Sean at Five Thirty Eight, (Nee Pocket Nines here at Kos) has just written a piece slamming the McCain ground game in Missouri. He has started a knife fight, IMO, with a very large gun.
Five Thirty Eight, for those who don't know it, is a polling type website that has quickly jumped to the forefront of political polling. Nate "Poblano" Silver is the founder. A baseball sabremetrician (numbers predictor guy), he has developed an algorithm for elections which shows great promise. During the Indiana primary, when predictions that Hillary would skate past with a 8+% win flew around, Nate calmly said 1.2%. He was off by .6%. Along with the polling matters, they have been recently traveling around the country, doing pieces about the ground game of both the Obama and McCain campaigns. Today was Missouri, and Nate and Sean have had enough.
The field office in St. Louis denied Five Thirty Eight access, saying that they had not heard of FiveThirtyEight, but Politico was OK. Sean said before he printed anything about this stonewalling, he would let the field director check on this, and get back to them. She did and this was her response.
We were told that we’d be asked to leave public field offices we now attempted to visit.
Furthermore, Sean added,
We did not get any promised follow-up helping get access to the post-debate Palin rally last night, and we were locked out. Hmm.
So then Sean lays in, talking about the Power of the Obama ground game, and the ineptitude of the McCain campaign. It's truly brilliant. What does this mean? Could be an emperor has no clothes moment. McCain campaign, disorganized, shutting off media they don't like on the ground? On the Bus or the Plane, okay, control the message. But in the field offices? What are they hiding? In Sean's opinion, nothing. No life, no energy, no people. He and Nate are not going to pull any punches either, from the rest of their travels. If the campaign stonewalls them, they are going to fire back.
Once again, the wisdom of Obama is showing. in hiring Plouffe, using the fifty state strategy, and getting the message out everyday not through the media, but instead through volunteers. Bumper Stickers and Signs carry a message, but they can't carry on a conversation. It's the homestretch.
Here's Sean's post. FiveThirtyEight
Update w/ Digg Link. H/t to PorterMason