Okay, we have a brilliant campaign team...how do we hold on to it?

[brooklynite]

President Obama's campaign is being acknowledged by pundits and by Republicans as having been both strategically and tactically brilliant; focusing on demographic micro-targets (where the "new" voters were), and focusing relentlessly on voter registration and turnout. The problem is that this team is tied to the President; it wasn't in place when we lost the House and Governorships in 2010, and it won't automatically be in place in 2016. One of the major problems I've had with our overall political system is that we continually reinvent it: each major candidate builds their own team and model from scratch. Sometimes it works and sometimes it doesn't. How do we get the Democratic Party to build an in-house skills bank for the next candidates to use?

[graham4anything]

1. Michelle Obama for President or VP would keep the team together

And I am not joking either, though I think 2024 is more likely

[Anthony McCarthy]

2. Constituent service

starting immediately on the 2014 election (I guarantee you the oligarchs are). Obama should dump Eric Holder who has a twisted sense of priorities, going after pot pharmacies and letting the Wall Street giga-crooks off the hook. Cut way back on deportations.

Come up with a public option in health insurance that is good and relatively inexpensive as was floated a few weeks back. Once Americans have found out how good something like Medicaid for all is, they'll never want to go back. Destroy the private health insurance industry that tried to knife him in the back after he did them favors.

[satxdem]

7. Really?

How about democrats stop attacking Eric Holder, it's much like republicans going after Obama. Some of us minorities appreciate Holder going after tthe discrimination cases against latinos and blacks that the Bush administration ignored. Also most of the stuff wall street did wasn't illegal, it was America's good ole free interprise system we have had for years that over whelming favored white America at other's expense, but nobody complained then. Now that it crashed for white people you want Holder to arrest them. Hilarious.

[Romulox]

10. Oh brother.

Now it is *racist* to prosecute Wall Street crooks?

Now that it crashed for white people you want Holder to arrest them. Hilarious.

[satxdem]

13. not at all.

Just saying democrats should not have been turning blind eyes when my community was getting screwed but get so angry now. Be consistent by speaking up all the time.

[Romulox]

14. That's a massive false equivalency. Also, none of us here are Attorney General.

So I don't see how we can be taken to task for (non) priorities of Justice.

[satxdem]

16. The wall street system

Has always been flawed but nobody said anything, why? Because it didn't hurt enough people that mattered until 07

[Romulox]

18. "Nobody said anything" is incorrect on its face. No real need for further comment. nt

[magical thyme]

3. keep them on retainer

to work for the 2014 midterms AND to "sell" the President's programs to America.

I mean this. One disappointment I've had in the last 4 years is the failure to adequately communicate various programs.

Personal example: had I known about the Income Based Student Loan repayment program, I may well have dropped out of the training program that I was in (and hated) and changed my part time job to full time. Due to various University people lying to me along the way, I ended up putting myself through hell with no positive result that I can think of, but a lot of negative results for me.

I only learned about the program when I had reached an absolute point of desperation. Literally suicidal and looking for homes for my furfamily when someone on another board linked me to the program... Had I know about the program a year sooner, I would be in much, much better shape today.

[Whisp]

11. The magic can't work with just anyone.

I don't think Plouffe or Axelrod or Messina or any of the others that have had the Obama Campaigns the Best Ever can guarantee results they had with Obama to just anyone. There has to be a connection, a good vibe, a deep respect and a cause worthy enough to put all you have into it.

Some candidates just don't have it.

[ProudProgressiveNow]

20. +1 nt

[leveymg]

4. End the conflicts in the Middle East peacefully. Don't cut social programs. Rebuild America.

Give the grassroots and the hundreds of thousands of activists who knocked doors, made calls, and manned election protection stations some credit. Yes, there was effective leadership during the campaign, but the really important thing is following through and providing good "constituent service" to Democrats, as someone upthread called it.

[justiceischeap]

5. The DSCC starts drafting folks from Obama's team now

Some of those ready to move up but can't because of the Axlerod's, the Pluffe's and the the Cutter's. They share how they've accomplished the things they have. The DSCC uses the Obama model of keeping campaign headquarters open all the time in key areas. And the DSCC starts working on selling their 2014 candidates now. In 2014, we canvas and call and work just as hard as we did this year to get people registered and excited to vote. We stress to latino's and women and african-american's that voting in 2014 will help them in the long run... to help them keep their autonomy and to help have their voices heard and counted. We point out what President Obama was able to do in his 1st two years of his first term, when he had the Congress & the Senate.

We need to convince people that mid-term elections are just as important, if not more so, than Presidential elections.

[KharmaTrain]

6. OFA Moves Forward...

A lot of the moving parts inside of what will be known as the Obama machine are community groups, labor unions and other organizations that formed common cause. A lot of this came to be in the wake of the '10 elections that appears to have been the wake-up call the Democratic coalition and party needed. The lesson was learned, message was received. I don't see Democrats laying low in '14 like in '10.

Yes, right now the Obama machine is tied to this President but as the head of the party he also is responsible to help the party grow and I see the Democratic party maintaining and expanding what was put together for this election. I'd like to see it go further...recapture the idea of Dr. Dean's 50 state strategy and try to put more states into play.

In the end a lot depends on who emerges as the Democratic candidate in '16...it'll be their call as to what stays and goes. I suspect if that nominee is Hillary Clinton, it will stay and be expanded...

[oswaldactedalone]

8. Pay them whatever it takes to keep them

with bonuses involved for reaching certain victory targets.

Keep this thing going, we have to have much better turnout in off-year elections.

[cali]

9. I'm not terribly concerned about this. The model is more important than the actual team and

right now I'm far more concerned about governance than politics.

[Fumesucker]

12. What makes you think they want to hold on to the brilliant strategic and tactical team?

The election is won and over, time to get back to the job of governing which requires bipartisanship.

Keep that brilliant team around and they might decide to put that brilliance to use between the campaigns and where would bipartisanship be then, eh?

[nc4bo]

15. Well, I'd like to know how to bring a smaller form of the brillance to the State level!

Hint: Like in NC.

[mstinamotorcity2]

17. Couldn't we just ask?????

We should corporate them into the DNC permanently!!! We must keep the party together and to expand our outreach. And we need to know where we can make gains. I am still trying to figure out how to keep ALL of my coalition that I have built engaged to 2014 and 2016. I am still dealing with unknown factors. Like will the Democrats engage in the mid-terms on an aggressive basis?? Will they help to vet some of the candidates for office so they have respected support??? Will they listen to local advocates in the mid-term elections. And will they please get rid of Mark Brewer in Michigan for lack of out-reach in the city of Detroit. Pastors and church leaders are not the only coalitions in the city. right now we have a very good neighborhoods that are totally engaged. He is missing a Great opportunity with the minority vote. And will it be Hillary Clinton or Joe Biden for 2016??? All in all they need to start making their moves now!!!

[Barack_America]

19. I don't think Axelrod or Plouffe will do it for anyone but Obama.

Hopefully they'll be willing to serve as paid consultants, but I don't see them running the show for anyone else.