Obama readies plan to reshape the electorate

[babylonsister]

Every Dem should be happy about this!


Obama readies plan to reshape the electorate
By BEN SMITH | 4/2/08 4:40 AM EST

Barack Obama's massive, smoothly integrated volunteer organization has been a mainstay of his campaign.
Photo: AP



Even as he fends off Senator Hillary Clinton in the Democratic nomination contest, Senator Barack Obama is already turning his attention to the general election, and to an ambitious plan to reshape the American electorate in his favor.

Bringing new voters to the polls "is going to be a very big part of how we win," said Obama's deputy campaign manager, Steve Hildebrand, in an interview. "Barack's appeal to independent voters is also going to be key."

Hildebrand said the campaign is likely to turn its attention and the energy of its massive volunteer army this fall on registering African-American voters, and voters under 35 years old, in key states.

"Can it change the math in Ohio? Very much so," he said. "If you look at the vote spread between Bush and Kerry in 2004 - we could potentially erase that."


snip//

But there are signs that this year could be different. In the Obama campaign, youth turnout and Internet-based organizing - so often promised, and rarely delivered in the past - have been made real. And the first black nominee could reach deep into the large non-voting tracts within the African-American community.

"There's the potential here to change American politics for a while. Under-35 voters are just so overwhelmingly Democrats. Getting them registered is a simple, important, not-easy part of that — and Obama can," said Jim Jordan, a consultant who ran the independent group that headed Democrats' national field operation in 2004, America Coming Together. "And the voters who do register will actually vote. African-American voters, under-30 voters will be hugely self-motivated. They'll get to the polls in numbers that aren't typical for new registrants, and they'll do it on their own, on top of the strong turn out mechanics that the Obama guys will surely bring to bear."

Michael Slater, the deputy director of the non-partisan Project Vote, also said he found the Obama campaign's hopes of a dramatic increase in the participation "very plausible" for younger and black voters, groups, he said, which are under-represented in the electorate.

more...

http://www.politico.com/news/stories/0408/9328.html

[grantcart]

1. great find and this is how he has been doing it 15 years ago

http://www.chicagomag.com/Chicago-Magazine/January-1993/Vote-of-Confidence/

To understand the full implications of Obama's effort, you first need to understand how voter registration often has worked in Chicago. The Regular Democratic Party spearheaded most drives, doing so using one primary motivator: money. The party would offer bounties to registrars for every new voter they signed up (typically a dollar per registration). The campaigns did produce new voters. "But bounty systems don't really promote participation," says David Orr, the Cook County clerk, whose office is responsible for voter registration efforts in the Cook County suburbs. "When the money dries up, the voters drop out." Nor did the Democratic Party always vigorously push registration among minorities, Orr says. "It's not that they discouraged it. They just never worked hard to ensure it would happen."

All of that changed with the ascension of Harold Washington. In the months just prior to his 1983 Democratic primary win, 120,000 new black voters were registered, most by registrars who received no bounty.

Off in Washington, D.C., those efforts were scrutinized with great interest by the founder of a new voter-registration organization. Sandy Newman, a lawyer and civil-rights activist, had founded Project Vote! the year before to promote registra¬tion among low-income and minority voters. At the time, his operation was still centered in the nation's capital, pioneering such now-commonplace practices as registering people at food-stamp and welfare offices. While Project Vote! was indi¬rectly involved in the Harold Washington registration effort, donating money to the black wards' voter-registration drives, it did not start a branch in Chicago. "The group already at work there was fine," Newman says. "We decided to support them with funds, rather than compete with them." Even after the minority-registration effort in Chicago fell apart following the death of Washington, Project Vote! opted to avoid Illinois. "The Democratic Party in Cook County was still actively using a bounty system for most registrations," Newman says, "and we didn't wish to get associated with that

snip

The question now, of course, is what lasting impact Project Voters efforts will have on Chicago and Illinois politics. Joseph Gardner says it will be considerable. "In this town, numbers talk," he says. "Who can afford to ignore 600,000 voters?" He says he is confident turnout among black voters in Chicago will remain at nearly that level during future elections. "We tasted victory in November. It was intoxicating. We won't go back to being silent."

