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Hillary communicates with her loyal supporters better than Obama does with his.
I'm an Obama supporter. I'm offering some constructive criticism.
Here's the problem:
At any given moment during the day, I know exactly where the Clinton campaign stands on an issue. I know their every response to the ongoing MI and FL issue. As it evolves. Howard Wolfson, Terry McAuliffe and surrogates like Lanny and Ed Rendell blitz the media with what's going on from there point of view.
But the Obama campaign is often nowhere to be found.
Sure, you can go to his website and find out his generic stands on issues, or updates as to where he's campaigning, but it's only a one way street.
But there's no real-time question/answer mechanism. Or timely guidance as to how he'd like to guide his supporters online.
There's an immense amount of support for Obama on the blogs but he doesn't personally address us as a community. It drove me crazy back when the Rev. Wright stuff was going on and Obama was nowhere to be found. He eventually handled the situation well, but why doesn't he communicate with us?
I'm part of mybarackobama. com, and all I get are generic emails many asking for money but only one ever asked for feedback.
I've been following this race as closely as any other, yet if someone were to ask me where Obama really stands on the MI and FL issue, I'd have to say I don't know. I honestly don't know if Obama holds a principled stand on this. It's hard for me to make the argument that the DNC should uphold its rules when the candidate I support is waiting it out, hoping for some sort of compromise. No one from their campaign has stood firm and said this is a load of crap.
None of us should have to wonder what the Obama campaign would want us to do as a community. I think it was only today when we heard indirectly about not protesting Saturday's meeting.
He needs to communicate more effectively with his millions of supporters online.
That is, if he really means that this campaign isn't about him, it's about us.
Now I know he's run a brilliant campaign and he's got a million things to do to reach out to voters in every state.
But he needs to personally reach out to the online community, and not just for money.
Comments (12)
What? Obama supporters, so-called cultists, are not being told what to do? Not getting any instructions? Say it ain't so...
May 28, 2008 3:22 PM | Reply | Permalink
You need a life, instead of this poor excuse for sarcasm.
May 29, 2008 8:12 AM | Reply | Permalink
Codegen86, not instructions. A free-flow of feedback.
May 28, 2008 3:34 PM | Reply | Permalink
Many of us can find the information we are searching for.
Most of us are rationale and believe when he said months ago there needs to be a resolution but that the party is in the process. That process will continue this saturday, though on his website you will find an appeal to NOT protest this event.
You can do it. Yes You Can!
May 28, 2008 3:45 PM | Reply | Permalink
You just started posting yesterday. When you say "many of us", who are you referring to?
And also, where do you find the information you're looking for?
May 28, 2008 3:53 PM | Reply | Permalink
I think it is worthwhile to think of ways the public can share ideas with the campaign and vice versa. I would hope that there is at least a state organization you can get involved with in a much more intimate way.
I am not interested in what Barack or any of his surrogates think of every little twist in the MI/FL story. That should be for the keepers of the ruels to decide, and I don't beleive in candidates (or ballplayers) working the refs).
That Mrs. Clinton has made this the centerpiece of her campaign, and of her efforts to rile up her supporters is exactly the wrong way to go.
May 28, 2008 5:21 PM | Reply | Permalink
But they do get feedback through the mybarackobama community. I see the campaign using suggestions on the sites and giving props to when they do. I also get emails asking for creative ideas on this or that. But one thing you have to remember that this isn't a top-down DC-run campaign like Clinton's. They post their talking points for the day and make sure all the pro-Clinton bloggers get them. Wonder why all those people have the same exact head-exploding rants?
As for Obama maintaining a distance from the liberal blogosphere, I say good on him. He proved that the liberal blogosphere, which has largely backed losers, isn't as influential as they thought themselves to be. Of course, that doesn't stop certain bloggers from claiming credit to Obama's rise.
May 28, 2008 6:48 PM | Reply | Permalink
Fabooj, great point. There's some crazy stuff going on out here in the wilderness, lots of bitterness and clinging and ranting and sermonizing by his supporters, including hateful and disgusting attacks on Hillary. Obama needs to stay as far away as possible from us. As it is, the vehemence of our remarks is itself being remarked on in the MSM. Every time they say "Obama supporters", they mean us, along with the public faces. TPM bloggers often express paranoid concerns that any negative comments about Obama will be found and used by Hillary's campaign. What they don't realize is that the viciousness of his supporters has affected his campaign more than any attack tips could have.
