Message, Method Are Behind Obama's Climb
By Shailagh Murray and Peter Slevin
Washington Post
DES MOINES -- Steve Hildebrand, the veteran political operative selected to plot a victory for Sen. Barack Obama in Iowa, drew a deep breath and began his pitch.
At the other end of the phone line was a 27-year-old schoolteacher from a town northeast of Des Moines. The man had attended at least four Obama events, and his wife was an Obama precinct captain. But he still was not ready to commit.
"Give me a sense of where your head is at," Hildebrand said calmly.
"Today, I've probably gone from Edwards to Obama to Richardson back to Edwards to Obama," the man responded. When Hildebrand hung up 22 minutes later, he had scribbled a list of position papers to send to the potential supporter to review, on topics including nuclear power, new coal technology and school testing.
It was scarcely 15 months ago that the young senator from neighboring Illinois, billed as "a rising star in Democratic politics," appeared as the guest speaker at the annual steak fry sponsored by Sen. Tom Harkin, the Iowa Democratic Party's highest-profile event of the year. Today Obama is drawing among the largest crowds in Iowa caucus history and is among the front-runners. His bid for the 2008 Democratic nomination seems less improbable by the day.
Obama's strategy is one part message, one part elbow grease, following the Iowa maxim "organize, organize, organize, and get hot at the end." Obama will spend the campaign's final days rallying Democrats in gymnasiums and auditoriums. But behind the scenes, the onetime Chicago community organizer has dispatched an army of paid staff and volunteers occupying a record 37 offices across the state to wage a more personal battle for support, one wavering teacher at a time.
(Continued here.)
Washington Post
DES MOINES -- Steve Hildebrand, the veteran political operative selected to plot a victory for Sen. Barack Obama in Iowa, drew a deep breath and began his pitch.
At the other end of the phone line was a 27-year-old schoolteacher from a town northeast of Des Moines. The man had attended at least four Obama events, and his wife was an Obama precinct captain. But he still was not ready to commit.
"Give me a sense of where your head is at," Hildebrand said calmly.
"Today, I've probably gone from Edwards to Obama to Richardson back to Edwards to Obama," the man responded. When Hildebrand hung up 22 minutes later, he had scribbled a list of position papers to send to the potential supporter to review, on topics including nuclear power, new coal technology and school testing.
It was scarcely 15 months ago that the young senator from neighboring Illinois, billed as "a rising star in Democratic politics," appeared as the guest speaker at the annual steak fry sponsored by Sen. Tom Harkin, the Iowa Democratic Party's highest-profile event of the year. Today Obama is drawing among the largest crowds in Iowa caucus history and is among the front-runners. His bid for the 2008 Democratic nomination seems less improbable by the day.
Obama's strategy is one part message, one part elbow grease, following the Iowa maxim "organize, organize, organize, and get hot at the end." Obama will spend the campaign's final days rallying Democrats in gymnasiums and auditoriums. But behind the scenes, the onetime Chicago community organizer has dispatched an army of paid staff and volunteers occupying a record 37 offices across the state to wage a more personal battle for support, one wavering teacher at a time.
(Continued here.)
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