Posted on 10/26/2008 2:43:26 PM PDT by 2ndDivisionVet
This week, Barack Obama has shown clear signs that he is confident he is going to win. But privately, top Obama leadership are still worried that Republicans might be able to pull off another improbable election night victory.
Last week, in closed-to-the-press meetings, Obama officials briefed major donors about their concerns heading into the election’s final stretch. One of those meetings took place in Austin, Texas—a city in the solid red state of Texas that has raised a surprisingly large amount of money for Obama, mostly from the city’s high-tech community.
In Texas and other states, Obama officials are preparing for the possibility that polls may be wildly off because of the so-called Bradley effect.
“The Obama officials are very cautious,” says an attendee at the Austin meeting. “They want comfortable margins in place just in case. They are looking at three to six percentage points as a possible Bradley effect. Before they consider a state comfortable, they want it outside the polling margins. They think the Bradley effect could be as large as six—maybe even seven—percentage points, but they don’t really know.”
Another major concern of the campaign is what they consider to be voter suppression. “The Obama leadership believes there is a systematic campaign,” says the attendee, “by the White House and the Justice Department to suppress voter turnout across the country.”
To counteract the Bradley effect and potential voter suppression, the Obama leadership has amassed one of the largest legal teams ever assembled by a presidential campaign. The main goal of the legal team, almost all of them volunteers, is to guarantee ballot security. “The Obama campaign has learned the lessons of 2000 and 2004,” my source says. “On Election Day, lawyers will be everywhere—all the way down to the county level.
Obama officials point to the government’s treatment of ACORN, the nationwide association of community organizations, as an example of possible voter suppression. The campaign has never relied on ACORN for its voter registration drives, according to Obama officials, and is viewed as only one of many venders hired by the campaign. Of the $605 million raised by the Obama campaign so far, only $800,000 has gone to ACORN—a number that could be much larger, and would have been had the campaign relied on it more heavily.
But perhaps the most important asset the Obama campaign has is an army of workers estimated to be as large as 100,000 nationwide. Some paid staffers, mostly volunteers, the workers are being spread out across the country to states the Obama campaign is targeting. For example, 5,000 workers based in Texas—a state Obama doesn’t expect to win—are being relocated to New Mexico, a state Obama believe he can win.
Obama workers will be flooding into other battleground states in the waning days of the presidential race, among them Colorado, Nevada, and Ohio—perhaps even Georgia and Montana. What is impressive about this sizable operation is its very organization. By Election Day, campaign officials believe, they may have the most extensive grass-roots organization of any presidential campaign in history. (two additional articles on pages 2 & 3 at link)
What?! Does Obama or the person who wrote this article even know what the bradley effect is?
The bradley effect is basically voters telling pollsters they are going to vote for the black guy or are undecided when they really fully intend to vote for the white guy, but don't want to say so for fear of the pollster thinking they are racist. It DOES exist, they question is whether it is worth .5% or 10%...
The question is what is Obama's "massive legal team" going to do about, or what could they do about it if they wanted too. Is he going to sue people who lied to pollster? Try to get their votes disqualified? What?
I’m hearing story after story of FL Jews who are absolutely terrified of this guy. I think he’s going to lose the Catholic vote, big.
The mind-numbed Obamacorns need to be woken up carefully.
Come on. That was the plan all along. No one in their little group really figured he had a shot at winning. It was always a smokescreen.
Screw them, period. We’ve beat these pricks before and the negatives this time are even higher. Get the damn vote out for McCain/Palin and they won’t know what to think. F’em and let these fools sort it out later.
Of the $605 million raised by the Obama campaign so far, only $800,000 has gone to ACORN—a number that could be much larger,
If anybody believes this is all acorn has gotten, I have a
bridge in Brooklyn to sell...
Barack Obama's presidential campaign [Obama's Ohio spokesman, Isaac Baker?] last night insisted there's nothing illegal about its supporters temporarily moving to the battleground state of Ohio and registering to vote there ...
I went and ‘early voted’ for McCain today in Wake County, NC.
The 3 persons in front of me were registered Republicans, as am I. I am guessing they voted for McC/P, but I didn’t ask.
It was interesting to see the number of Democrat supporters handing out literature in front of the polling place. No McCain/Palin supporters that I noticed.
Bradley/Wilder 08
Hopefully there will be a "Community Organizer" effect to reject National and International Socialism.
Maybe next time you should “get in their face.”
It would sure be nice if the Bradley effect comes in at around 30%. What a bunch of racists we all would be!
They’re amassing a legal team to make sure the fraud votes are counted to counteract the Bradley effect.
Even with the media costing Bush 10,000 votes in the Panhandle by calling the state for Gore while the polling places were still open in the Central time zone, they misguessed how many ballots needed to be stuffed.
I recall a black woman openly saying in 2000 that she had voted twice--I doubt anything was done in that case.
What’s the ground game looking like in Ohio, LS? Poll watchers getting ready?
They were promised Billy Joel tickets.
Bingo!
Jeff Hahn and friends ?
One of those meetings took place in Austin, Texas—a city in the solid red state of Texas that has raised a surprisingly large amount of money for Obama, mostly from the city’s high-tech community.
When they talk of voter suppression, what are they referring to? I’m looking for an informative answer. Have there been arrests? convictions? what’s the evidence?
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