Obama redeploys his grass-roots network to push budget
Volunteers canvassed door to door over the weekend in the first big test of his ground support.
By Alexandra Marks | Staff writer/ March 22, 2009 edition
Reporter Alexandra Marks talks with Pat Murphy of CSMonitor.com about Obama volunteers going door-to-door over the weekend to get support for the President's budget proposal.
Reporter Alexandra Marks
Guilford, Conn.
With the sun shining overhead and the crocuses poking through the grass, Diva and Lois Kenkare walked up Fair Street determined to bring President Obama’s budget battle home to their neighbors.
“Hopefully, we can make an impact,” said Ms. Kenkare, as she approached a house armed with a stack of pledges and the aim of helping Mr. Obama win the votes he needs to pass his record $3.6 trillion budget.
In what’s shaping up to be a different kind of permanent campaign than is usually waged by Washington’s political consultants, thousands of volunteers across the country took to the streets over the weekend at Obama’s behest. They knocked on doors, stood in front of stores to collect signatures, and urged their neighbors to call their congressman.
With this canvassing operation, the Obama administration is taking traditional presidential strategies for building public support to a whole new level.
President Franklin Roosevelt had his fireside chats and Ronald Reagan urged his supporters to call their congressmen, but Obama is asking people to give up their time and engage their neighbors in policy battles usually waged within Washington’s Beltway.
“What the Obama team is trying to do is far beyond what any president has tried to do before. Take the enthusiasm and activism that helped him win the presidency to help him win his political agenda,” says Stephen Farnsworth, a professor of communication at George Mason University and the author of “Spinner-in-Chief: How Presidents Sell Their Policies and Themselves.”
“People tend to be very jealous of their time,” he notes. “What Obama is asking is not cost-less – it’s very different from … nodding when FDR says something you like on the radio.”
The canvassing operation was put together by Organizing for America, the political organization that grew out of Obama’s grass-roots campaign and is now part of the Democratic National Committee (DNC).
A mixed response
The group claims that there were more than 1,200 canvassing groups out nationwide this weekend. But many places saw fewer volunteers than expected.
In Guilford, Conn., only five volunteers arrived at Cathy Cassar’s white clapboard house on Saturday morning. She had hoped for at least 10 or 15, but the smaller turnout didn’t diminish her enthusiasm as she explained the day’s goals.
“We want to get people to support the budget, and [we are] also hoping we can get a lot of signatures so we can show the House and Senate how much support we have,” she said.
“We also want to get people really excited about taking part in government again – this is just a first step to make the community and public part of the whole political process,” she added.
After receiving maps of their territory, the Kenkares and other canvassers took to the streets. Their door-to-door operation got mixed results. Lots of people weren’t home. Others such as John and Barbara Wells are staunch Republicans who didn’t want to sign a pledge, although they did voice support for Obama’s goals.
Up the street, Michael Sulzbach also didn’t want to sign the pledge – at least not yet. “I don’t know enough about the budget yet. I want to read more about it,” he said.
But the Kenkares had some successes. By the end of their two-hour walk through the neighborhood under a chilly, spring sun, they had collected eight pledges. Their whole group brought in a total of 30 pledges.
That number was on the low side for most of Connecticut’s canvassers. But that’s partly because it was a door-to-door operation, says Jennifer Just, the statewide volunteer liaison for Organizing for America. Volunteers who stood in front of supermarkets and other busy stores had better luck.
“Overall, we didn’t have as many volunteers as we had hoped, but the number of pledges per person was really quite extraordinary,” says Ms. Just. “We were hoping for 20 pledges per volunteer, [but] we’re doing more like 50 pledges per volunteer. That was unexpected.”
Nationally, the DNC says it “exceeded expectations” in several areas but it is still tallying the weekend’s results. A spokeswoman added that they have gotten “hundreds of thousands” of people to sign the pledge on the Web.
Will grass-roots pressure work?
This kind of grass-roots organizing could alienate some of the very lawmakers it aims to persuade, some political analysts suggest. But Professor Farnsworth thinks that’s a risk worth taking.
