Obama calls on his Internet campaign army to march again

McClatchy Washington Bureau ^ | Nov. 20, 2008 | Frank Greve

[Hetty_Fauxvert]

President-elect Barack Obama's 3 million campaign volunteers got re-enlistment notices this week.

Campaign manager David Plouffe, in a mass e-mail sent Wednesday to former workers, asked how much time they can spare for four missions integral to Obama's effort to transform his victory into a broader political movement.

The volunteers' options are, Plouffe wrote:

-Campaign for progressive state and local candidates

-Undertake grassroots local efforts to advance Obama's agenda

-Train others in Obama's organizing techniques

-Focus on local political issues.

"Obama's building a political machine," said Stephen Hess, a presidential scholar at the Brookings Institution, a center-left Washington research group.

[Hetty_Fauxvert]

I find this chilling. Do you?

My inclination, after the long and weary political campaign we have all just gone through, is to ignore politics for a while. But this article (which I recommend reading in its entirety) made my head snap up.

Obama has plans. Big ones. And he is mobilizing his Obamabots to ram them through for him.

What are we doing to counteract this? How are *we* using the power of the Internet to get our own message across? What can we do against the Obamabots?

... Read and discuss.

[randomhero97]

What can we do against the Obamabots?

Well, you for sure as hell can't change their minds even if you slap facts right in their face. These people are brainwashed. What we need to do is let natural selection reign supreme once more.

[Yaelle]

They were getting discouraged, and reacting unhappily on their blogs, about the traditional Democrats he is using to fill his administration. Maybe if he just flirts with them enough now, telling them they are still the real, important ones to him, he can keep them around for political hayrolling a little longer, just like a cheating boyfriend might.

[redhead]

Well, if the whining and bellyaching at places like DUh are any indication, it won’t be too long before disillusionment and disappointment set in, and they decide “fool me once, shame on you; fool me twice, shame on ME.”

[thecabal]

What's the big deal, he's just preparing the way for his Messiah's Brownshirts Civilian Security Force?

[Global2010]

Hmmm.
How many of us who get spammed by Obama and his political pals can have a little fun with this.

[ChicagahAl]

“My inclination.... is to ignore politics for a while.”

The Left never rests, never quits, never takes a break. Its how they constantly beat our brains in. (They also never stay home on election day simply because their party's candidate has flaws - but that's a story for next election)

“What can we do against the Obamabots?”

Become energized about your political philosophy. Blog. Write letters. Converse with people. Become a conservative “evangelical”. Most of all - don't “ignore politics for a while”. You might come back later to discover that America has left the building.

[LifeComesFirst]

I agree, but I think his big plans are more to do with staying in power than with a political agenda.

If he’s Mr. Political Agenda, then why did he vote “present” so many times?

Obama is simply a political product with lots of phony advertising.

[Does so]

What's the big deal, he's just preparing the way for his Messiah's Brownshirts Civilian Security Force?

Three million volunteers can find a lot of Conservatives to sic the IRS onto.

[I see my hands]

Rush has a much larger army. He has restrained from calling them to action by matter of his policy. Maybe he will change his policy.

[re_tail20]

I don’t so much find this chilling as I find it challenging

Given the narrowness of Obama’s victory, For every one of Obama’s supporters getting this email, there’s an opponent who’s not.

How many of these Obama supporters are disillusioned somewhat now with Rahm and Hillary? If they’re not disillusioned to support a Republican, Rahm, Hillary, and the “getting on with our lives” call will cause them to put Obama’s call on their back burners.

What are we doing, or what will we do, to counteract this?

There’s been only three weeks so far to answer this, not enought time at all. But the answer lies first with the Conservatives and Republicans in their Teens and Twenties and then on up. They’re the most familiar with the Internet, having grown up with it, and they have the freshest ideas as to how the Republican Party can Re-Tool itself to use the Internet effectively.

[re_tail20]

I don’t so much find this chilling as I find it challenging

Given the narrowness of Obama’s victory, For every one of Obama’s supporters getting this email, there’s an opponent who’s not.

How many of these Obama supporters are disillusioned somewhat now with Rahm and Hillary? If they’re not disillusioned to support a Republican, Rahm, Hillary, and the “getting on with our lives” call will cause them to put Obama’s call on their back burners.

What are we doing, or what will we do, to counteract this?

There’s been only three weeks so far to answer this, not enought time at all. But the answer lies first with the Conservatives and Republicans in their Teens and Twenties and then on up. They’re the most familiar with the Internet, having grown up with it, and they have the freshest ideas as to how the Republican Party can Re-Tool itself to use the Internet effectively.

[giotto]

Obama’s base is made up mostly of people with their hands out. Remember the woman who believed Obama was going to pay her mortgage and car payment. I sincerely doubt that he will be able to mobilize more than 5% of his “army,” when the call comes.

[nathanbedford]

Instead of regarding this as a head fake to keep disgruntled lefties on board in the wake of conservative left appointments, we should consider those appointments to be a head fake to middle America while he organizes the country along Saul Alinsky lines. This is where the real action is.

Even if I've got this completely backwards and the center-left approach that he has presented to the country by virtue of his early appointments is the real one, we cannot afford to risk the alternative by remaining defenseless with their heads in the sand.

I know of no one in the conservative establishment who can see the real danger in this and will react to it as a life-and-death struggle with the possible exception of Newt Gingrich who apparently is out of the running for chairman of the RNC. Michael Steele is definitely not the man to wage this kind of guerrilla war. Business as usual will put us so far behind the power curve that we will never recover. The next election could really be shock and awe.

Is there anybody home in the Republican establishment?

[Aria]

They have too much money - and who knows from were.

I believe the ultimate goal is to get money out of rich white people’s hands and into the hands of the poor around the world. He’ll have an endless supply of money for this.

[dr_who]

It’s the Democrats’ version of Scientology!

[unspun]

I have a lot of experience in recruiting, building, organizing, and activating local electoral volunteers (community organizing, sans the communism).

We can do a very good job of this, but two elements are critical:

1. a local core of one or more organizers committed to giving significant time and effort.

2. just a little money, to allow the organizers to meet a few expenses and to provide them some centralized administrative and data management help.

I know about the methods that work. It’s been done with conservatives — even in the Chicagoland area. ;-`

About $150,000 should be all it takes to allow a state the size of Illinois to be organized with a huge standing army of grassroots activists.

[Sharrukin]

The GOP will never see office again!

Between ACORN, Project Vote, Joe the Plumber investigations of critics, Sarah Palin expose’ of opponents, campaign finance fraud, voter intimidation, out-of-staters bussed in, vote finding, and voter intention procedures, friendly Democratic judges, corrupt local officials, biased bureaucrats, flash mobs, a compliant MSM, the Fairness Doctrine, US attorneys, and the Attorney General how exactly could anyone win an election against this?

The majesty of office won’t change them! These people do not play by the rules, as they have demonstrated time and time again. They won’t start now.

[johnthebaptistmoore]

Barack Obama is already seen as the “closest thing to being a perfect President” by too many people in general and throughout the entire world that Obama has nothing but failure really coming his way very soon after January 20, 2009. Real world reality on all issues will help create the eventual downfall of Barack Obama, unless either reality is continuously and successfully suppressed to the best of human abilities in order to help leftists continue to maintain their political power, or unless both Obama and leftists in general really do decide to seriously move more to the political right as a whole political entity, after actually seeing the “ills of their ways” of continuous leftist politicking (Yea, right! Good luck in seeing the second choice actually happening!).

[Nateman]

A plan for a counter-offensive