In the country's last toss-up state, McCain has TV, but Obama has GOTV

Picture of the day: Two identical Miatas were in front of me on Ward Parkway this afternoon. The one on the left had Kansas plates; the one on the right, Missouri plates ... and an Obama 08 sticker.

The biggest city (St. Louis has bigger suburbs) in the last toss-up state in the country (if you believe master poll-cruncher Nate Silver's FiveThirtyEight.com site) has gone into high gear for Barack Obama. When the candidate's Country Club Plaza campaign office opened this morning, 200 volunteers were standing outside. Everywhere I went today, I saw teams of people with clipboards. And then I came home to the door-hanger ... you've got to see this door-hanger ...

First of all, it's bigger than all the others, about 6 x 20. Second, on the reverse side is a portable and detailed voter's bill of rights, telling you that you have the right to a paper ballot (which I always ask for) and you don't need photo ID. Amazingly, it also gives you the location of your polling place -- printed in the official Obama 08 typeface -- just in case you tossed that tiny postcard from the Board of Election Commissioners the other week.

Wait, it gets better. Barack called Mrs. TVB on her cell phone about two hours later -- I hate it when he does that -- and in the middle of his message he was saying something like, "Your polling place is," and just then a female voice jumps in and gives us the polling place address again.

And you say: So what? Well, it seems that the Obama campaign is doing more than drawing large numbers of first-time donors and motivated volunteers. It's communicating constantly with them to encourage them to vote. And then, as you'll read below, it's throwing the volunteers at those same voters in order to get them to the polls, make them as comfortable in line as possible, and generally do whatever they can to ensure their votes count.

Here's what Mrs. TVB learned today at Obama's campaign office on the Plaza. On Election Day, the campaign will have lawyers at every polling place in Missouri. (I know there are 5,000 attorneys dispatched to blanket Florida, and I would assume Ohio and Pa. as well.)

Not only that, but get this. You know those stories about poor folks getting fallen arches waiting in line to early vote this week? The Obama camp has a solution for that too: Volunteers will be dispatched to all the polling places in Missouri to offer relief to voters who want to take a bathroom break, or rest their feet ...

By the way, this reminds me of a beef I had with much of the coverage of the Democratic caucuses this winter. There was a lot of griping, including in my newspaper, about what a terrible hardship this was, and how chaotic the scenes were at overwhelmed caucus sites, etc. etc. If the caucuses were such a drag, why did people endure long lines in the cold when they could've just gone home?* I love this picture, one of hundreds submitted to the New York Times' Polling Places Photo Project, that puts the lie to the notion that the caucus system is "broken" and needs to be changed.*

So, let's big picture this. The Obama campaign is using its giant cash chest to speak to all three groups of voters at the same time. To the undecideds, it continues to hammer away on the airwaves with massive ad buys. (Previously on TV Barn: Obama's infomercial and the selling of Richard Nixon.) Obama is also speaking to the opposers, flying into states like Arizona and Georgia where the chances of victory there are slim. The rationalization there is that he might win, he drains vital resources from McCain to defend home turf, and someday Obama will need those red-state voters if he's to govern effectively. (After all, Ronald Reagan didn't need a filibuster-proof majority in the Senate to get his Saudi friends their AWACS.)

And, as we are now seeing in his get-out-the-vote, or GOTV, operation, Obama is spending big bucks to deliver the decideds to the polls and make sure their vote counts.

Ever since his well-oiled surprise in Iowa in January, Obama has made his opponents look like Keystone Kops in terms of organization. (Remember Hillary Clinton's admission, days before the Texas primary-caucus-convention thingy, that she had no real idea how it worked? Obama eventually won Texas because he had the organization.)

HuffPost's Zack Exley wrote a long report last month that is must reading for anyone trying to understand how the Great Organizer did it.

