Plouffe talks of Obama's "persuasion army" - emphasizes human interactions to trump media noise

[jefferson_dem]

Plouffe's 'persuasion army'

One of the most interesting elements of David Plouffe's briefing to reporters yesterday was his assertion that beyond the campaign's quantifiable edge over McCain in terms of money and volunteers, Obama will rely on a "persuasion army" of supporters to win friends and neighbors over to Obama's side.

It's a truism of politics and organizing that people are more likely to be persuaded by people they know than by television advertising, and kind of politics that, as Plouffe noted, "the Bush people by and large did very well."

He described the late days of the race: "There’s ads flying, people are getting 10 mail pieces a day they're getting robocalls," along with other paid and free media.

Obama would rel, he said, on "that human interaction between a family member or neighbor or colleague... helping them react to news," he said.

Obama's volunteers, he said, would be ready -- presumably through some sort of email talking points -- to respond when a neighbor said "You know, I’m leaning toward Obama but then I saw something on the news that really concerned me."

Plouffe stressed the importance of voters' being persuaded by people they know, people who look and talk like them, and suggested a well-organized ground-level effort, relying heavily on independents and Republicans whose support for Obama will strike their neighbors as unusual (rather than the usual local activist suspects) could compensate for what is perhaps Obama's greatest weakness: The lingering, inchoate doubts among some voters.

"It’s more important with a candidate like Barack Obama, who people don’t have a decades-long relationship with," he said. "They may need reassurance."

http://www.politico.com/blogs/bensmith/0608/Plouffes_persuasion_army.html#comments

[pollard66]

1. I like this idea

kinda of a low key off the radar approach