“The greatest peril for Obama is if Congress doesn’t do what he wants,” he says. “Obama does not want to be the next Jimmy Carter, who didn’t get very much of what he wanted from Congress even though there were Democratic majorities in the House and Senate.”
But Farnsworth also notes that Obama’s mobilizing strategy could be undermined by the makeup of the current Congress, where there are only a handful of persuadable lawmakers.
By contrast, when President Reagan urged his supporters to call their congressman to support his 1981 tax bill, there were many centrist Democrats representing conservative districts in the House who felt “cross-pressures,” he says.
Today, most of the persuadable lawmakers are in the Senate – such as Connecticut’s Independent Sen. Joseph Lieberman or moderate Republicans Sens. Olympia Snowe and Susan Collins, both of Maine.
“These are the people that perhaps will be the most persuadable. [A] strong performance by activists in those states will make a difference in terms of how they choose to vote,” says Farnsworth. “If you’re going to measure the success of this, you have to watch the Senate not the House.”
The Kenkares have already called Senator Lieberman and urged him to support Obama’s budget. They were not pleased with the response they got.
“He says he’s going to support the budget overall, but when it comes to taxes he’s going to raise questions,” says Lois Kenkare. “That will simply slow things up and we need to get this done.”
Her husband, Diva, complains that Lieberman, like most other members of the Senate, has had many years to put his stamp on the economy.
“These people have a lot to say now about how to run the country, but they’ve had their chance and they didn’t do a good job,” he says. “They have to at least give this young guy Obama a chance to implement his ideas.”
Comments
2. NH | 03.22.09
Are you kidding me? these people have to be stupid.
Obama will bankrupt the country on behalf of the bankers until there is a complete takeover and we are under one world totalitarian rule.
He has already robbed us of our 401K and handed it over to bankers and bonuses and if we don’t stop him soon, we are all screwed. What is wrong with these people are they retarded or something?
3. Emperor Bob | 03.23.09
You don’t have to read the budget in order to have an opinion on it or to advocate for or against it.
Apathy is the greatest threat to our republic. The more we get people to be informed and engaged the better
4. RHarrisonScott | 03.23.09
Obama’s experience as a community organizer is definitely serving him well. Unfortunately, the only folks he’s organizing are the ones who stand to be the beneficiaries of the federal government’s give away programs. Don’t hold your breath for one of the administrations organizer’s to visit you if you’re actually working for a living. Your support isn’t needed.
5. Myke | 03.23.09
Obama didn’t have time to read it but wants people to go door to door to get people to vote for it. He has been to busy with Leno, trips to Camp David, a Valentines weekend in Chicago for he and his wife. Practicing bowling, his weekly cocktail parties. Poor baby
6. Robert L o’Dell Jr/Volunteer Intelligence | 03.23.09
This is Going to go to the Wire before anyone can do anything but Complain! Did we complain when 911 Hit The World Trade Center, or did we Complain when, we went into Iraq? If so then Continue to Complain because it will only show the Truth about What Happened and Why we have to do something soon or Go Belly Up! Whiners are a Dollar a Dozen, and A Real Comrade in a Foxhole with you will save your Can!
7. mwmeier | 03.23.09
I don’t have to read the budget to support it. Obama is the first politician who I can rely on to be civic minded, patriotic and with as pure motives as any other. He’s intelligent, straightforward, articulate, clear thinking and a great family man. America should be proud and is proud.
It’s tragic that the new President had to inherit the monstrous problems of the past. Finally, I have great confidence in the future of America.
8. Rick Saxton | 03.23.09
I think its important to remember that none of the problems Obama is trying to solve are his fault. I think he is doing the best anyone can under the circumstances. I didn’t vote for him, but I think he will do alright given the incredible problems created by the previous administration.
9. Tony Hoang | 03.23.09
These Obamamaniac has been baptized and they will do whatever the DNC told them to do even they don’t even know what is in the budget, I tell them go to back and tell the DNC and the President they are a Big scam try to get our money again.
