Do you live in or near Ohio? Are you interested in making sure this Midwestern swing state gets colored blue in all of the network maps on November 4? The Obama campaign has announced its latest action in its effort to make Ohio more Democratic at the presidential level. This action may also make Ohio more Democratic in the House delegation as well as for other races downticket. If you are interested in helping this effort, read below the fold for details.
The first article in this series described how some of the most astute political observers were “blindsided by Hope” and Barack Obama’s historic victory, convinced America would continue to be ruled by Freak Show politics.Eleven organizational principles guided Obama’s campaign for the nomination, which relied heavily on grass roots and community organizing tactics.The successful “early states” strategy provided enough momentum to carry Obama over the finish line, a race he won by the only measure that counted: delegates.
This article offers a candid assessment of the campaign’s challenges as Obama goes from being a candidate to the nominee.Obama will adapt his management approach to the general election campaign, internalizing electoral strategy as an important part of the corporate culture.The internal challenge is melding a grass roots movement with the Democratic Party establishment and limiting expenditures on paid political ads and services.The external challenge is to avoid inevitable distractions and stay on message. Obama can reassure voters it is "safe" to vote for him by convincing them he can best promote their enlightened self-interest and through his selection of a running mate and naming a shadow cabinet. The result could be an historic and major pendulum swing in American politics.
Part II continues below the fold.
No sign of Obama hinted some sensed in 2004 that Obama would make history. But few expected it would be so soon.
The Clinton campaign has repeatedly fallen back on criticizing the process after every loss --- challenging the right of students to caucus in college towns when they realized they would turn out in large numbers for Obama; challenging the Nevada Democratic party's right to set up worksite caucus locations for casino workers otherwise disenfranchised once their union endorsed Obama; challenging the entire caucus process once they had repeatedly been out-organized and defeated by large margins.
At no point in 2007 did Hillary Clinton critique the caucus format, nor did she challenge the Rules and Bylaws Committee's initial decision to strip Michigan and Florida of their delegates. These decisions were made only later, only after they became necessary to keep her chances alive.
The most dangerous moments at Saturday's RBC hearing were when Harold Ikes repeatedly challenged the legitimacy of the process, arguing that although the Clintons might lose, the party process was fundamentally unjust and an Obama nomination illegitimate.
And these ideas filter down to Clinton's supporters. According to Newsday:
And many of her supporters are vowing to fight on despite the odds. Some have circulated a 17-page critique of the party's primary rules prepared by Clinton supporter Stephen Herbits.
It's titled: "The 2008 DNC Presidential Nomination Process: A Crisis Of Legitimacy."
This group is not connected to the campaign, but they are pursuing the campaign's logic to its natural end and accepting the campaign's rhetoric.
I've never ceased to be amazed at the ultimate insiders on the Clinton campaign --- people like former DNC Chairman Terry McAuliffe or Harold Ickes --- express shock (shock!) at the way elections are conducted around here. They could have been voices for reform during any time in the last two decades that they dominated the DNC.
Hillary Clinton personally has made arguments comparing the DNC's initial decision not to seat Florida and Michigan delegations --- a decision she herself explicitly agreed with and which her surrogates on the RBC (Ickes included) voted for --- to Zimbabwe's corrupt government, to apartheid, and to the civil rights movement.
The Clinton campaign has spared absolutely no fire when turning not only on Obama but on the Democratic party. In Nevada, they tacitly supported a lawsuit against the state Democratic party to close caucus locations where Obama supporters might caucus. On Saturday, as the DNC tried to work out a compromise to meet both campaigns halfway, Clinton surrogates repeatedly threw up their hands at the injustice of it all. Harold Ickes made open threats.
Continue your run for president, continue to try to sway superdelegates. Fine. And be a voice for changing the nomination process for 2012.
But don't try to change the rules after the fact. Don't challenge the Democratic party's nomination procedure as unjust and illegitimate after you've lost, or treat in bad faith the DNC's constant attempts to remain neutral, find compromises, and mediate between the two campaigns --- that's what will be so destructive to the party and will ultimately give Clinton supporters an excuse to sit out the election in November.
