It's the Synergy, Stupid!
Message to all Dems out there: Listen to your good friend, James Verini!
Verini's article about his experience as a Kerry campaign volunteer shows exactly why Kerry lost.
1. Voters were not motivated to vote for Kerry, only against Bush
2. The Dem ground game was completely unorganized
I've said this before in previous posts, voters want to vote for something, not against something. Think about the way we word hot-button issues; pro-life v. pro-choice, gun rights v. gun control, marriage protection v. marriage equality, they're all spun toward the positive. We've conditioned ourselves to vote for something, no matter where we stand on an issue.
From the moment the Dem presidential primary started, the buzz was centered on, "Let's get George Bush out of office." This is why none of the volunteers Verini encountered knew anything about John Kerry, the focus of the entire campaign revolved around President Bush. The total lack of cohesive strategy on the part of the Democrats is painfully apparent when Verini made calls to recruit volunteers. Despite the majority of people admitting to being scared of the future, no one wanted to volunteer for Kerry.
Further more, the lack of volunteer/staff training on the part of the Kerry campaign is mind-boggling! For so long, Dems have heralded their grassroots organization to be superior to that of the GOP. Wake up it's not! Every volunteer/staff member should have been given a talking points sheet about Kerry including a bio, key votes, policy stances, and answers to difficult FAQs. You know things are bad when your volunteers and staff know more about your opponent's policy stances than the candidate they are working for!
The Republicans on the other hand relied heavily on local people to mainly staff their satellite offices. Everyone involved in the campaign was on message. The rural areas in major swing states (Bush's base) were the focus of the Bush ground game. Does anyone really think it's a coincidence that Bush, Cheney and their surrogates went to the smallest towns in the most hotly contested counties and states in the country? This was all part of the volunteer recruitment
/fundraising/GOTV effort.
Imagine you're living in Poplar Bluff, MO (population 16,651). It's September 2004 and MO is still considered a swing state. The entire town starts buzzing because in three days the president of the United States is coming to your hometown for a rally. Everyone scrambles to snatch up a coveted ticket and the entire community bans together to say, "How can I help?" Finally the day arrives, over 30,000 people (twice the size of the town) have come from neighboring counties and states to see the man. As President Bush delivers an inspiring speech you are energized, you feel like in a crowd of 30,000, he's somehow talking to you, asking for your vote. The next day, the town is still on a high from the excitement. You pick up the local paper only to read that you were part of the president's largest rally to date. A few days later, you come home from work and get a call from the local BC '04 or GOP HQ. They ask you to volunteer for the campaign. Now, what are you gonna say? On November 2nd, who are you going to vote for?
Synergy. The perfect word to describe the GOP strategy in 2004. Everyone one at every level was in constant communication with each other. Maybe if Verini had volunteered for the president, his article would have turned out a little differently. The word 'incompetence' would have been replaced by 'synergy' or 'strategy.'
Verini's article about his experience as a Kerry campaign volunteer shows exactly why Kerry lost.
1. Voters were not motivated to vote for Kerry, only against Bush
2. The Dem ground game was completely unorganized
I've said this before in previous posts, voters want to vote for something, not against something. Think about the way we word hot-button issues; pro-life v. pro-choice, gun rights v. gun control, marriage protection v. marriage equality, they're all spun toward the positive. We've conditioned ourselves to vote for something, no matter where we stand on an issue.
From the moment the Dem presidential primary started, the buzz was centered on, "Let's get George Bush out of office." This is why none of the volunteers Verini encountered knew anything about John Kerry, the focus of the entire campaign revolved around President Bush. The total lack of cohesive strategy on the part of the Democrats is painfully apparent when Verini made calls to recruit volunteers. Despite the majority of people admitting to being scared of the future, no one wanted to volunteer for Kerry.
Further more, the lack of volunteer/staff training on the part of the Kerry campaign is mind-boggling! For so long, Dems have heralded their grassroots organization to be superior to that of the GOP. Wake up it's not! Every volunteer/staff member should have been given a talking points sheet about Kerry including a bio, key votes, policy stances, and answers to difficult FAQs. You know things are bad when your volunteers and staff know more about your opponent's policy stances than the candidate they are working for!
The Republicans on the other hand relied heavily on local people to mainly staff their satellite offices. Everyone involved in the campaign was on message. The rural areas in major swing states (Bush's base) were the focus of the Bush ground game. Does anyone really think it's a coincidence that Bush, Cheney and their surrogates went to the smallest towns in the most hotly contested counties and states in the country? This was all part of the volunteer recruitment
/fundraising/GOTV effort.
Imagine you're living in Poplar Bluff, MO (population 16,651). It's September 2004 and MO is still considered a swing state. The entire town starts buzzing because in three days the president of the United States is coming to your hometown for a rally. Everyone scrambles to snatch up a coveted ticket and the entire community bans together to say, "How can I help?" Finally the day arrives, over 30,000 people (twice the size of the town) have come from neighboring counties and states to see the man. As President Bush delivers an inspiring speech you are energized, you feel like in a crowd of 30,000, he's somehow talking to you, asking for your vote. The next day, the town is still on a high from the excitement. You pick up the local paper only to read that you were part of the president's largest rally to date. A few days later, you come home from work and get a call from the local BC '04 or GOP HQ. They ask you to volunteer for the campaign. Now, what are you gonna say? On November 2nd, who are you going to vote for?
Synergy. The perfect word to describe the GOP strategy in 2004. Everyone one at every level was in constant communication with each other. Maybe if Verini had volunteered for the president, his article would have turned out a little differently. The word 'incompetence' would have been replaced by 'synergy' or 'strategy.'
2 Comments:
You’re right about the synergy. I think that sometimes these things can be a little over-analyzed.
Yes, the Republicans were extremely organized from the top down, and the Democrats were not. Senator Kerry was not a stellar choice for the Democratic nominee. Even if you ignore Bush’s victory, the fact that Bush was ahead in the polls most (if not all?) of the time after the Republican Convention shows that the majority of Americans recognized that Senator Kerry didn’t really stand for anything.
I must say that it’s nice to know that the GOP has the ability to run such an effective grassroots campaign.
By SEPARight, at 1:02 AM
D's always had the ground advantage, owed largely to unions and city party machines that could be relied upon to turn out large numbers of voters.
Things have changed. In 2002 and 2004 it was the R's ground game that made the difference in electoral success. Unions are no longer the force they once were. In an example of how union power has been marginalized, Dick Gephardt was the union candidate, but that didn't get him anywhere near the turnout he needed to advance out of the Democratic primary.
By ganesh, at 11:22 PM
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