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Chris Satullo: The skills of a community organizer
The line was one of the big guffaw-getters in Sarah Palin’s acceptance speech at the Republican National Convention, a taste of anti-Obama gibes to come:
“I guess a small-town mayor is sort of like a community organizer, except that you have actual responsibilities.”
On Nov. 4, Palin and her running-mate may find out that Barack Obama actually learned some pertinent skills in his days as a community organizer in Chicago.
Report after report from state after state suggest that the Obama’s “ground game” – its network of field organizers, volunteer canvassers and get-out-the-vote workers – is far larger and more energetic than John’s McCain’s. It seems obvious that Obama’s roots as an organizer have led him to devote far more attention, ingenuity and money than McCain to the grass roots piece of the political game.
Democratic candidates have traditionally relied heavily on the organized resources of labor unions to whip up turnout – often quite successfully.
But the Democratic edge in getting out the vote had evaporated by 2004.
That year Bush strategist Ken Mehlman used sophisticated computer analyses of likely Republican voters and tapped into existing peer-to-peer networks in evangelical congregations to spread the Gospel of W.
A lot of analysts thought Mehlman’s superb efforts might have been the difference in a close election. While Dems relied on the tried and true to spur turnout, Mehlman and his crew took the art of GOTV decisively into the 21st century.
Unusual smarts and energy at turning out your base can make pollsters look awfully dumb by the time the Election Day clock strikes midnight.
This time, no one who has looked at the respective campaigns’ field operations argues that McCain has anything like that kind of advantage.
Obama is better at using the Internet to generate crowds and campaign cash. He’s better as using digital social networks to connect supporters and spread talking points virally. His campaign has devoted enormous energy to developing peer-to-peer networks, where the pitch to vote Obama comes not from a stranger on the phone or at the door, but from a friend or friendly acquaintance. Perhaps most important of all, his campaign has focused heavily on building registration (legally) among the target-rich environments of the young and minorities. This expands the potential base which the well-staffed Obama field operation can rally to the polls. (Democrats have added 1.5 million registered voters to their 2004 registration edge in 13 battleground states.)
This is all slow, patient work. It takes shoe-leather, commitment, and a human touch.
It is, precisely, what a community organizer does.
Knowing how to crack wise about your opponent’s supposed elitism is, I suppose, a useful political skill.
In a national election, however, knowing how to organize movements from the grass roots up probably matters a heck of a lot more.