This description of what it's like to campaign against John Kerry has been on my mind since I read this
post by Al Giordano who quoted the phrase. More exactly, I have been wondering about numerous remarks that dismiss Kerry's organizational strength, at least as that compares to Howard Dean and Richard Gephardt.
A few days ago, The American Prospect had an overview of Iowa titled Iowa Inventory that included the following:
The Kerry team has plenty of reasons to be optimistic. The daily Zogby tracking poll -- which is, to be sure, of dubious accuracy in predicting actual caucus-night outcomes -- now shows Kerry with a 5-point lead in a field that's deadlocked in a four-way tie. Organizationally, the Kerry team is in good shape. Where the Dean camp was still training Polk County precinct captains Thursday night, Kerry's had finished that task last weekend. A sense of confidence and optimism infused the office, where middle-aged veterans and glossy haired, stylish young women staffed the phone lines.
Combined with the article from The New Republic titled The Revivalist that features Kerry's organizing point man, Michael Whouley, I suspect that the Kerry ground-war could be in much better shape than it's been given credit.
As TNR describes:
Michael who? Unless you're a hard-core political junkie, you've probably never even heard the name. But within the Democratic political world, Whouley is an almost-mythical figure. Revered as one of the party's fiercest and most talented ground-level organizers, Whouley is widely credited with saving Al Gore's foundering campaign in Iowa and New Hampshire in the 2000 primaries against Bill Bradley. Now this old Kerry ally may be working his magic one more time.
Later in the same article, Donna Brazile praises Michael Whouley's capability:
Brazile says she's not surprised that Kerry's Iowa surge was preceded by Whouley's arrival there. After learning that Kerry had sent Whouley to Iowa, Brazile says she contacted top Gephardt and Dean campaign officials with a friendly warning: Watch out. "Whouley knows how to close," she told them. "He will kick the living daylights out of your campaign operation. I said, 'Let me tell you what Whouley is going to do. He is going to close. He's going to convert twos to ones.'" (A reference to the campaign practice of ranking possible supporters on a one to five scale.) "And when the undecideds start moving," she warned at the time, "he's going to convert them, too." That's just what's happened.
So, I guess I'm not really sure what the point is of this diary, except that I have been thinking that people could be understating Kerry's organization in Iowa. Considering his additional strengths of very high favorability, leading second choice, and leading with undecideds, I think that there is an excellent chance that John Kerry will be the one who will exceed his polls most of all.
Oh, and to repeat what I said in a reply to that post from Al Giordano:
I wrote John Kerry off months ago, but I will be more than happy to support him if he gets the nomination. Kerry is a fine Democrat even if most of Kosistan despises him.
Shadowboxing the Apocalypse. I like that!