Holy crap, I never thought of that. Why would they want a Republican to wade through the crap that W leaves behind?

It’s all so clear now.

i found you somehow when i did a search on our sons birth defect esophageal atresia.

Wow, what are the odds?
Good luck, Kayla, seriously.

Same here.

“I’m the Chief Financial Officer for Barack Obama’s campaign. I track the donations coming in and the expenses going out. I asked for the opportunity to write to you directly so that I could try to explain what’s happening right now. This organization has thousands of employees and spends millions of dollars a day — and at the moment we’re doing it without a safety net. Our spending plans have been stretched by John McCain’s negative attacks and the overwhelming resources of the Republican National Committee.

“As of October 15th, John McCain and the RNC together had nearly $20 million more in cash than the combined total of Obama for America and the DNC. And just this week, we’re facing new and unexpected spending against us in Montana and West Virginia.”

That is a bit silly, because Montana and WV are not states that a Democrat has contested seriously for years and they’re very unlikely to go for Obama this year. I’m all for the 50-state strategy, but I got a little annoyed when I was in East Texas a few weeks ago and saw an Obama ad. WTF? And don’t tell me it must have been a shared media market, because Democrats don’t contest Louisiana, Arkansas or Mexico either.

But I went ahead and donated today because a) I can’t get out to a swing-state this weekend, so I might as well buy coffee and doughnuts for those who can; and b) I’m a sucker for their prize drawings. I’m like the people who play the lottery even though they’re very unlikely to win, but console themselves that it’s money going to a good cause (generally the state education fund).

A Always
B Be
C Closing

Always be closing.

http://www.fivethirtyeight.com/2008/10/big-empty.html

Serious question.

And this newest decision also fits into that. GOTV would be much more important if they actually wanted McCain to win. But if hurting Obama is their intent, than negative ads would be much more effective. The genius of Steve Schmidt was his ability to convince McCain to do all these things that hurt him politically, even when McCain’s instincts have always told him to do the opposite.

Boots on the ground, no question about it. Word of mouth is the most powerful of advertising in politics, as it is generally in marketing. Having a presence in the community means that you have a presence, and some measure of influence, on the gossip machine. You have the ability to counteract dis-information, as well as promote information.

But it’s also incredibly important for the GOTV operation. If someone calls and asks you to get up and go vote, you might do it, or you might not. You have no emotional involvement in the matter, relative to that anonymous caller. BUT, if another human being is nice to you, then asks you to go vote for the candidate he represents, you are far more likely to do so. We are all suckers for attention.

So boots on the ground is by far the most important aspect of a campaign. Bush/Rove understood this, and Obama certainly understands it as well, since his entire campaign has been geared towards this intensive GOTV operation. But McCain seems to have been spoiled by being in a safe seat his entire career; he just doesn’t understand what it takes to run a competitive campaign.

Serious question.