I've thought long and hard about how democrats should run their campaigns during the primaries and then the general elections. I've decided that we as democrats have some unique values that should not be pushed aside during the campaign season.
We as democrats should be able to hold ourselves to a higher standard than republicans. We should let our nominations be decided based on which candidates are running better campaigns period. How to tell who's running a better campaign? I honestly think that there are usually two parameters one can use to measure how successful a campaign is, aside from winning of course. They are not mutually exclusive and I'm not necessarily sure one is more important than the other. They are:
- Message - Message and compelling themes/narratives are always vital for an effective campaign to take off. Being able to get people to buy into your agenda or policies on a campaign trail is predicated on getting people to listen to you, like you or follow you. It is even more critical once the season is in full swing to get a theme that can still keep the supporters motivated through the ups and downs.
- Groundwork/Organization - While it is important to have a great and compelling theme/message, it is even more important to have the groundwork to back it up. Now, an important element or juice for this is money. An alternative may be having the backing of the party apparatus and machinery to help with the leg work and ground game.
Now, I'm not naive enough to believe that the republicans will play nice in the general elections. The important question then is how do we deal with all that negativity without becoming that which we abhor the most?
P.S. Part of the reason for this diary is the latest developments in the campaign. While I think that Obama is winning based on the two points I made above, that in no way should be a reason to discount the merits of the two points.