Posted on 11/03/2004 4:54:48 PM PST by Pikamax
Ruthless campaign mastermind got the Republican vote out
Network of 300,000 volunteers built up over four years
Oliver Burkeman in Miami Thursday November 4, 2004 The Guardian
The Bush campaign's election victory marks a strategic triumph for one man's ruthless and iconoclastic approach to ground-level politics. In the last days of the race, a smile rarely left the face of Karl Rove, the president's chief strategist, and now his upbeat mood has been justified.
Convinced that his candidate could have pulled off an easy win in 2000 if only more faithful Republicans had turned up at the polls, Mr Rove vowed to challenge the Democrats' traditional status as the party pre-eminent at getting out the vote.
Over the past four years, he built up a volunteer network of more than 300,000 people in a pyramid system linking workers in individual precincts to national party strategists.
During the campaign, individual "precinct captains" received instructions from party headquarters, so that, for example, a specific anti-Kerry message put forward in a local or national TV ad could be rammed home on the doorsteps within hours.
Mr Bush's campaign manager made no secret of the fact that the operation was modelled on "multi-level marketing schemes" such as Amway (or, to make a British comparison that might not find favour in the conservative US heartland, Ann Summers parties).
Volunteer "team leaders" who recruited more people were rewarded with gifts such as signed notes from Mr Bush.
The Democratic party, in an effort to meet the challenge, had organised the largest army of paid turnout workers in US presidential history, in addition to thousands of volunteers. But it may transpire that the Bush campaign received an extra edge by placing its grassroots fate in the hands of people with a strong personal commitment to the president.
"It's love and belief in the importance of the president," Ken Mehlman, the Bush campaign manager, claimed in an interview with the New York Times recently. "You can't, in politics and in almost anything you do, force people to do anything. They have to want to do it."
As a result, the long queues during Tuesday's election seem to have helped Mr Bush as well as Mr Kerry, undermining the received wisdom that a surge in turnout automatically delivers an advantage to the challenger.
Mr Rove also defied tradition by focusing on galvanising the party's conservative, religious base, ignoring critics who argued a more centrist position would be required to carry the country.
"Bush never tilted towards the centre. This was a very conservative administration which based its actions on a strategy of keeping its base energised and happy," the pollster John Zogby told the Associated Press.
According to exit polls, 21% of voters said moral issues were most important to them - nearly as many as cited the economy, and more than those who mentioned terrorism.
In Florida, special local dynamics may have helped seal Mr Bush's 52% to 47% victory there. Governor Jeb Bush, the president's brother, had been perceived as being under intense pressure to "bring Florida home" after the debacle of 2000. While election-day improprieties seemed to be at a minimum, critics argued that Jeb Bush had politicised the state's election apparatus, his personnel ruling on many pre-election issues in ways that might have reduced Tuesday's turnout.
This is interesting... But I'll tell you who REALLY fired up the GOTV in our house... Michael Moore...
baawwhaaaawww, so the Evil Karl Rove has struck again!!
I'm surprised they didn't claim that he gets all this done while keeping up with his busy child-strangling career.
Yeah, Rove was ruthless, unlike those decent, upstaning Kerry people like Carville, Begala, and Lockhart.
"Ruthless campaign mastermind"
Yes, Rove's a cross between Erwin Rommel and Dr. Evil.
I love it. When the Democrats GOTV, it's an exercise in democracy.
When the Republicans do it, it's the work of a sinister evil genius.
Among the reasons To get the activist judges back under control, to preserve gun rights, to stop the advancement of the gay 'same sex' marraige, to get conservative judges on the Supreme Court, to preserve the Tax Cuts, to continue to success in the War On Terror, and many many other reasons.
"Ruthless campaign mastermind got the Republican vote out "
That sounds about right.
Karl Rove made me work for Bush. He made me volunteer agaist my will!!!
<;o)
I think Osama had a hand in it.
To these people, Rove is WORSE than Osama. How sad is that?
Rove is a brilliant tactician.
There is no question that the man figured out, down to the county and precinct what was needed to win in Ohio.
His execution was excellent.
There are a lot of factors that converged to bring people out to vote. But Rove had the vote figured out down to the voter and to the person responsible (or charged with) getting that voter to the polls.
I also thought that it was an absolutely brilliant poison pill that Rove worked behind the scenes to get the gay marriage issure on the ballot in 11 states. The sodomites fell for it, thinking they were going to mandate acceptance of their deviant lifestyle. After the Missouri special election when over 70% of the electorate rejected the notion, the writing was on the wall.
There is no question that this issue motivated Christian Evangelicals to come to the polls to make sure their opinion was cast. And while they were at it, why not vote for Dubya too.
Why Rove is so maligned by the other side I don't know. But perhaps their hatred is a better indicator of the capability of our people than we realize. Sort of an inverse capability meter.
The question today is who do they hate most now??
Hey, Leftists: we don't have to "get out the vote." On our side we all get *ourselves* to the polls because, unlike you on the Left, we take responsibility for our own actions.
Zogby just revealed both his own position and the perspective that defines his actions. If he would simply look at the Red-Blue map he might experience an epiphany. That it is Bush and his supporters that occupy the "centre" and the public-at-large have recognized this before someone paid to do so.
PresidentFelon
The insane Crazies...who came out for Kerry did more damage than anything else. Michael Moore HELPED President Bush get re-elected. The democratic party has gone too far left and the crazies have turned people off....
It has become the party of the criminally insane.
I've got to make a scrapbook of post-election Guardian articles. You'd think we were Imperial Stormtroopers forcing residents to read every word of our brochures. Reporting back to Lord Rove when the mission is complete.
I FINALLY GOT IT!!! Here's the problem: these limy patsies cannot judge character, they don't even know what character and values are. Everything is materialistic, hence the gun is evil, but the criminal isn't evil, and the law-abiding citizen is not good. The same false assumption is behind disarmament. No wonder they lambast Bush for his simple-minded values-based worldview, while Islamic terrorists are building a network of bomb factories they call mosques! These twits!
I'ma still awatin' to see the evil genius "frog marched" out of the WH. - Ha!
Way to go Mr. Rove - Ooooooo you are sooooo crafty!
Now let's really put the pedal to the metal - got a lot to do and so little time left.
Ya know - you have something there. 1800's the Brits lived honor, character and duty. Now so few still do. Bless them that do!
A warning to us on how things morph - we need to keep the base energized (not to exhaustion) but like the E-Bunny (with enthusiasm) and expand to capture the local levels more and more.
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