Republicans are still very impressed with how Barack Obama managed to convince every Democrat in the House and Senate to vote for his stimulus package, even though public opinion polls showed impressive public opposition. The answer is Obama’s utilize of his years of Saul Alinsky-style community organizing training combined with 21st century technology.
This turned his successful campaign tools and technology into a political tsunami that led to the passage of massive bills that would put us, our children and grandchildren in incredibly huge debt. The stimulus shock was immediately followed by an equally high-priced omnibus bill (for the current fiscal year), followed by an equally high-priced budget bill (for the next fiscal year beginning October 1) that incorporates many novel liberal social policies.
To pass the stimulus bill, Barack Obama urged his supporters to hold or attend “house meetings” the weekend before the vote. To gather participants, he sent 13 million emails.
Obama created a novel lobbying organization called Organizing for America, headquartered in the offices of the Democratic National Committee. So there is no doubt that his political goal is to “redirect the campaign machine” so that Congress passes all the spending and wealth-increasing bills that Obama promised before the election (which actually means spreading poverty).
Those who attended the Feb. 6 “recovery house meetings” watched a four-minute YouTube clip in which Obama exhorted his supporters to “unite, organize and remain committed to the task of rebuilding this nation.” They watched a 10-minute sales call promoting the stimulus package, downloaded conversation topics and statistics from the Internet, and then participated in discussions guided by a list of questions printed from the Internet.
The anti-Obama New York Times happily announced that Obama’s technology was transforming “the grassroots organization of YouTube, Facebook, texting, Twitter that turned Obama from the White House into a tool of government.” This plan is called “Rebuilding Your Local Network for YouTube Leadership.”
After the house meetings, Organizing for America sent out an email thanking those in attendance and boasting that economic recovery house meetings had been held in all 50 states – 3,587 house meetings in 1,579 cities and 429 congressional districts. This included 382 meetings in California, 255 in Florida, 115 in Ohio, 199 in New York, 105 in Washington and 149 in Texas.
At the end of the meetings, the host instructed participants that “our mission now is” to spread the word about the stimulus package by calling, emailing and texting friends and neighbors.
What do Republicans intend to do about the left’s novel challenge to begin “transforming America” (Obama’s inaugural words) into a country with total government control over our health care, our laws, our courts, our schools, our money and our banks and our jobs – plans that could double government’s share of our economy? Are Republicans ready (in Obama’s words) to “unite, organize and stay engaged”?
Obama learned how to organize citizens, bring them into miniature groups (the old-fashioned way), and then urge them to “spread the word and build support” (using 21st century online tools). However, there is one chink in the armor of the Obama model.
Obama’s rise to the presidency is partly based on his reputation as a great speaker, but now we discover that he can’t deliver a speech unless he reads a script! Without a teleprompter crutch, he doesn’t even answer questions at press conferences.
A teleprompter is a device that displays a script on two screens, one on the speaker’s right and the other on the left. A teleprompter allows the speaker to look to the right and left of the audience, back and forth, and pretend to be speaking extemporaneously.
The pro-Obama media tries to hide from television viewers the fact that Obama reads all of his speeches, even the low ones to miniature groups, but two difficulties arise. The teleprompter requires Obama to turn from side to side and never make eye contact with the audience, and getting a good photo of Obama without exposing at least part of the teleprompter’s screen is almost impossible.
President Obama never goes anywhere without his teleprompter. He does this in every speech, even a six-minute tribute to Abe Lincoln, straightforward presentations by his own cabinet officials, and informal miniature meetings. He is the first president to be so completely dependent on a teleprompter.
Nevertheless, Obama’s tactics, combined with his 21st century technology, have been a resounding success. If Republicans want to take back Congress in the 2010 elections, they will need to organize both locally and using newfangled technologies.
