Typically astute piece by Elizabeth Drew in the New York Review of Books.
At their convention, Republicans mocked Obama for having been a community organizer (apparently thinking this was some sort of airy-fairy occupation, not real work); they were defeated by the community organizer—and they will discover that the country is being governed by one. Obama’s understanding that change comes from building a popular mandate from the ground up made his the best-organized campaign, the most methodical in marshaling support, attracting volunteers, and establishing field offices in the various states. It ran rings around both the Clinton and McCain campaigns.
The primary contests became the foundation of the general election, and the innovative techniques the Obama campaign used in both phases will be carried into the presidency. In both periods, the Obama campaign collected names and contact numbers both from the Internet and at big rallies, including even his acceptance speech in Denver, attended by more than 75,000 people. Most of those digitized names were called, e-mailed, and text-messaged, often more than once, by election day. At some of the rallies the members of the audience were asked to call and e-mail their friends and families and ask them to vote. The names and the innovative technology that the Obama campaign employed will be used in the future, giving the new President a large and ready army to call upon when he needs help in getting an issue through Congress. There are now an estimated ten million addresses in the database. Their members of Congress will hear from them. There’s never been anything like this before.
A system is to be set up to provide real interaction between the people and their government; Obama has promised greater “transparency” than ever before. As he promised in his campaign, he is planning a fresh approach to governing. continue reading here http://www.nybooks.com/articles/22170