Hillary Clinton must eventually recognize that she lost --- fair and square. The future of the party depends on it.
Too much is at stake in this election. Another seat on the Supreme Court. The opportunity to finally end the war in Iraq. A historic opportunity of having a solid Democratic majority to pass a progressive agenda on health care and poverty. That's what this election is about, not Hillary Clinton.
As I write this, Democrats are about 63 hours from concluding our primary season. The end is near. Barack Obama is the presumptive winner of the Democratic nomination for president, and this was never more evident than the remark he gave in South Dakota last night after the rules committee made its decision on seating the Florida and Michigan delegations to the convention.
"I think that Senator Clinton and former President Clinton love this country. They love the Democratic Party. I think they deeply believe that Democrats need to win in November. And so I trust that they’re going to do the right thing."
A friendly but firm invitation into the fold for the last challenger yet to concede. A sign of how the Obama campaign does business. And a sign that the Democratic Party has coalesced behind Obama and pressure now mounts on the Clintons to do the same.
. . . a volcano in Chili that had been dormant for 9,000 years erupted, a powerful cyclone struck Myanmar, an earthquake registering 7.9 on the Richter scale struck central China, and the Republican candidate in a special election in Mississippi's First District . . . lost.
Are all these disasters related in some way? Um? . . . No . . . but it sure is symbolic. Make no mistake . . . the Mississippi election result was akin to a 9.9 on the political Richter scale.
All these events were equally devastating and my heart goes out to those who suffered and are still suffering. Pain is pain, whether it's physical, mental or emotional. No one wants to experience the pain of loss.
The one thing that ties all these events together is . . .
OK, so we know Kentucky is an uphill battle for Barack Obama. That doesn't mean the Obama campaign is writing off the state. Every delegate won puts Obama one step closer to the nomination, including whatever delegates the campaign can get in Kentucky. Below the fold, see the campaign's email to canvass and call Kentucky before May 20.
Crossposted at Daily Kos (thus the focus of the first paragraph).
Back in November of 2004, kos articulated the purpose of Daily Kos. Boiled down to one sentence: "It's a Democratic blog with one goal in mind: electoral victory."
With that in mind, it is important to have leaders in the Democratic Party who act toward providing electoral victories at not just the presidential level, but in Congress and state and local offices throughout the nation. That is the philosophy of DNC chair Howard Dean's 50-state strategy, and is a philosophy evident (as the diary below the fold will explain) in the actions of the front-runner for the Democratic nomination for president in 2008.
If you believe that getting more Democrats elected, and getting more Americans voting Democratic is important (as the mission of this blog affirms), consider the actions of Barack Obama over the past couple of decades.
The first few years of the 21st century have seen Democratic gains in Pennsylvania: Ed Rendell became the first Democratic governor since Bob Casey, Sr. left office in 1994. Casey's son kicked Rick Santorum out of his Senate seat in 2006, and that year brought Patrick Murphy, Chris Carney, Joe Sestak, and Jason Altmire to Congress.
This week brings an opportunity to further increase Democratic gains in the Keystone State. More below the fold on what we can do to help.
In a comment yesterday explaining his endorsement of Barack Obama for president, teacherken related a conversation with an Illinois state senator who served with Obama:
[Obama] is capable of moving people from where they are to a place where things can be accomplished. For now I want to repeat something I read from a Democratic member of the Illinois State Senate.
He noted that the Dems might now have both a majority and a Democratic governor, but they are getting far less done the last 3+ years, and he attributes that particularly to the absence of Barack Obama, whom he described as the one person who had been most important in bringing people together.
It's a useful reminder that reassuming control of the government isn't a guarantee of success in pushing an agenda. Californians will remember Gray Davis' relatively dysfunctional time in office, when Democrats made little significant progress towards progressive goals like curbing global warming or ensuring universal health care.
In 1994, it was under a Democratic president and with a Democratic Congress that universal health care failed. In 2002, it was a Democratic Senate that approved the Iraq war resolution authorizing the president to use force.
