Kerry Spot jim geraghty reporting
LESSONS FROM THE BUSH CAMPAIGN, CONTINUED [12/12 02:52 PM]
Michael Crowley notices this development in the New York Times magazine's "Ideas 2004" issue:
t used to be that campaign rallies symbolized the messy glory of democracy. They were a chance for voters of all stripes to convene noisily and size up a candidate at close range. This year, however, the Bush campaign turned its rallies into something quite the opposite: an organizing tool designed to mobilize its core supporters. It was just one way in which the Bushies masterfully harnessed their volunteers' excitement and refracted it, like sunlight through a magnifying glass, into concentrated results on the ground.
The first innovation was exclusivity. Whereas Kerry rallies were generally open to all comers, Bush's events were largely invitation-only. Tickets were offered first to proven supporters of the president. Uninvited walk-ups at R.N.C.-sponsored rallies, meanwhile, sometimes had their names cross-referenced against voter files and contribution records. Many people were asked to sign an endorsement of Bush.
But simple loyalty wasn't always enough. Would-be attendees were told that they could increase their chances of getting a coveted ticket or earning a spot nearer to the candidate by putting in some grunt work for the campaign. A prime seat was earned through phone calls, door-knocking, planting yard signs.
Another twist was that the work of volunteers often continued long after the cheering stopped. The Bush campaign set up phone banks outside its rallies and led pumped-up supporters straight from the applause lines to the phone lines. Volunteers leaving events were handed campaign signs and sent off on local door-knocking missions. Sometimes they were even herded into buses for canvassing precincts.
Why do I suspect that political professionals in both parties will be studying the techniques of this year's Bush campaign for the rest of the decade?
RUSSERT, HANGIN' WITH HOWIE [12/12 02:38 PM]
Lesson one from Meet the Press, there's no longer any doubt - Howard Dean is running for DNC Chair.
I think John [Kerry] ran a pretty good campaign. In fact, from a grassroots perspective, we ran the best campaign that we ever have; it just wasn't good enough. It's one of the reasons I'm interested in the DNC chairmanship.
Surprising comment:"My view for a long time has been that this is a terrible mess, and the best we can do is try to get out of there with some reasonable semblance of stability in Iraq. And we can't do that immediately. I actually support the president on the idea of having these elections on January 30th. I don't think there's any good time to have an election."
Perhaps Dean's smartest comment: "As I said earlier, we ran the best grassroots campaign that I've seen in my lifetime. The [GOP] ran a better one. Why? Because we sent 14,000 people into Ohio from elsewhere. They had 14,000 from Ohio talking to their neighbors and that's how you win in rural states and in rural America. If we don't do those things, we aren't going to win. We have to learn to do those things.
A vaguely Sistah Souljah moment: (Asked about the MoveOn.org memo stating, "Now it's our Party: we bought it, we own it, and we're going to take it back") Look, Move On has a lot of people who are in the same kind of political area as a lot of our folks at Democracy for America, and Move On was very, very helpful during the election, and grassroots politics is where it is. But to say that any faction of the Democratic Party owns it and bought it and so forth, I think, is a little over the top, and I was a little surprised at that memo.
Pot paging Kettle moment: (Asked about Antonin Scalia as Chief Justice) Because when you — and I have appointed a great many judges as my career as governor — the second thing after a work ethic that you look for when you're appointing a judge or a justice is judicial temperament. That means — in our judicial system, it's very important for the loser and/or the winner in any case to be — to feel like they've been treated fairly and respectfully by the court system. That's what is the glue that binds us together as a society. When you are sarcastic and mean-spirited, as the justice often is from the bench, it leaves the losing — the loser in that case feeling as if they were not respected by the judicial system, and that's why you don't put people with bad temperament on the — on any court, and I certainly don't think they should be on the Supreme Court of the United States.
(Good thing Howard "George Bush is not my neighbor" Dean has never been sarcastic or mean-spirited.) |