One more example from today. Mrs. TVB -- who, unlike me, plans to vote straight Democratic -- reports that the Plaza office of Obama 08 was originally going to supply volunteers to three polling places for bathroom breaks etc. that I mentioned above. But once the tally of volunteers was actually counted and reported back to HQ, suddenly the Plaza office was given four more polling places to work. It's this efficient use of volunteer labor that may be looked back at someday as one of the great accomplishments of the campaign. I don't care what party you are, we coulda used some of that after 9/11.

And John McCain? Besides the persistent reports of campaign disarray, the news this weekend is that McCain 08 has decided to pull millions of dollars from its GOTV activities and engage in one last orgy of ad buys. Tonight's "SNL" appearance is going to be a piece of the McCain homestretch strategy ... by default.

Personally, I think that's an awful choice to have to make: spend money on TV or GOTV, though I share Silver's view that McCain's chances of victory are remote. John Cleese was on Keith Olbermann's show last night and pointed out that at least in the United Kingdom, political commercials on TV are forbidden. I doubt that it would reduce the total amount of money spent on elections, which isn't an excessive amount considering the fate of the free world is in the balance. (George Will's comparison to the amount Americans spend on potato chips is instructive.)

But that's the system we have now, and Obama has worked it better than any candidate. Question: If he wins, will he be able to put that same army to use in his administration? Or will Obama 08 be looked back wistfully as the high point of the first African-American president's lone term of office?

Either way, Obama looks to have put together a hell of a GOTV effort, from my keyhole vantage point in the nation's last toss-up state.

Comments

[jacksmith]

I see you all have not lost your fight :

GOOD! Because we have a lot to do. You! (the American people) are going to have to take back control of your elected government at every level, and set your government back on the right path of service to you, and the greater good of the World.

Barack Obama and the democrats are your best hope of doing that now. Tell your family, friends, and everyone you know to support them as best they can. Because the Bush McCain vote fraud, vote cheating, vote buying, vote manipulation machine is already hard at work to cheat you again. And we all know what a disaster that has been the past 8 years of Bush McCain.

Barack Obama and the democrats will need all the power you can give them at every level of government (Federal, State, County, and local City elected governments). Obama and the democrats will have an enormous mess to fix for the American people, and the rest of the World. A mess caused by the corrupt Bush McCain administration.

You see, starting back in 2000, and before 911, it was mostly the Republican governors, Republican legislatures, and county elected Republican officials that conspired with the corrupt Bush McCain administration to raise college, and university tuitions by the fastest, and highest rate increases in American history. Some state tuitions went up by as much as a WHOPPING! 30% in one year.

The reason the Bush McCain administration did this was to force struggling working class kids into the military to pay for the sudden jump in tuition. Which was forced on them by the corrupt Bush McCain administration, and their corrupt Republican Governors, and republican controlled state legislatures.

See, Bush McCain had plans to get us into all these immoral, foolish, criminal, and unnecessary wars from the start. So they could use these wars to seize power, and later to get reelected. But, for their evil plan to work they needed more volunteer soldiers struggling to pay for an education whose blood they could spill to help them seize more power. Remember Bush McCain's "MISSION ACCOMPLISHED!" theatrics.

The exploitation, and lost lives of these finest Americans is despicable, disgusting, immoral, corrupt and criminal. And it makes me SICK, and ANGRY!

You will have to vote for Obama, and the democrats in overwhelming numbers to overcome the Bush McCain vote fraud machine. Vote early if you can. Then help your fellow Americans cast their votes now, and on through election day. Vote for Obama, and the democrats like your life, and the lives of your loved ones depends on it. Because it does. You will not survive 4 more years of "Let Them Eat Cake" Bush McCain, and their republican allies.

Just look at the mess we have now.

You can fix this mess with your votes for Obama, and the democrats. And REMEMBER, no matter which of us may stumble or fall, the rest of you must continue to surge forward for Barack Obama, and the democrats, and for your-selves most of all. The children, and the World are counting on us.