May 28, 2008 8:21 PM | Reply | Permalink
Gary, I really like and respect your posts, however I disagree somewhat with this one. I follow everything pretty closely as well, probably to close for my own good. I really do not want Obama top be a spin machine providing talking points 24 hours a day-- at least not now.
We know where he stands on the real issues and the daily skirmishes ( has he gone to Baghdad enough etc ) are just attacks which Obama needs to take head on. I think you will see a different operation after he gets the nomonation and is not fighting 2 battles at the same time.
Anyway, I think constructive criticism is good and hopefully the campaign will take your thoughts into account as they move forward. Thomas Abrams
May 28, 2008 7:14 PM | Reply | Permalink
Thanks for the comments. I think I'll do a little more homework on the mybarackobama website.
The point about his campaign not being a top-down operation is a good one. I hadn't thought that through as it applies to this.
I recognize that the party is divided, and therefore the communications are divided.
Let's see how things progress as this primary is resolved.
May 28, 2008 7:46 PM | Reply | Permalink
I have to say that your experience does differ from mine - the Barack Obama campaign has asked me my view on lots and lots of issues over the many months I've been involved with them. In fact I just filled out a detailed user survey for them last week.
But if your specific point is that they are not requesting keeping you informed of their position on Florida and Michigan, there is a good reason for that: the Obama campaign does not want to escalate that particular issue. Any time an e-mail goes out to the Obama mailing lists, reporters obviously get copies of it too, and what follows then is a whole series of articles parsing the Obama position on the Florida and Michigan delegates. It's a lose lose proposition for them because they don't want to do anything to suggest they take seriously Hillary's bogus "popular vote" arguments. Barack is trying to move the media narrative on to viewing the race as a general election already underway rather than a contentious, controversial and ultimately insoluble problem in two critical states. There is NO solution to this problem that can ever be fair to everyone, as I say here: http://obamalondon.blogspot.com/2008/05/just-for-record.html
On the other hand, Hillary has a real incentive to keep the dispute on the airwaves - it's the ONLY way she is getting any press right now.
May 29, 2008 1:51 PM | Reply | Permalink
I think in terms of quick response to individual issues the Obama campaign has actually done pretty well, better than Democrats have done in recent memory. And I to some degree agree with tlabra's point, that I would prefer not to see the Obama campaign become a 24-hour spin machine trying to warp every news item as a favorable for them regardless of whether it actually is one. Part of what makes Obama's quick-response team so effective is that they rarely overplay their hand.
However, I do think Obama needs to do a much better job engaging with the blogosphere. In fact, I think this may be his campaign's biggest flaw. The left-wing blogosphere is ideologically and demographically predisposed to work in Obama's favor, but Obama has not made real use of this resource and indeed has to some degree lost it simply by failing to engage it.
This is not to say Obama has any great need for the blogosphere-- as I have seen commented on elsewhere, the chief main reason Obama is not trying to make use of the blogosphere is that he is building his own, parallel activist structure which is in some ways more vibrant and tends to suit his needs better. But even if it's not especially relevant as a tool within this election, there are a lot of Democratic voters working within and within shouting distance of the blogosphere, and simply neglecting voter blocs is never a good idea-- even if it's safe to assume they'll come to you in the end anyway.
I continue to believe that the reason why the blogosphere broke so intensely for Edwards at the beginning of the year, and split rather than breaking entirely for Obama when Edwards dropped out, was because Edwards tried to engage and work directly with the blogosphere and Obama made no effort to do so. Not even because Edwards took much more blog-friendly positions-- but because Edwards talked to bloggers, Edwards took bloggers seriously and anticipated what messaging bloggers would find resonant, therefore bloggers liked him. People want to feel like they're being paid attention to, and have little reason to support a politician they do not feel is paying attention to them.
Anyway, what I really wish Obama would do is hire some kind of blog ambassador just to handle blog interactions and messaging-- I think Joe Trippi would be perfect for this position, but meh what do I know. I would like to have proposed this in that feedback form you mention that they sent out this week, but there was no space on the form for general criticisms or recommendations unless it was specifically on the subject of experiences being a my.bo volunteer...
May 29, 2008 3:15 PM | Reply | Permalink
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