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What Clinton Campaign?
I know what the polls say about the probable outcome of next week's primary here in Ohio. But the polls are causing me some cognitive dissonance because they clash with the evidence of my senses. What I am experiencing is that there are several Clinton ads on television and they get lots of air play. There are also Obama ads on television and they get lots of air play too. But so far, I have gotten more robocalls for Obama (from Mayor Mike Coleman, from State Treasurer Rich Cordray) and a call from an actual human phone banker. Only one robocall for Hillary (from John Glenn) has come to my answering machine. I haven't got any calls from a human phone banker from the Clinton campaign.
I'm the pastor of an innercity church with mostly African-American members so I've been expecting to get calls from the campaigns asking me to allow someone to come and talk to members during a worship service. Sure enough, I heard from the Obama campaign today. Again, nothing from the Clinton campaign.
And I am wondering where are these people? Are they calling anybody? Are they trying to do any grass roots work at all or are they relying on media buys and appearnces at large venues? Have they written off my neighborhood? Hillary Clinton says she is a fighter. Then why isn't she fighting for our votes?
I am starting to think Obama might win Ohio. I think it is possible because Obama has folks out in the community asking for votes. There is no evidence of a Clinton 'ground game' (as I have seen it referred to in other places). And I think it will make a material difference in the outcome of the primary next week.
Comments (12)
It would be best for the party if Obama won it, now, I think. Hrc is not gonna win big in Texas, and may just scrape by in Ohio, which will mean Obama will retain his lead.
The absolute worst scenario would a mixed message like a big Obama win in Texas and a big Clinton win in Ohio.
Interesting to hear the perspective from an African American in the innercity.
We'll see ...
The CEO
February 29, 2008 1:04 AM | Reply | Permalink
It's all about Volunteers Fighting for Votes down in Texas
February 29, 2008 5:52 AM | Reply | Permalink
That's an interesting article, and totally contrary to what I've experienced in San Antonio.
I, too, have had no Clinton calls to my house, nor mailers.
I've had one Obama person leave me a message, and a Michelle Obama robocall. I've also gotten two Obama mailers about the Texas Two Step.
That said, I still worry about Tuesday. It will be close.
February 29, 2008 9:21 AM | Reply | Permalink
From NYT:
Clinton fans don’t see their standard-bearer’s troubles this way. In their view, their highly substantive candidate was unfairly undone by a lightweight showboat who got a free ride from an often misogynist press and from naïve young people who lap up messianic language as if it were Jim Jones’s Kool-Aid. Or as Mrs. Clinton frames it, Senator Obama is all about empty words while she is all about action and hard work.
But it’s the Clinton strategists, not the Obama voters, who drank the Kool-Aid. The Obama campaign is not a vaporous cult; it’s a lean and mean political machine that gets the job done. The Clinton camp has been the slacker in this race, more words than action, and its candidate’s message, for all its purported high-mindedness, was and is self-immolating.
The gap in hard work between the two campaigns was clear well before Feb. 5. Mrs. Clinton threw as much as $25 million at the Iowa caucuses without ever matching Mr. Obama’s organizational strength. In South Carolina, where last fall she was up 20 percentage points in the polls, she relied on top-down endorsements and the patina of inevitability, while the Obama campaign built a landslide-winning organization from scratch at the grass roots. In Kansas, three paid Obama organizers had the field to themselves for three months; ultimately Obama staff members outnumbered Clinton staff members there 18 to 3.
In the last battleground, Wisconsin, the Clinton campaign was six days behind Mr. Obama in putting up ads and had only four campaign offices to his 11. Even as Mrs. Clinton clings to her latest firewall — the March 4 contests — she is still being outhustled. Last week she told reporters that she “had no idea” that the Texas primary system was “so bizarre” (it’s a primary-caucus hybrid), adding that she had “people trying to understand it as we speak.” Perhaps her people can borrow the road map from Obama’s people. In Vermont, another March 4 contest, The Burlington Free Press reported that there were four Obama offices and no Clinton offices as of five days ago. For what will no doubt be the next firewall after March 4, Pennsylvania on April 22, the Clinton campaign is sufficiently disorganized that it couldn’t file a complete slate of delegates by even an extended ballot deadline.
