Pirate's Cove

It is a good thing that the Wall Street Journal does not have comments, because the unhingedness (I don’t care if it’s not a word) over Rove’s hopiness and changiness article about Obama would be enormous. WSJ – Barack’s Brilliant Ground Game

For a campaign that says it wants to end the politics of the Bush-Cheney years, the Obama for President effort has cribbed an awful lot from the Bush-Cheney playbooks of 2000 and 2004.

Teeth nashing.

For starters, Barack Obama’s manager admitted to the New York Times that he wanted an “army of persuasion” modeled explicitly on the massive Bush neighbor-to-neighbor “Victory Committee” of ’00 and ’04. Those efforts deployed millions of volunteers to register, persuade and get-out-the-vote.

Fist clenching.

Like Mr. Bush, Mr. Obama has harnessed the Internet for persuasion, communication and self-directed organization. A Bush campaign secret weapon in 2004 was nearly 7.5 million email addresses of supporters, 1.5 million of them volunteers. Some volunteers ran “virtual precincts,” using the Web to register, persuade and organize family and friends around the country. Technology has opened even more possibilities for Mr. Obama today.

Apoplectic shaking

The Obama campaign has also copied the Bush strategy of broadening the general election map. In 2000, the Bush effort targeted not just the traditional battlegrounds, but also West Virginia (last won by the GOP in an open race for the presidency in 1928), Tennessee (Al Gore’s home), Arkansas (Bill Clinton’s home), Washington and Oregon.

Prozac Time! Get the petitions jumping, jump on the DU to seethe a bit, throw a few 4 letter words Rove’s way, ask others to write letters to the WSJ to fire Rove!

If anyone would know about that Bush playbook, it would be Rove. Seriously, I wouldn’t want to be answering the phones or checking the email at the WSJ today!