I have had my doubts about what Pennsylvania could mean for the Obama Campaign. On the face of it, Pennsylvania is a state built for Hillary to win with a very large Blue Collar Demographic which salvaged Ohio for her. However, Pennsylvania is an opportunity the Obama Campaign is going to take on, one where the General Election Strategy can be brought out. Realistically speaking, the seven weeks before Pennsylvania is only slightly shorter than the nine weeks between the convention (Brokered?) and November Election Day, and winning a State like Pennsylvania will be essential for a Democratic Victory in November. There will be several obstacles before Obama including:
-- Take no Prisoners Negative Campaign by HRC
-- Intense Local Party Machinery against BO
-- Demographics Challenge
How will Obama win Pennsylvania? Will he throw the "Kitchen Sink" at HRC and sell his soul? I don't think so, not this candidate. He'll do what he does best, win with Votes, and for Pennsylvania, he has time AND EXPERIENCE on his side.
From this post on the Barack Obama Website, the early strategy is revealed.
The campaign in Pennsylvania is ramping up quickly, and for the next two weeks much of the focus will be on recruiting volunteers, connecting with grassroots groups, and registering new voters to participate.
From the Philadelphia Inquirer:
Sean Smith, 37, the Connecticut political communications specialist brought in by the Obama campaign to be its Pennsylvania press secretary said that in the last week Obama had opened five campaign offices in Pennsylvania - in Philadelphia, Doylestown, Bethlehem, Harrisburg and Pittsburgh - and that more would follow.
Smith said he was among 20 paid campaign staffers in Pennsylvania but "we'll probably get 100 more this weekend, and this might just be the beginning."
Over the weekend, Obama campaign staffers trained 2,000 Pennsylvania volunteers to help in telephone fund-raising and voter registration, which Smith said was where the campaign was now focusing its efforts.
Pennsylvania is a CLOSED Primary with a hard deadline on March 24th to Register to Participate. That gives the campaign 15 days, two more weekends, to register thousands of new voters to participate in the April Primary Vote. This is exactly how Obama intends to win the General Election... and the good news for any Obama Supporter is that this is something Obama really knows how to do.
A huge black turnout in November 1992 altered Chicago's electoral landscape-and raised a new political star: a 31-year-old lawyer named Barack Obama.
In the final, climactic buildup to November's general election, with George Bush gaining ground on Bill Clinton in Illinois and the once-unstoppable campaign of senatorial candidate Carol Moseley Braun embroiled in allegations about her mother's Medicare liability, one of the most important local stories managed to go virtually unreported: The number of new voter registrations before the election hit an all-time high. And the majority of those new voters were black. More than 150,000 new African-American voters were added to the city's rolls.
At the head of this effort was a little-known 31-year-old African-American lawyer, community organizer, and writer: Barack Obama.
Within a few months, Obama, a tall, affable workaholic, had recruited staff and volunteers from black churches, community groups, and politicians. He helped train 700 deputy registrars, out of a total of 11,000 citywide. And he began a saturation media campaign with the help of black-owned Brainstorm Communications. The group's slogan-"It's a Power Thing"-was ubiquitous in African-American neighborhoods. Posters were put up. Black-oriented radio stations aired the group's ads and announced where people could go to register. Minority owners of McDonald's restaurants allowed registrars on site and donated paid radio time to Project Vote! Labor unions provided funding, as, in late fall, did the Clinton/Gore campaign, whose national voter-registration drive was being directed by Chicago alderman Bobby Rush.
"We were registering hundreds a day, and we weren't having to search them out. They came looking for us. African Americans were just so eager to have a say again, to feel they counted."
"I think it's fair to say we reinvigorated a slumbering constituency," says Obama. "We got people to take notice."
Barack Obama's first political fame came from this effort, and over the next two weeks, his ability to get enough votes to win a state he's not supposed to win will be determined by the success of this unglamorous but incredibly Democratic Campaign. This will be a good test for Barack's General Election Strategy... and In My Opinion, it could be the decisive difference to pave the way for a very narrow victory which would finally end the HRC campaign for President. And as it did in Illinois, turning a Purple State solid Blue, it could also forever change the Landscape of Pennsylvania as thousands of unregistered non-voting African Americans in the state's major cities could be inspired and activated to participate for the first time in their political lives. This is great for Obama and even Greater for Democrats in General!