On Hardball just now I was interested to see a discussion about the intense grassroots registration efforts of the Obama campaign over these past long months of primary and general campaigning. Peggy Noonan, Gene Robinson and Chris Matthews all agreed that the Obama campaign's answer to the old recalcitrant voters that would be slow to come to Obama, was to grow the Democratic electorate all across the country.
Obama is running a historic campaign for many reasons. One I find to be most striking is this decision early on to launch a nationwide voter registration effort that would have the effect of redesigning the face of the electorate. What a sophisticated and yet simple way around those older or more inflexible voters that might be difficult to bring to the polls for Obama! Engage people with why you can bring back hope and change for the future good of the country, and then follow up with a hard hitting grass roots registration effort to make sure those newly energized citizens come out for you.
Obama took a page from the Dean 50-state strategy playbook, and in the process has possibly permanently changed the face of the electorate for this and future elections, if these newly registered voters do in fact turn out.
The significance of this can't be understated. The strategic planning and brilliance of this campaign continues to amaze me. It's true that every campaign worth its salt tries to do some new voter registration but the width and breadth of this effort is mind-boggling...large enough to change the face of the national electorate, and perhaps finally staunch the bleed of disengagement that has been such a sad trend over the past decades.