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AmSpecBlog
Georgia and the Obama Machine
In the wake of Barack Obama's victory last month, there was a lot of hand-wringing among Republicans about the strength of Obama's turnout operation just as after 2004, Democrats were lamenting the smooth Republican organization and savvy microtargeting. But for the Georgia run-off, Obama kept offices open and was lending his turnout operation to Democrat Jim Martin, yet Saxby Chambliss still won handily. This is a good indication of what I've believed for a long time -- that all of the emphasis on organization distracts us from facing the reality that candidates win when they give voters a reason to vote for them and/or against their opponent, not because of the superior use of the latest technology. The final national turnout numbers now confirm that this election did not produce the record turnout that was widely expected, and that the youth vote was widely exaggerated (yes, Obama did win a higher percentage of them than Kerry, but they didn't go to the polls in the numbers that were anticipated). But at the same time, Republicans stayed home, because they weren't given a good enough reason to vote for John McCain. In short, Obama did not win because his campaign was better at text messaging and using Facebook, but because his message had more resonance to the electorate in this political environment.
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Rich| 12.3.08 @ 9:57AM
Good logic and I don't necessarily disagree with it. But the GOP will ignore the new technology at its own peril. The problem is that Obama had the mainstream media in his pocket, and that is an advantage that a GOP candidate never will have. We need to Web and other tools to bypass the MSM and get the message out.
Brian| 12.3.08 @ 10:04AM
Any so-called "conservative" who stayed home with soiled diapers on election day, is an ignorant, worthless coward who doesn't deserve citizenship.
Countless Americans died for our right to vote. This was truly a watershed election and now we have an unqualified, inexperienced, far-left, corrupt incompetent as President-elect.
Citizenship isn't about you and your little pet issues. It's about doing what's best for the country. So-called "conservatives" who stayed home on election day need to start thinking about something else besides themselves.
MC| 12.3.08 @ 10:13AM
I agree this is good logic! The left side illuminati camp presented a better argument case as to why there side should be elected, and great presentation of ideas is key in getting votes.
Bob| 12.3.08 @ 10:35AM
You make the mistake assuming that "Republicans stayed home". The total percentage of the population that voted was about the same as in 2004. Segment votes were not much different than in the past except that Obama got a higher percentage of each of the groups. The fact is that many Republicans became independents because the percentage of independents grew dramatically. I've seen this mistake done several times by ideological Republicans because they don't want to admit that the party is losing people. Facts are stubborn things....
Captain America| 12.3.08 @ 10:38AM
I won't read too much into the Georgia vote yesterday.
The most salient fact, cynical as it may be, is that Martin isn't black. Therefore, the turnout from black voters was down considerably.
Obama got 95% of the black vote. Enough said.
Jeremiah| 12.3.08 @ 11:25AM
Captain America --
"Enough said"?
So like a conservative of your ilk to brush up against the most salient and complicated issue in American society and American history with a brief, reductive sentence and declare the matter closed.
Up until this last election a majority of white people voted for white candidates for president. What am I to read into this fact?
Leaping from postive fact (assuming your idiotic little foray into statistics is accurate) to normative or sociological claim is a dangerous business, even for people who aren't inept, ignorant, and foolish and bigoted, like you.
Perhaps the fact that Obama won a majority of white voters has completely escaped you.
Perhaps the senility of his Republican challenger or the obtuseness of his running mate contributed something to Obama's victory.
Perhaps Obama's eloquence -- much maligned by the proud ignoramuses that stuff these fringe enclaves of the internet -- is a welcome relief to a majority of Americans who, after eight years of listening to a daft, inarticulate fool mangle the language and mislead this country, require that their chief executive be able to hold more than one idea at a time in his head and explain government policy. Weird that the party that xenophobically cries out for "English only" policies puts forward Bush and Palin as leaders, neither of whom seem capable of stringing so much as three grammatically correct English sentences together at a time.
Or perhaps the failure of McCain to present policy proposals that seemed to have anything to do with the problems this country now faces has something to do with his loss.
When will "conservatives" (you aren't really conservatives, you're just bigots) have something other than divisive and poisonous and shallow and hateful attacks against people different from them to offer?
dad29| 12.3.08 @ 9:37PM
Just say it: McCain's platform and speechifying was largely incoherent. He had no program; he only had what John McCain thought.
Trouble is, he didn't think enough.
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