BBC: A tour of Obama's re-election headquarters
Source: BBC News
I've just been given a tour of Barack Obama's election headquarters in his home town of Chicago. Housed on the 6th floor of one of the city's many skyscrapers, it is an odd mix of nerd-cool and control freakery.
The huge cluttered room feels like an open plan call centre staffed by the sort of people you'd expect to see working at an IT start up. Just about everyone is under 30. Everyone has a laptop in front of them and many are wearing outsized headphones.
... Despite the cultivated kookiness, this is not an operation with a soft centre. It is a war machine, designed to crush Mr Obama's opposition.
... Even those who are pretty happy with the president hardly feel the same sense of exuberant excitement that they displayed in 2008. So this operation isn't really about making converts. It is about very precise targeting of likely supporters in key places, and giving them a jolt of energy to jump start the campaign.
Read more: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-us-canada-17765220