First posted at WashingtonTimes.com at 9:17 a.m.
Obama campaign manager David Plouffe uses visual aids in this video strategy briefing, but offers a telling figure rarely given out.
In a fundraising pitch where he predicts a "very close election," he notes the Florida campaign will cost $39 million.
Among other highlights in the video, apparently sent to donors, Plouffe says Team Obama is encouraged by what it sees in the battleground states.
Plouffe said:
"We still enjoy a very important advantage" on supporters' enthusiasm.
Voter registration yields "net gain" of 375,000 Pennsylvania Democrats
In Nevada "registration numbers are going to make a big difference"
"We're trying to leave nothing to chance"
"We are spending more money and time on the grassroots" than any presidential campaign in history.
He says John McCain is "in the gutter and running terrible ads."
He asked supporters to "pour your hearts" into the campaign
Finally: "We're going to win this campaign block by block, precinct by precinct."
Here's the clip:
Plouffe does not mention 527s and independent political action committees, which I wrote about on today's front page:
Initially pushed to the sidelines by the presidential nominees, independent political groups are readying a 24/7 barrage of attack ads designed to influence Americans' choices at the ballot box in November.
The tax-exempt political groups known as 527s will use negative ads to remind voters about Sen. Barack Obama's controversial former pastor, and to suggest that Sen. John McCain's temperament makes him a frightening choice to have his "finger near the red button."
Both presidential hopefuls once derided these independent groups - named for their section of the tax code and limited to few campaign-finance restrictions - and so they remained mostly dormant for months.
But as the campaign heats up, 527s and other political action committees from across the political spectrum are planning major pushes to influence voters in the final six weeks of the campaign.
"We have to spread the truth about McCain ourselves because it's clear the corporate media won't," reads the description on a YouTube ad from BraveNewPac. In capital letters, it adds, "Now. Fast. Furious. Everywhere."
Read the full story here.
— Christina Bellantoni, national political reporter,
The Washington Times
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