When I envision Rick Davis, Steve Schmidt, and other top-level members of John McCain’s campaign staff commiserating over strategy, I see them using their Reptilian brains to figure out what tactics they can use to change the subject from the economy, health care, and education to something that will scare the America people about a potential Obama presidency. They’ll use low-cost robocalls, they’ll use surrogates, they’ll have Palin call Obama a socialist, they’ll bring up William Ayers, they’ll bring up Rev. Wright, they’ll talk about Obama’s youthful drug use, they’ll use code words like ‘Real Americans’ and ‘Country First’. But, while the Republican masterminds are using all their creative energy to tear Obama down, the Obama campaign is using their creative energy to find new and innovative ways to kick John McCain’s ass.
Let’s place ads on the Guitar Hero video game. Let’s create an iPhone application. Let’s get an endorsement from bluegrass legend Ralph Stanley. Yesterday and today, the Obama campaign is blanketing Florida, and holding all their events within walking distance of early-voting centers.
U.S. Senator Barack Obama continues his tour of the Sunshine State today with an Early Vote for Change rally in Miami with his wife, Michelle, and a Growing American Jobs Summit with governors, business leaders and economic experts from around the country to discuss his solutions for solving the economic crisis and creating good jobs here in America.
The Growing American Jobs summit will take place in Lake Worth. Governors Jennifer Granholm of Michigan, Bill Richardson of New Mexico, Bill Ritter of Colorado and Ted Strickland of Ohio will join Senator Obama, Google CEO Eric Schmidt and former Federal Reserve Chairman Paul Volker to discuss the economic challenges that they are seeing firsthand and talk about the impact that Senator Obama’s Economic Rescue plan for the middle class would have on the economy in communities across America. Victoria Villalba, President and owner of Victoria and Associates Career Services, Inc. a Miami-based staffing/ recruitment company, will also participate in the summit to discuss her experiences and the challenges facing small businesses during this economic crisis.
Also today, Mrs. Obama will host an Early Vote for Change rally in Pensacola. Governor Bill Richardson of New Mexico will hold an Early Vote for Change rally in Immokalee and a community gathering in Port Charlotte. At each Early Vote for Change event this week, the Obama campaign will urge Floridians to early vote in order to deliver the change we need in Florida and across the nation. Voters have the opportunity to make their voice heard early beginning today, Monday, October 20, through Saturday, November 1 (November 2 in a few counties).
Meanwhile, Joe Biden is doing the same thing in Colorado.
U.S. Senator Joe Biden will kick off a two day tour of Colorado today with an Early Vote for Change Rally at the University of Northern Colorado in Greeley at 1:00pmMT (2:00pmCT) followed by a Community Gathering at Adams City High School in Commerce City, Colorado at 5:30pmMT (6:30pmCT).
One of the best predictors of party preference is population density. The more density, the more Democratic-leaning the electorate. For this reason, Democrats are disproportionately vulnerable to long lines at the polls resulting in lost votes for their candidates. Thus, early voting serves a dual purpose. Banking early votes lessens the wait-time at the polls on election day and it frees up campaign staff to target a smaller universe of voters in their GOTV efforts. Most of the people casting early votes today at these campaign events in Florida and Colorado were going to vote for Obama anyway. But now they won’t be adding to the wait time for other voters on election day. Now they are free to spend all day on November 4th helping get other voters to the polls.
This is the kind of ahead-of-the-curve thinking that has defined the Obama campaign from the beginning. If the Obama administration governs the country as well as they have governed their campaign, we will be very fortunate indeed.