McCain Camp Waging Ground War Under the Surface Out of Sight

Something strange has been going on here in North Carolina. In Pennsylvania -- Philadelphia, Bethlehem, Pittsburgh, Johnstown -- and now here in Durham, Franklinton, Asheville -- the McCain ground game has gone missing. (In Arizona, Dawn Tao reports on the same.)

McCain organizers do not stand in the backs of rallies with clipboards to sign up canvassers and phone bankers. Campaign offices, when I can find them, are mostly empty of volunteers. In Johnstown, a piece of butcher paper listed the schedule for Super Saturday door knocking; two people had signed up, their names floating in all the white space.

I've been told there is great enthusiasm for the campaign, and that McCain "victory offices," as they're called, are beating back supporters. If that's true, they've beaten them, bound them, and thrown them out back, because there's scant evidence of them.

To be clear, this is not true of the rallies. The rallies are packed. (With white people, but that's a separate issue. Last night at the Palin rally, I counted zero black people. Zero. This is North Carolina, where the population is roughly 25% African-American. "The rally was open to everybody," a local reporter assured me. "You could print tickets off the Internet. If there aren't black people here, that's by choice.")

In Bethlehem, Pa., a few weeks ago a McCain-Palin rally filled a university gymnasium, and in Asheville, N.C., last night some supporters had camped overnight outside the Civic Center to see the governor. Across both Pa. and N.C., which the McCain campaign considers fully in play, McCain-Palin signs spring up in front yards and intersections like the state flower.

So it is not an apparent lack of enthusiasm -- what's striking is the lack of an obvious, structured organization to drive that enthusiasm to the polls. Especially in North Carolina, where polls are already open for early voting, a coordinated get-out-the-vote effort would seem to be a campaign priority. But this weekend in Durham, I saw only one GOP volunteer standing outside a polling place. Whereas Obama volunteers had been spelling each other off all week, passing out a Democratic slate and "I Just Voted" Obama stickers, this was the first day this man had been out on the street canvassing. And he was actually more of an independent than a Republican, he said, encouraging voters to vote their own minds.

Likewise, at the Palin rally last night, the candidate thought to mention early voting only at the end of her speech, when some of the audience had already drifted away. Of the half-dozen supporters with whom I spoke afterward, only one had already voted. The rest planned to wait until Election Day -- mostly for tradition's sake, they said.

That's fine -- I like Election Day, too, with its particular drama and focus. But I'm not trying to win a presidential campaign. If I were trying to win a presidential campaign, I might be buying public service announcements encouraging voters to get to the polls now so as to keep the lines shorter on Election Day. I'd have a paid link to early voting locations at the top of every election-related Google search page. I'd be opening campaign offices in, say, counties traditionally held by my opponent and pay a staff member to rally enough of my supporters' vote at least to staunch the bleeding and maybe eke out a victory in a close state.

Instead, one of the lead McCain volunteers in Asheville last night assured me that the campaign was "talking to people." It was unclear whether they were phone banking and canvassing, the usual get-out-the-vote efforts. Instead, the volunteer insisted that it's not how you go about talking to voters or how many people you have talking to voters, so much as who you have talking to voters that matters. "People will listen to someone they respect," he said.

The line might have seemed naive -- especially given that McCain is up against a well-reported organizing giant in Obama -- if I didn't think there was some profound truth beneath it. Whether by design or accident, the McCain campaign seems to be relying on its brand and an under-the-radar word-of-mouth operation to turn people out to vote.

"I want all of you here tonight to go home and send an email to everybody in your address book," said one of the warm-up speakers at the Palin rally. He encouraged the crowd to tell their friends, families, and co-workers why they supported the GOP ticket -- and ask them to email their networks in turn.

On the one hand, the virtual phone tree method of organizing seemed very...2004. But moments earlier, when I'd asked a media-distrusting McCain supporter where he got his information, he said, "Word-of-mouth, mostly. Friends. Email."