This is the candidate who keeps telling us she’s so competent that she’ll be ready to govern from Day 1
This is a fascinating read:
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/02/24/opinion/24rich.html?_r=1&oref=slogin
February 29, 2008 9:54 AM | Reply | Permalink
$#@!
I've been working on my own piece.. with the theme being that Kool-Aid comes in more than one flavor.
Damn you, Grey Lady!
February 29, 2008 7:21 PM | Reply | Permalink
One campaign is working hard while the other campaign is hardly working. I for one am wondering what Hillary Clinton is doing when she's pulling those night shifts? Where is that hard working woman we hear so much about? Perhaps she is so far ahead here in Ohio that she won't need to worry about how hard her opponent is working. Time will tell. All I know is that when I went down town to the Board of Elections to vote on Monday, I was expecting to see a couple of other people. At 2:00 in the afternoon on a weekday, there were as many people waiting in line to vote early as on a typical election day. I predict next Tuesday is going to be one crazy day at the polls.
February 29, 2008 10:03 AM | Reply | Permalink
I can tell you the Obama campaign is sending volunteers to Ohio this weekend from Illinois. Don't know how many but my guess is it's enough to fill at least a few buses. It's not like you guys need the assistance but our volunteers want to do whatever they can to help. Given the choice between "Yes we can" Obama, "False hope" Hillary and "More wars" McCain they're coming and they're fired up and ready to go.
I'd be going myself but I'm busy here trying to help Bill Foster take Hastert's old seat in the IL-14th special election on March 8. That's gonna be the first shot fired in 2008 and if we pull off taking the former Speaker of the House's seat it'll be heard around the country.
In the meantime, c'mon Ohio, end the nomination race for us. Put that last nail in Mark Penn's coffin. Make it clear to everyone Barack is our candidate and let's get after McCain.
February 29, 2008 11:29 AM | Reply | Permalink
Pulling for you folks in IL-14.
This spoken by a guy represented by safe-seat Danny Davis.
February 29, 2008 4:27 PM | Reply | Permalink
Me, too......
February 29, 2008 7:40 PM | Reply | Permalink
It's not misogny. We just don't like Hillary as a potential president. I'm sick of her playing the gender card. I'm dismayed that it's working on so many women (and I'm her pefect demographic).
Obama won my vote. And Hillary lost it, by her own behavior. The more I got to see her, the less I liked her. I've had enough Karl Rove in the White House, and her snaky connections to the monied elite through the likes of Mark Penn. I would have been happy with any of our candidates a few short months ago. It's HIllary and Hillary alone that drove me away.
That's how this 57 year old, white feminist feels.
February 29, 2008 7:45 PM | Reply | Permalink
Here in WI (prior to the election) there were many, many calls - from real people, calling on behalf of Obama and only two from the Hillary camp (only 1 of them a real person). On the day of the election, in the afternoon, after I had gone to the polls early in the morning, 3 pieces of mail arrived from Hillary! 3 identical pieces! too late! My sister in NH had a similar experience, a mailbox full of her stuff on voting day!
So it sounds like something similar may happen in Ohio.
Good Luck, Ohio! We're counting on you!
February 29, 2008 9:31 PM | Reply | Permalink
I've heard some Spanish and one Swedish commenters stating this too. That Obama might not have had a leadership position, but that he IS running a 100 million dollar campaign ... which is pretty impressive.
However, I've read somewhere that HRC is getting the guys who won her California and New Jersey organizing the volunteers in Ohio and Texas ...
So ... in my book, this is a toss-up
March 1, 2008 1:13 PM | Reply | Permalink
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