I have read several diaries on this website every day for as long as I can remember and feel a sense of urgency, of the kind that sees some complacency on the left. This week (with just more than 80 days before Election Day), the Obama campaign is only reaching about 12K/week by phone through the online calling program (and 1.5K people by door knock). The comparisons to 2008 are startling and need not be detailed, but suffice to say that the fire is not there.
For my part, I have been calling older, independent women in a swing state this week, often pulling up the same voters that I did the day before. The problem: Is there enough mobilization there for the campaign to even understand on the ground where it is and where its supporters are with a changed 2012 landscape? Can the Obama folks mobilize its voter turnout operation in what seems like a vacuum?
Some thoughts from my time as a lurker about where we can go from here below the "squiggle"...
* The work of so many issue-oriented groups is critical to Democrats and their campaigns, but a day's work rounding up the usual suspects to discuss the problems of the day won't do for Obama what a day of making calls or knocking on doors for the organized campaign. That information is integrated immediately and can be mapped geographically etc. so the campaign can understand how best to maximize its turnout.
* There is little to no benefit from proving to ourselves exactly how good Obama is or bad Romney/Ryan are. The people on here know that, and there is not much spillover from here to the print or news media, unfortunately. Yet, so much time and effort (good effort) is spent on diaries and muckraking. Why not spend 10 minutes for every 10 spent on here to do something for the Obama campaign or a congressional candidate? Or, for every 5 diaries recommended, 10 minutes for a campaign?
My disappointment extends to the official campaign, which took almost a week to have a TV ad on Paul Ryan this week, has almost ceded the television war by not having well-prepped (or any) surrogates, has not deployed surrogates to cut in to Romney/Ryan coverage at a local level, etc. This campaign (for all of the positives) has not stepped up its game to a level that meets the challenge of reelection in this environment.
I share some liberal disappointment with Obama, but the alternative this time out is striking. A Romney win in November would be met with talk of a "mandate" to enact the Ryan Plan since it is now on the ballot, whether Mitt admits it now or not. We cannot afford to sit on our hands in the name of disappointment that Obama did not [insert liberal/progressive reform here.]