On the heels of President Obama's fiery Labor Day speech, here's a couple of stories worth noting.
First, HuffPost's Sam Stein published an interview with David Axelrod on White House political strategy through the elections. In the article, Axelrod goes on full blast, firing away at GOP extremism, saying that they'd be worse than Bush.
"I saw that [Alaska GOP Senate candidate] Joe Miller said that he would abolish Social Security if he had the chance and he is not alone," said chief adviser David Axelrod. "This is akin to what [Nevada GOP Senate candidate] Sharron Angle has said in Nevada and also a number of these other Republicans. So, this could go one step beyond the policies of the Bush administration to something more extreme than we have seen."
According to Axelrod, one of the central communications challenges faced by Democrats and the administration over the final weeks of the campaign is to make sure that the link between Bush and the GOP is seared into voters' minds.
"Perhaps this is where we have been failing to communicate," said Axelrod. "[A] large number of people [don't] believe that a Republican Congress would go back to the policies of George W. Bush, even though their own leaders have said as much in public. Pete Sessions said we want to go back to the same exact agenda that was there before this president took office. So our job in the next eight weeks is to make sure that people understand that, that they understand the stakes."
In his Labor Day speech, President Obama made that argument as forcefully as anybody has yet so far this campaign. As Axelrod says, it's essential to keep up the intensity in making that argument to make sure persuadable voters understand that this election is a choice between Democrats trying to fix the mess of the Bush years and Republicans who would go back to the same policies that ruined the economy the last time they were behind the wheel.
The second story worth noting is a new David Plouffe video posted by Organizing for America. In the video, Plouffe outlines OFA's grassroots organizing strategy for the campaign's stretch run. His key point comes around the three minute mark of the video, which was e-mailed to OFA's full list:
You're only out there talking to people that we think are either a prime persuasion target -- that we can convince them to vote and they are undecided -- or Democrats right now who are saying they are not likely to vote. And that's what we really need to focus on. And our data is really clear on this: What is the most likely reason someone who says they are not likely to vote decides to vote? It's because one of you talks to them.
When you combine the administration's new policy initiatives (including President Obama's continued opposition to Bush's tax cuts for the wealthy) with Axelrod's messaging and Plouffe's organizing strategy, you're starting to see the Democratic campaign fire on all cylinders for the first time this cycle. (Unlike Republicans, they've actually had to govern.)
There's no question that most recent snapshots of the race shows Democrats are in trouble. But don't forget, at this point in 2008, John McCain was leading Barack Obama. That was obviously a different situation and the underlying trends favored Obama, but the point is that snapshots change. And while it would be a remarkable comeback, we're seeing a strategy that just might work.