Post-Obama Campaigning
I've held off commenting on the 2008 election since our own Frank Irving has done an outstanding job covering it. Now that it's over, however, I wanted to take a moment to remark on how historic President-elect Barack Obama's victory is, beyond the obvious context of America's civil rights history.
Poring over the numerous campaign post-mortems, especially Newsweek's seven part opus, which overflows with juicy, behind-the-scenes red meat, it's clear that the Obama campaign's organization and use of new media will become the model of future election efforts.
Zack Exley details the ground game efforts of Obama's campaign in an October 8 story on The Huffington Post. According to "The New Organizers, Part 1," community volunteers gained a new level of accountability for their efforts. Field organizers for various regions throughout the country carefully trained neighborhood team leaders to not just knock on doors and make phone calls, but plan out their approaches and aggressively follow up. There was a level of ownership that hadn't been seen previously.
Exley reports, "In 2004, it was unusual for volunteers to have persistent roles and responsibilities -- both at the Kerry campaign and the independent field operation Americans Coming Together. That is the norm for electoral organizing campaigns, and perhaps organizing in general these days. In contrast, the Obama neighborhood team members are organizers themselves, sometimes working more or less as staff alongside the young FOs."
It's the kind of organization that would have been impossible eight years ago, probably even in 2004, without the technological infrastructure in place. The splashy, public Web displays, such as fightthesmears.com, showed how seriously the Obama camp took technology. It continues with change.gov, a Web site documenting the transition process, with policy plans and links to the various government offices that President-elect Obama will need to fill.
The behind-the-scene efforts prove that the McCain campaign was severely outgunned. Obama's New Media division, directed by Joe Rospars, constantly came up with innovative ways to raise money and get out the vote. The fundraising page made it possible for small donors to set up automatic payments on a weekly or monthly basis, with payments rarely going under $50. According to Newsweek, the Obama '08 iPhone application had a sophisticated data-mining function beneath its flashy veneer.
"Tap the top button, ‘call friends,' and the software would take a peek at your phonebook and rearrange it in the order that the campaign was targeting states," the magazine reported, "so that friends who had, say, Colorado or Virginia area codes would appear at the top. With another tap, the Obama supporter could report back essential data for a voter canvass. It all went into a giant database for Election Day."
During the summer, the campaign promised to announce the vice presidential selection via text message to supporters. The promotion, Newsweek says, increased the campaign's list of cell-phone numbers to more than 1 million. This is a list that will be used by the Democratic National Convention for future fundraising efforts.