The Fierce Urgency of 0.38%

I don't know about any of you - but I am deathly focused here.  As I type this, we are 54 days, 18 hours, 46 minutes, and 30 seconds away from the polls opening in my state.

I'm hand-wringing on my own time.  I'm not writing about it.  Because I am possessed of the fierce urgency of now - I have internalized that concept.  And while I may have my own thoughts on this or that issue that's going on with the campaign or an attack on Obama or some response by Obama or WHATEVER - I'm not focusing on it.  I'm focusing on the one thing I think we ALL agree is not only critical to a win - but fundamentally the right way to go about elections.  Ground game.  

More after the click.
I think I've been here long enough to be considered someone who has seen a lot of ups and down with respect to the site.  I've seen it implode.  I've seen it get punked.  I've seen it overrun by trolls.  I've seen it get distracted.  I've seen it attack itself and each other.  But I've also seen it succeed.  I've seen it make a substantial contribution and difference.  

At no time was that more evident than during the mid-term elections of 2006.  Yeah, yeah - there was a LOT of off-focus posts, in recommended diaries and the front page - that stand out.  But what happened here, on the whole, was a singular focus on channeling resources and energy to races where we could gain seats.  We had a laser focus on those races.

I live in Virginia.  Our laser focus came later in the race than others - the "Macaca Moment" was the turning point.  That slight opening of a door against incumbent George Allen put the focus on Virginia.  As a site, it was the general consensus that we would achieve a majority in the House.  We were less confident in the Senate.  We thought we could get close, and we were working to that end.  The Macaca Moment allowed us to see a Congressional majority.

I wrote a lot during those August/September/October days in 2006.  It became clear, in Virginia, that a) Webb needed more money; and b) that Webb needed some serious GOTV efforts.  We all generally agreed that the election would turn on our ability to mobilize and drive our voters to the polls.

One of the things I experienced in my direct canvass efforts on the Webb campaign was the sheer intelligence of my friends in neighboring states and the district.  They were coming over to Northern Virginia - people from Maryland, West Virginia, and the District of Columbia - to canvass for Webb.  They did literature drops and leafleting at Metro stations.  They worked booths at popular, well-attended fall festivals.  They showed up at Webb's campaign office in Arlington, VA and made phone calls and canvassed.

I was a part of the above activities.  It was a no-brainer, really - I am a Northern Virginia resident and I am sound of body and mind (or at least I think so!).  I would write about the stuff I was doing - either at a fundraiser for Webb where Democratic luminaries spoke, or through simple canvass activities.  I wasn't alone, either.  Lowkell - teacherken - LoudounCountyDem - many others I know I am forgetting to mention - all wrote about opportunities to contribute and bring this thing home for Webb.  All of us focused on the following basic ideas:

1. If you are close to any part of Virginia, show up and volunteer.
2. If you are in a state where your particular Democrats (House and Senate) are reliably safe, donate to any of the competitive Democrats via ActBlue.
3. If you are in a state where your particular Democrats (House and Senate) are reliably safe, pick a competitive state and do some Calls for Change from your very own living room.

The point I believe we all tried to make was that you could make a difference from wherever you were - even if you were clear across the country.

I took election day 2006 off from work.  I worked the final GOTV effort in Northern Virginia.  Thousands of people across the state did the same.  The polls had been incredibly tight in the weeks leading to the election - we couldn't predict it either way.

After the polls closed, we all dragged ourselves to the Sheraton Premiere in Tyson's Corner to watch the returns.  This was also where the victory party was planned.  It was like a wild-ass rollercoaster ride all night.  To make a very long story somewhat shorter, we didn't get a definitive answer about who had won on that night.  We didn't get it the next day, either.  It was almost painful - because we KNEW by then that the VA Senate race was the one that would either put the Democrats in the majority or leave them just shy of it.  It was only on Thursday, two days after the election, that Allen conceded.

Webb's margin of victory was 0.38%.  Every dollar, every phone call, every door knocked MATTERED.  And how.

Kos had a great post on Monday that broke down the ELECTORAL race.  I've stolen one of his graphics:

It's the yellows we want to focus on, without allowing the blues to slip away.  Taking it just a skosh further, I've heard MSNBC's Chuck Todd say several times over the past few days that he thinks four states in particular are critical, and are true toss-ups: Ohio, New Hampshire, Colorado, and Virginia.  He went further - and sorry, I can't remember what show he was on to provide a link - he was basically saying that Obama need only pick up one or two of those four states, but that McCain basically had to run ALL of them.

So here's my proposition for you.  If you live in:

California
Washington State
Oregon
Illinois
Maryland
District of Columbia
Pennsylvania
New York
New Jersey
Delaware
Connecticut
Rhode Island
Connecticut
Massachusetts
Maine
Vermont

By all means - get involved with your local Obama office.  But also consider doing the following:

1. Utilize the Obama campaign's Phone Banking Tool.  As of this writing, the states they are focusing on are New Hampshire, Ohio, Iowa, New Mexico, and Nevada.

HOWEVER - if you feel strongly you should be calling another state, you can utilize the campaign's state map page.  Click on the state you want, then select "Find Offices".  Pick one, call it, and tell them you want to help them work their call lists.  They may want you to focus on the states featured on the phone banking page, but hey - it's worth a shot if you feel strongly about contacting a state not included there.

2. Consider giving to local candidates in competitive swing states.  I can only speak for Virginia at this point - but Mark Warner is SHELLACKING Gilmore in the polls in the VA-SEN race.  He's WILDLY popular in Virginia (and yes, I know you thought his keynote sucked - but that's irrelevant to this discussion) and is in the unique position of being able to pull Obama along via his campaign appearances and other efforts.

Helping competitive Democrats in swing states only helps the overall Obama campaign.  You can go to the ActBlue directory to find a state and active candidates.  I would also appreciate it if swing-state Kossacks could help illuminate competitive races or those that could substantially advance Barack Obama.

3. And yes - I'll be the umpteen-millionth person to urge you to continue to donate to the Obama campaign directly.  It matters - and this year, I think it matters MOST to the ground game and less to the ad wars.

I fundamentally believe that this war will be won in the trenches.  We knew that was the case in 2006, and we worked our asses off to make it happen.  This cycle is no different.  The whole campaign has rested on organization and ground game.  And the beauty of that is that no amount of Palinization or change-mongering by McCain will allow him to catch our ground game provided we merely keep up the pace.  He's been way behind in everything we've adopted as central to success - in internet organizing and ground game organizing and GOTV efforts.

I challenge you to not only maintain our current advantage - but to substantially extend it.

0.38% delivered the Senate for the Democrats in 2006.

And as I close this diary, it's:

54 Days.
17 Hours.
56 Minutes.
53 Seconds.

Until the election.

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