It's in your hands now. And I know you will get it done.

God bless all of you.

JACK SMITH - WORKING CLASS... :-)

[Duke]

Since when did this become a political blog? I thought Aaron Barnhart was the TV columnist at the Star, not another blatant Obama supporter.

Does this have anything to do with TV?

[You're right. There's nothing political on TV tonight. Or the next night. Or the next night. Dude, I'm sorry your bias has blinded you from missing the greatest reality TV show of the year, possibly the decade - although it's hard to beat the first season of "Survivor." --AB]

[American citizen]

It's looking good but I am concerned. PLEASE all you Missouri voters - GET TO THE POLLS. Don't assume Obama is doing so well that he doesn't need your vote. This election could indeed come down to one vote.

[Bob]

I just thought I would give you an outside perspective. I am a 38 year old Canadian living in a city of over 1,000,000 and I have voted in every election that I could since turning 18. Including municipal elections, provincial elections, 'primaries, etc, I would say that I have voted in about 20 elections or so.

Our system is managed quite differently than yours (paper ballets and scanning machines followed by automatic human count to confirm). I have never waited more than 10 minutes to vote. I wonder why America has so many problems and if it is not time to modernize your systems?

[Zack Exley]

Aaron - Thanks for the holler! I live in Kansas City now, you know. Really amazing field operation going on here too.

[Randy]

I have to agree with the earlier guy who said this is now a Barama site. What do two Miatas have to do with anything tv related?
It's obvious you are in the Obama camp. Do we have to read your anti-McCain crap every single day?
Obama's infommercial was great. Do you cover Oxy clean infommercials? Don't even pretend you are neutral in this campaign.

[Over the years I have commented about all things Kansas City on TV Barn - the Royals, my barbecue exploits, border-war history (the real one, not the athletic kind), jazz and blues - but oh boy, talk about the biggest friggin' story in town and suddenly it's "what has this got to do with TV?" Boys, you're telling me more about your biases than about mine. My bipartisan bona fides are out there for everyone to see. And I would have no trouble with a President McCain. Can you say the same for Obama?--AB]

[huw wyn]

Hi there, Im from the UK and I would just like to share how the whole world is praying that the american people use the wisdom in their hearts to vote for obama. The world is at a point where we can no longer be selfish, greedy and just worried about ourselves. We have to pull together for the sake of all our grandchildren. We have to thank Bush, for as my friend said the other day, "It takes a special kind of man to screw up as badly as he did". Without him however there would never been this opportunity for obama. Now is the time for us to stand up where ever we are, to face the challenge we all must face and move beyond fear, rampant patriotism to see the bigger picture. This whole world belongs to all of us, lets take care of this incredible planet for the sake of all beings. I love America, its a gorgeous country! You can do it, the whole worlds with you......

[Dawny]

Hey-Let's all be thankful we live where we can vote and have a say in our government. Now for me, who have voted Republican in every Presidental election since turning 18, I am excited to have an opportunity to vote for a fabulous leader. A man that has shown over and over that he is for the people...How many people do you know that graduated as President of their class and then proceeded to turn down great career opportunities because he had a heart to work for those who needed a strong voice? Talk about personal sacrifice....And for the next 4 years do you want to continue the wars taking up arms everytime we disagree with other countries or are we going to lead the way to one world working to live in Peace with tolerance for other religions and politics? The first decision as a Presidental canidate was the selection of their running mate...Can we compare the experience, world affairs knowledge, national issues, between Palin and Biden. Who showed the best judgement? Who is best equipped to lead us out of the economic disaster we are in...who best understands the middle class American's struggles...Obama grew up middle class working for everything he accomplished....He understands the struggles but is not into free handouts....He believes strongly in helping those who help themselves and making sure that the hard working American can have a good and secure life....I am so proud to be an Obama supporter and know that when history looks back on his Presidency, he will go down as one of our BEST!