[babylonsister]

This man continues to impress; he's like the little engine that could! nt

[Coexist]

5. his campaign will affect elections for the next decade

in a very good way.

[babylonsister]

17. Not everyone agrees, but I do. Here's a thread on how this election

has gone viral:

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=103x350087

[truedelphi]

9. Thank you for the post

Go Obama!

[mopinko]

14. thank you for noting the harold/barack connections

much much to be learned about how barack works by looking at the washington camapaign, and administration. those things are behind the way he seems to be seeing the future. he is planning for the problems that beset harold. very, very smart.

[Teaser]

2. The ARROGANCE of this man

to think that the electorate is clay to be reshaped.

Well, Mr. O-bama (if that is indeed your *real* name, Moqtada), we are not clay. We are not play-doh, to be molded and sculpted for your entertainment.

Do you think we are here for your entertainment? Do we entertain you? You mean I'm a clown? I'm here to fucking amuse you?

[babylonsister]

3. You're well-named...

I hope. :hide:

[DJ13]

4. Am I here for your amusement?

I would say yes.......

[Teaser]

7. How the f*ck am I funny?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=twW_riHWz_4

[AnarchoFreeThinker]

6. you sir, look like no clown I have ever seen. I, too, resent being compared to silly putty.

[grasswire]

8. just the news of this plan will drive a whole anti-Obama mass

Can you imagine how this news sits with poor whites? Blacks and college kids are going to be the majority and the insiders and the deciders? Redneck America and poor white America will not take this kindly. They might be exploited and energized and harnessed in opposition to the Democratic ticket.

[babylonsister]

10. So opening up the Dem tent is now a bad thing? And all these

years I've been told we're the party of inclusiveness. Thanks for setting me straight. :eyes:

And why would poor white people be annoyed at this if they're Dems to begin with? You make no sense.

[anigbrowl]

19. You're right. Let's crawl into a hole and die, because success is too scary to contemplate.

What a dumb plan - asking people to get motivated and vote for the dem candidate. Those mean old republicans will whip us for sure if they see us getting ambitious.

[SammyWinstonJack]

11. If he is elected, I hope he works as hard fixing the problems of this Country and the damage bu$h

has caused around the World, as he has on getting the nomination and possibly winning the GE. I hope he doesn't let you all down. :shrug:

[ClayZ]

12. He reminds us that it is "We The People".

We, being the key word.

Thanks, K and R.

Organize? Yes we can!

[SammyWinstonJack]

13. Actually Edwards reminded us of that.

:shrug:

[ClayZ]

16. Obama is all about "WE"...

Hillary seems to tell us what SHE will do and Obama tells us what WE can do.

Edwards, is Right On when he reminds us that POVERTY is the problem.

Did you see Bill Moyers this week? http://www.pbs.org/moyers/journal/index-flash.html


That is the kind of "WE" I am talking about!




:grouphug:

kick

[myrna minx]

15. It's exciting to see a whole new generation being brought into the

democratic process. Thank you Senator Obama and Chairman Dean!

[dana_b]

18. yep! and bring the electorate into this century. sign people up online, it only makes sense. n/t

[tblue37]

20. He needs also to spend some of his campaign cash during the general

election to run ads that explain the voter suppression tactics used by the GOP and to tell voters to ignore them. The GOP especially sends out flyers to scare Black voters into thinking they will be arrested if they try to vote if they were registered by ACORN (a perfectly legitimate organization!). They also threaten those who work to help register Black voters. They even use robocalls and flyers to tell Democratic-leaning populations that their voting site has changed or that the voting date has been changed. People often don't know any better, and the GOP takes full advantage of the level of voter ignorance in the US. We need to counter that with lots of educational efforts, including posters, flyers, and print, TV and radio ads.