We know the GOP has a huge money advantage over the Democrats, but we usually re-assure ourselves that the Democrats have stronger Get-out-the-vote (GOTV) campaigns and a strong voter turnout in 2004 will be a boon for our nominee. And maybe we think that online-based activism will help us raise money, get out our message, and coordinate decentralized campaign activities.
But the truth is that the Republicans have all these things, too. Here in Minnesota, the Republicans have had an amazingly effective GOTV effort that has boosted turnout in their districts to very high levels, while the Democrats' have languished.
Check out this Chicago Tribue article: President's campaign unifying Republicans (you can log in with anonymous/anonymous).
As the nine Democratic candidates deliver a daily pummeling, the president has been quietly building a national campaign with unprecedented reach, technology and resources to counter his critics....
[T]he campaign is creating an intricate grass-roots operation designed to have the intensity of a local City Hall race....
The Republican Party...is on its way to signing up 3 million new voters, with state-by-state goals in places where Bush either won or lost by a sliver in the 2000 race against then-Vice President Al Gore.
An elaborate get-out-the-vote program that was tested during last year's successful Republican midterm election, called the 72-hour plan, is being strengthened.
I wrote earlier about independent, progressive GOTV campaigns being conducted to turn Bush out of office (America Coming Together: $75 million, SEIU 1199: $35 million). But the Republicans are not going to sit still and let their grassroots wither. They're organized and well funded.
What can we do to stop them?