10. Tom | 03.23.09
It is a lesson in revisionism to see how culpability for our current woes has been laid at the feet of Obama.
Sorry NH, but I think you’re confusing Obama with his predecessor.
11. Tessa | 03.23.09
I am shocked by the uneducated comments made by those who I can only imagine feel threatened by President Obama and the will of those millions who voted for him to change the status quo in this country. For those of you who have accused the President of not reading the budget, please educate yourselves on how our government works. For those of you who accuse the canvassers of not having read the budget, please don’t assume everyone is as ignorant and apathetic and uneducated on this issue as you apparently are. Finally, if you are going to whine and oppose this budget, please do your duty, pay attention to what your opposition party is doing, and demand that they actually come up with a plan of their own.
12. Rick - Toronto | 03.24.09
I am suprised after 8 years of Bush people are so negative about Obama. Listen like any other human being, he will make his share of mistake but to have a president that actually thinks or produce some level of intelligence is welcomed.
In my workplace I must have a degree of trust in my CEO, I am not privilege to read a lot of financial documents but I must support the CEO efforts if the comapany is to be successful (for both him and I)….So in response to David | 03.22.09…..that is a child like response for a grown man.
13. Willard Dijon | 03.24.09
What Obama is doing is trying to reduce my retirement and give it to the Illegals. He already is giving them some of the social security money I worked so hard for. Marx and Lenin are proud of him. He has achieved levels of salary distribution that they had tried but never achieved. And I am sure Castro saying, “Obama is copying my way of income distribution.”
14. Carolyn | 03.24.09
Maybe citizen sacrifice could be exacted thus: require reading the budget, writing a report and sending it to those voting in our name.
At the very least we would know the terms of the mortgage we are signing…
15. Suzette | 03.25.09
No US President has put together a “grass roots” project as sweeping as this, but other world leaders certainly have done so.
I’m certain these “volunteers” would feel even more enthusiastic if only they had some spiffy uniforms. Maybe with tall, shiny boots. The block captains could carry riding crops with their clipboards.
Roving bands of Obamanoids. Swell. Card check for the federal government. Get used to it, or get rid of it.
16. Diana | 03.25.09
Wow, this is a rough crowd. I guess an article on Rush Limbaugh would be followed by rounds of enthusiastic comments. Well, I guess that is why the CSM doesn’t have much of a circulation - I know I won’t bother again. You fringe elements can rant and rave to yourselves all you want…
17. Ty Right | 03.26.09
I voted for Obama, but I also voted for my Congressional Members of Congress, and I expect them to inspect this 3.6 trillion dollar budget very carefully. And cut it down. Obama is young and smart, etc. etc. but he gets no free passes to do anything he wants. He’s never had to balance anything, and I’m starting to wonder if he’s not one of those community organizers who think there is a bottomless pit of revenue. Those who give mindless support, are not doing anyone any good. They are no different to the Bush supporters of the previous administration. A bunch of people, voting democrat or republican who blindly attest that we must support the decisions of the President no matter what… Now that is immature.
18. dom youngross | 03.27.09
People going door-to-door to argue for massive fiscal irresponsiblity. How creepy, how Obama, and how not surprising.
But no where near as creepy as those who read noble character traits into Obama, as if they’ve known him since 3rd grade. And no where near as creepy as those who can’t recognize not spending so much money is a better plan.
After the Obama minions leave your front door step, better check out back to make sure they didn’t drop off any pods.
19. Big D | 03.31.09
Obama was elected President, not Dictator. I wish him the best of luck, but will still hold true to principles of free trade, freedom of speech and the ability to build a better life through hard work and personal sacrifice, not government hand outs. When we resort to equality of result regardless of effort, that means we all will be mediocre. If we want equality, let’s try building people up, not tearing others down so we all reach the same bottom level.
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1. David | 03.22.09
When the Obama canvassers come to my door, I will have only one question: Have you read the budget? If the answer is “No,” I will ask them to go away until they have.