nothing like the Romney base before the first debate.

Obama is a known quantity. Hard to define him. Romney was an unknown and Obama defined him. Romney changed some opinions after the debates, but is it enough? I don't think so.

The media narrative is an incumbent loses in a close race. What is missing is Obama is not the average incumbent. His likeability ratings are better over time than most.

In the end people will vote with who they know. Some people usually jump with whoever looks like the winner as people do with winning sports teams, but...this race was tight from the get go. Obama was weak, but Romney was weaker.

Not enough time -- think Kerry 2004

 

[Chris]

Obama has 131 field offices in Ohio.

Romney has 40.

 

[Chris]

Republicans have only won the popular presidential vote one time in the last 20 years.....2004.

So the only way Republicans can win is for the Supreme Court to change the rules on campaign contributions, allowing billionaire donors to give hundreds of millions of dollars to Romney's campaign, and then have the states illegally block people's right to vote.