Dean 2.0 - What Barack Obama owes to people-powered Howard

[babylonsister]

Dean 2.0 by Noam Scheiber
What Barack Obama owes to people-powered Howard.
Post Date Wednesday, January 30, 2008



One of Barack Obama's last events before the New Hampshire primary took place in the town of Rochester, where hundreds of people had gathered in an old theater to hear him speak. Obama was two minutes into his remarks when a chant suddenly erupted from the rear. "Abortion is Obama-nation! Abortion is Obama-nation!" the protestors yelled. The people of Rochester promptly jeered.

It was, in other words, a perfect chance for Obama to showcase his powers of conciliation. "You've made your point. ... I'll be happy to talk to you afterwards," he said, no more agitated than if he were fending off a feisty senior. When the crowd broke into a ferocious counter-chant, he added: "Look everybody, hold up. Hold up, hold up, hold up. ... Nobody's hearing each other. To the folks who are opposed to abortion, I understand your position. But this isn't going to solve anything." Before long, the protesters had been hustled off, and Obama resumed his speech. But then he doubled back for one last thought. "You know, some people got organized to do that," he reflected. "That's part of the American tradition."

Amid all the gravity-defying uplift of his campaign, it's easy to forget that Obama is an organizer at heart--a believer in the power of concerted action to bring tangible results. Certainly, that's the way he sees himself. Obama never fails to remind voters of the years he spent as a community organizer in Chicago, calling it "the best education I ever had." He spends several minutes introducing his local field staff at each event, after which he surveys the room for undecided voters and urges supporters to fill out "pledge cards," which help produce a precinct-by-precinct tally of expected votes.

In this respect, the best analogy for Obama may not be a famously inspirational figure like Robert Kennedy or Eugene McCarthy, but the famously disappointing Howard Dean. Like Obama, Dean built a movement on the back of a cutting-edge organization. But it was ultimately the flaws in that same organization that did Dean in. And so, improbable as it may sound, Barack Obama's presidential hopes may hinge not on what he's learned from New Hampshire, but on what he's learned from the Dean campaign.

Two days before the Iowa caucuses, I joined an Obama precinct captain as she canvassed Ankeny, a Republican-leaning suburb of Des Moines. The first door we knocked on belonged to the Mefford family--Biden supporters who said they liked Obama but worried about his inexperience. We then walked to our second house, a family of Republicans named Voss. Rhonda Voss said she and her husband were definitely caucusing for Obama. Her teenage son Jordan said he would, too. (Jordan had turned his parents on to Obama in the first place.) The Vosses even volunteered to show up 90 minutes early to greet fellow caucus-goers.

On caucus night in Ankeny, things initially played out according to plan. The Vosses showed up early, then joined nearly 90 of their neighbors to stand for Obama. The Meffords trooped to the Biden group, which, owing to its anemic size (about eight caucus-goers), had been relegated to the hallway. After Biden was deemed "non-viable," the Meffords left to support Hillary Clinton.

more...

http://www.tnr.com/politics/story.html?id=49525274-a82e-43ef-800b-eb5ba79d1404

[Demeter]

1. Dean Isn't Disappointing--But the Media Is.

More than that, it's criminal.

[dorkulon]

2. Doesn't Edwards have Dean's campaign strategist, Joe Trippi?

Wouldn't that make Edwards more like Dean than Obama?

[babylonsister]

3. He's referring to how Obama's campaign is using Dean's lessons.

And I think, at least initially, appealing to the grass roots and making so much money from donations on the internet has had an effect. Plus, Obama is a commanding speaker.
Article also says that Axelrod is good friends of Trippi. They've all been taking lessons.