Like many here, my support for Barack Obama is rooted in his advocacy of the 50 State Strategy and grassroots Democratic politics. Barack Obama's campaign for the Democratic nomination has energized grassroots support across the USA from long-time and fresh-faced activists alike.
I can think of no better evidence to support the campaign of Senator Obama than his resolute commitment to use the monies given to him by hundreds of thousands of small donors to make the case for his candidacy across the United States in states large and small.
That Senator Clinton, his chief rival, has justified a campaign that has the audacity to suggest that there are significant and insignificant states...that has refused to even open an office in some states...tells us everything we need to know about what kind of President Hillary Clinton aspires to be.
Personally, I don't see how you could ever advance any major legislation in this country while claiming that there are "important" and "unimportant" states. That's not how it works, and every U.S. Senator should know that.
Barack Obama's campaign projects confidence and strength. It is an historical effort that, everyday, wins new voters, new donors, and, most importantly, new grassroots volunteers.
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I have argued that Barack Obama is Building the Winning Democratic Coalition, and I stand by that point today. His work on the 50 State Strategy is the key to his national success. Senator Barack Obama's policies, while in many ways consonant with those of Senators Clinton and Edwards are marked by innovation and the hands of cutting edge policy advisors, like Samantha Power on foreign policy, or David Cutler on health care, like Lawrence Lessig on technology, or Richard Clarke on counter-terrorism.
But the core of Senator Obama's campaign has always been that he represents a new way of doing politics in the United States and a new coalition of concerned and committed Americans coming together to get things done. The reason so many small donors and volunteers in every state in the union have come out in support of Senator Obama is exactly this promise: that by coming together in 2008, we can build a new future together as Americans.
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These core arguments for Barack Obama's campaign rest unrefuted by Senator Clinton. There are no good arguments against these core strengths that underly Senator Obama's campaign for President:
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The more people get to know Barack Obama, the more likely they are to vote for him.
This is the one overarching reality of the 2008 presidential campaign. The more people get to know this superlative candidate the more likely they are to vote for him. Senator Clinton really has no response to this; it is the story of the nomination season in which Barack Obama has won eight state victories in a row after his strong showing on Tsunami Tuesday where he won 13 of 22 contests. While James Carville has established a Clinton firewall in TX and Mark Penn has done his best to belittle each of those eight victories, there is nothing indicating that Ohio and Texas will be any different. Where people get to know Barack Obama, they vote for him.
Look at it this way. Immediately following Super Tuesday Barack Obama won primaries on a weekend that mimicked the four early states in the nomination season.
Barack Obama won:
Nebraska, a midwestern state like Iowa.
Louisiana, a southern state like South Carolina.
Washington, a western state like Nevada, with an even larger tech community.
Maine, a northeastern state like New Hampshire.
Barack Obama won all those states overwhelmingly, and since that time has won the two states and the District of Columbia in the Potomac Primary as well!
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Barack Obama will bring people together to solve problems in all 50 States
We all know that this is his core message. He expressed it in his speech at the 2004 convention and it is reflected in his career in the Illinois Legislature and the United States Senate. It's also reflected in the remarkable primary vote in Virginia where Barack Obama won 64% of the state bringing together almost every last demographic in the United States!
Senator Clinton has high unfavorables. They average around 46%; that's huge. What that means is that for every state and demographic where she has numbers lower than that, there are states and demographics where those low numbers are offset by numbers much higher than that. For example, follow the link above to see that among married men, Hillary Clinton's unfavorables are 55% nationally. That makes sense, that's how you get to an average of 46%. It's no wonder that Senator Clinton and her staff have to write off whole regions of the country. There are many places and demographics where her unfavorables are near, at or over 50%. Senator Obama's unfavorable numbers are simply much lower than Clinton's. Even in states and demographics where he is not as well liked, his unfavorables don't cross that crucial 50% threshold. That counts for something. It means, on a pragmatic level, that Barack Obama can run strongly in more places and in more demographics and once elected, that he can get things done by bringing more people together from that broader pool of supporters.
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Barack Obama has the support of volunteers and small donors all over the USA.
Barack Obama has ahuge base of enthusiastic and committed donors and volunteers, and that is a further take on the 50 State argument. People are invested in Barack Obama's campaign. You see it at rallies, you see it at caucuses, you see it when you show up to volunteer at offices across the USA. Believe it or not, most Obama offices are run and staffed almost wholly by volunteers and have been for months. Regular people have put up their money and their time because they support Barack Obama, people order their own lawn signs and swag online because they care so much, and that's a good thing for our party and our democracy.
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Barack Obama has run an excellent campaign with a consistent positive message that has brought new people into the process despite being an underdog to Bill and Hillary Clinton.
Mark Halperin is no amigo of Democrats, and in particular of "people-powered" Democrats...but even his jaded take on things has to give credit to Senator Obama's amazingly well-run campaign. Here are just a few of Halperin's take on Obama's core campaign strengths:
- A candidate with the skill to both write and deliver moving, eloquent, historic-feeling and momentum-inducing speeches at pivotal moments (victory speeches, major rallies, crucial battlegrounds).
- A tight-knit staff that never fights with each other publicly and rarely in private – who respect and like each other.
- No single, dominant strategic thinker who sets the campaign agenda, inspires eye-rolling and resentment among colleagues, and whose decisions are second-guessed.
- A candidate who trusts his staff — and never wonders if they are working hard enough on his behalf, or questions their devotion.
No one predicted Barack Obama would be where he is today. They said it coudn't be done. Barack Obama and his team, with the help of donors and volunteers from across the USA did it. And did in style with the most kick ass campaign website in political history.
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Barack Obama excites young people and young couples w/ children who are the future of our party.
Look at the exit polls like in Virginia where Barack Obama won 75% of the voters under 40! This candidate wins voters under 40 time and again in virtually every state. This isn't just young people, this is young families, people with their whole political lives ahead of them, people deeply invested in making a change in politics as usual in this nation.
This is the best, most persuasive argument I've seen for Barack Obama. Young famlies are SO busy, they have so much to think about, and yet, as we saw in Oakland, young families come out, time and again for Barack Obama.
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I know that there are some who are turned off by a message that emphasizes Yes, we can.
To them, I don't know really what to say other than this. I've done politics a good long time and I know that for every successful campaign, including those of Bill Clinton in 1992 and Paul Wellstone in 1990, is that core idea: we can do this together if we try, that there is nothing that is not possible when we work together.
That is Barack Obama's core message. That is his reason to have confidence and strength going into Tuesday's contests in Wisconsin and Hawaii.
There is something, at the end of the day, pragmatic about hope, about what happens when people get inspired by an idea and actually get up to do something, to come together. I know that power. I've spent my entire blogging career writing about it in one way or another.
There is something happening in America, and it's bigger than a presidential nomination. We all know it. It's about us coming together to believe in our country again, to reclaim the politics of our nation for a new generation, young and old.
That moment is now.
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