Often enough, while a party is in the minority, it remains unified in opposition, but once the party emerges into the majority, the various factions and fissures that had existed all along begin to emerge. Different interest groups press congresspeople in various directions. Senators push their own amendments, grandstand for their constituents, manipulate existing alliances and favors owed, and slip in earmarks benefiting their home districts. Four different versions of the same bill emerge.
A Democratic president and a Democratic majority in Congress are not enough. You need someone will the ability to manage those various concerns and forge a consensus.
This is the last of three diaries about the December 3-9 Iowa volunteer experience of a former diplomat, whose responsibilities included observing and reporting on foreign elections. A regular contributor to One Million Strong, his first Iowa diary described his trip to Iowa and the “fun” of political involvement. The second related a chance encounter with a voter in Riverside, future birthplace of Startrek’s Captain Kirk. In this last diary, he explores what may be Obama’s demographic breakout advantage, one that has not been measured in polls and may not necessarily be restricted to the state of Iowa.
Winter Strikes
Kiana, Illinois volunteer Alex and I went to Washington to help get the new field office for Washington and Louisa counties ready for the “official” opening on Sunday. Many of the details, particularly getting our internet service up and running, were worked out by Jay, a lawyer who had worked in Illinois writing speeches for Michelle Obama before he had recently returned to his hometown of Washington, Iowa. Jay’s presence freed up Kiana to liaise with the local political establishment and organize Obama support in the dozen or so precincts for which she is responsible. Snow fell throughout the day, and we did not know that the road back to Muscatine was considered “secondary” and therefore would not be cleared until morning. The icy winter Iowa weather remained a problem for the rest of my visit, and I can certainly imagine that it could play a very significant role on January 3. However, this evening Kiana contacted a local Obama supporter and, after Alex and I made our calls, I headed to her house to spend the night in her basement.
No, this is not another Saturday Night Live sketch (remember the Halloween party skit in which Bill Richardson fawned over the Clintons and unabashedly asked if he didn't look "vice presidential"?).
This is an actual exchange at the Brown and Black Presidential Forum in Iowa, reported in USA Today, that should confirm what many already suspected after Richardson stepped in to suggest other candidates not pick on Hillary at the Philadelphia Presidential debate:
But Clinton and Richardson also engaged in one of the event¹s many lighter moments when the candidates were allowed to question each other.
"Don¹t you think governors make good presidents?" Richardson asked, in a nod to President Bill Clinton, who was Arkansas governor before his 1992 election. "Well, Bill, I also think they make good vice presidents," Clinton responded.
(The author, a former diplomat whose duties included observing and reporting on foreign elections, is a regular contributor to OMS)
As my 5-day visit to Las Vegas comes to an end, I leave with some trepidation about the preparations for and integrity of the Nevada caucuses scheduled at 11:00 on Saturday morning, January 19, 2008.Of the four “early states” in the Presidential nominee selection process, the Nevada caucus poses the most daunting challenge to the Obama campaign. There is a very real possibility it will be eclipsed by results and momentum established by the winner(s) in Iowa and New Hampshire. Nonetheless, organizing for a win here remains a high priority.
A variety of factors combine to make this state one of the most difficult places in the US to operate politically.In fact, one has to wonder whether the Democratic Party fully understood what it was agreeing to in August 2006, when it decided to anoint Nevada as an “early state”.Nevada is considered a “swing-state,” but except for Bill Clinton’s victories in 1992 and 1996, it voted Republican in every other Presidential election since 1980. Also, its current governor and junior senator are both Republicans. The tradition of political apathy fits neatly with the state’s economic mainstay. So, in gaming parlance, Nevada’s political elite, particularly Harry Reid and his son Rory, are playing “high stakes” with their state’s image and personal reputations.While the current odds do not favor Obama, in the end it may be his campaign that lends needed legitimacy to the Nevada caucus.
You can win if you run a smart, disciplined campaign, if you studiously say nothing — nothing that causes you trouble, nothing that’s a gaffe, nothing that shows you might think the wrong thing, nothing that shows you think.
But it just isn’t worthy of us [...] It isn’t worthy of us, it isn’t worthy of America, it isn’t worthy of a great nation. We’re gonna write a new book, right here, right now. This very moment. Today.
--Jed Bartlett, "Manchester, Part II," The West Wing
