Obama isn't doing the same:
Retooling Obama's campaign machine for the long haul - Los Angeles Times
Reporting from Washington -- As Barack Obama builds his administration and prepares to take office next week, his political team is quietly planning for a nationwide hiring binge that would marshal an army of full-time organizers to press the new president's agenda and lay the foundation for his reelection. The organization, known internally as "Barack Obama 2.0," is being designed to sustain a grass-roots network of millions that was mobilized last year to elect Obama and now is widely considered the country's most potent political machine. Organizers and even Republicans say the scope of this permanent campaign structure is unprecedented for a president. People familiar with the plan say Obama's team would use the network in part to pressure lawmakers -- particularly wavering Democrats -- to help him pass complex legislation on the economy, healthcare and energy.
Organizers and even Republicans say the scope of this permanent campaign structure is unprecedented for a president. People familiar with the plan say Obama's team would use the network in part to pressure lawmakers -- particularly wavering Democrats -- to help him pass complex legislation on the economy, healthcare and energy.
I'm undecided on whether this is a creepy new development or merely the old permanent campaign politics done right.
It might -- I don't know what they have in mind, obviously -- also be a rare instance in which a set of top-down idea makes bottom-up organizing more effective in the future, as the grassroots can play on successful ideas from our little band of merry Chicagoans in an effort to make the jump from being effective during campaigns to being effective in influencing lawmakers while governing.
As long as there is reelection, the permanent campaign is inevitable. Conservatives want live babies so they can raise them to be dead soldiers. - George Carlin
Guardian - John Odum - Democratic Moses
The question that remains is whether the lingering contempt for Dean will be enough to force a dismantling of his legacy at the Democratic National Committee. Although Obama spoke positively of the 50-state project while electioneering, the fact is that the contracts of the 50-state project organisers - more than 200 proven effective political staffers on the ground across the US - were allowed to expire after November, and there is no immediate sign that a recommitment to the programme is forthcoming.
As for Dean he's on to bigger and brighter things.
In short, a volunteer signs up. The 25 nearest neighbors who pique the DNC's interest are then mapped out for the volunteer. The DNC also offers a script to use during canvassing as volunteers go door to door, asking their neighbors the degree of their Democratic support or their support for John McCain. The volunteers asks about their neighbors' top issue interests. The aim is to return and later target each person with a specific script based on their previously identified concerns. Volunteers are ranked locally for their effectiveness and rewarded with invitations to intraparty conference calls or meetings. They are also encouraged to forward invitations by e-mail to friends or family, mimicking the viral success of social networking websites. The program, which debuted in Kansas in late April, was expanded to Virginia. The DNC plans to gradually roll out the program nationally by mid-summer. ... The party continues to build the DNC's voter file with some assistance from the Obama and Clinton campaigns, which have been offloading data to the DNC file. That, in itself, is an accomplishment for a party that brought its voter file in-house for the first time in the 2006 midterm elections. That year, Democrats conducted a pilot program using the data in six states, including Montana, where Jon Tester unseated Republican Sen. Conrad Burns. ... "A lot of the consumer data helps at the margins," said Keith Goodman, the director of special projects in the DNC's political department. And, as Goodman notes, many elections are decided in the margins.
Volunteers are ranked locally for their effectiveness and rewarded with invitations to intraparty conference calls or meetings. They are also encouraged to forward invitations by e-mail to friends or family, mimicking the viral success of social networking websites.
The program, which debuted in Kansas in late April, was expanded to Virginia. The DNC plans to gradually roll out the program nationally by mid-summer. ...
The party continues to build the DNC's voter file with some assistance from the Obama and Clinton campaigns, which have been offloading data to the DNC file.
That, in itself, is an accomplishment for a party that brought its voter file in-house for the first time in the 2006 midterm elections. That year, Democrats conducted a pilot program using the data in six states, including Montana, where Jon Tester unseated Republican Sen. Conrad Burns. ...
"A lot of the consumer data helps at the margins," said Keith Goodman, the director of special projects in the DNC's political department. And, as Goodman notes, many elections are decided in the margins.
Most economists teach a theoretical framework that has been shown to be fundamentally useless. -- James K. Galbraith
