Gary Pearce posted on September 11, 2012 08:14
The convention gave President Obama a surge (possibly short-lived) in polls and fundraising. But he’s got another edge that won’t be short-lived: a “fired up and ready to go” ground game and the technology to make it go.
The Obama campaign has spent years and millions upon millions of dollars building it. They have honed the technology. They use social media to forge, direct and motivate a truly awesome ground game. And they are way ahead of the Republicans
The Obama campaign knows how to measure results. In a call to convention-goers who couldn’t get into Obama’s speech last week, the campaign manager said daily reports in the Chicago headquarters show North Carolina “blows the doors off” in calls and contacts made each day.
One boost from the convention: an army of excited and enthusiastic volunteers – especially in North Carolina and Virginia.
This is new politics. It didn’t exist at this level of sophistication four years ago. It’s not as evident as the dueling TV ads. It is below the vision – and beyond the grasp – of even the best political reporters.
Those reporters often cite one number to show how hard it will be for Obama to carry North Carolina: 14,000 – his margin in 2008. But that works the other way, too. There are 100,000 Hispanic voters in North Carolina. There are more than 100,000 new African-American voters who can be brought to the polls. There are tens of thousands of college students.
If they turn out, Obama could win by a lot more than 14,000.
For all the focus on conventions, debates, superPACs and negative ads, the real dynamic that decides this race could be what’s happening in phone banks, Twitter feeds and voter turnout work.
Silent and deadly.