He, and others, quoted to me from emails I myself have received, many insinuating that Obama is somewhere between a Pakistani-funded terrorist and the anti-Christ. Given the amount of attention these emails receive among my own friends and family, I would say their "word-of-mouth" campaign is an effective -- and free -- tool. (For further confirmation, I just typed "Obama" into a Google toolbar. The auto-generated list turned up "obama birth certificate," "obama anti christ," "obama muslim" and "obama acorn.")

Furthermore, while the Obama campaign has legions of individual volunteers, McCain has benefited from an amorphous but effective Republican reputation of being against taxes and abortion. Asheville waved variations of "I Am Joe the Plumber" signs; in Johnstown, Pa., a giant banner saying "Vote Your Conscience" fluttered outside the Catholic church. Repeatedly, McCain supporters cited one of these two issues -- the war coming in a distant third -- as the primary reason they were planning to vote Republican.

If this were a normal election year, I'd say that McCain's haphazard GOTV was a sign of depleted resources and a dangerous lack of awareness of how to run a modern campaign. At its worst, he could follow Hillary Clinton's lead, as he has in other things, and fail to recognize that minute, county-by-county tactics can matter more than driving the base in a few major areas.

But so far, this hasn't been anything close to a normal election year. While across the state Obama volunteers were radically on message last night, appealing to voters one-by-one, 7500 un-managed, un-coordinated, un-organized (white) people were inside the Civic Center, cheering to Sarah Palin's promise that "This election isn't over yet."

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Comments

[gretchenart]

didn't Obama have a crowd of 100,000 while McCain had one of 1,400 in Colorado? And then it rained in Pennsylvania and McCain?
CANCELLED

[old lady]

1. Rove strategy -"pre-invite and vet" rally audiences but compare JM/SP turnouts 2,000 to O's 100,000+
2. At this stage in campaigns Reps abandon ground game and go into direct attack mode
(historically slams, scams,mailers and robocall techniques) holding vote fix trump cards.

3.Polls of likely voters may narrow a little BECAUSE of throngs of early voters across country... good reason to consider a national vote week instead of a day.

[SWZRindependent]

The few Republicans I've been able to find here in MA, and friends that are in RI, and VA... they are either not enthusiastic at all about McCain (they hate Palin) and may not vote, or they are voting for Ron Paul.

I'm an Independent like many here in Mass., but I don't know any fellow Independents that could even stomach voting for McCain now that Palin is on the ticket, and thanks to McCain 2008 being absolutely nothing like McCain 2000...

That being said. This election is no certainty, not until after Nov. 4th will I even think about celebrating.

[old lady]

Don't count chickens yet. I'm still a minority Dem household on my street... Born and bred Reps will follow whoever the party plunks down in front of them without question, thus they have less of a need for a ground game... and aim the smears towards the "other side" hoping to gain that way.

[Oregon Ivy]

Targeting low information voters with smears and lies is immoral and should be illegal.

McCain is "proud" of his campaign and supporters. That tells you everything you need to know.

[christopherflynn]

There should be no such thing as a "low information" voter. This election, in particular, is a crucial one to determine whether America regains its credibility as a just and moral nation, or keeps sliding deeper into the abyss of hatred and bigotry of the religious right.

[TrevorAlan]

There's something interesting near the end, about Obama's supporters being on message. In some ways, the fact that McCains people aren't on message, are all over the map, COULD be a strength. The candidate has deniability, and stories go out that his opponent is a Marxist, personally killed babies, was born in several countries at once, none of them 'Merica... It's taken a toll among a certain number of independents, but it MIGHT just coallesce a certain number of the scared.

[old lady]

Did they ever have a message beyond "I deserve your vote"

[Squigibo]

I noticed the same thing. Don't see any McCain peoples out. Went by a McCain office in Raleigh on a service call for work and it was dark inside. Like it was a vacant office. I thought it was odd being this close to an election, but was a ghost town. Then this report is published and is in line with what I've witnessed.

Side note... several people I've spoken with are die-hard republican, and I asked them if they have voted yet.... all of them (prolly five) said "Not going to vote this year, I don't like either candidate. So what's the point? Obama has it won."

These are die-hard republicans!!! Already saying they are not even going to try.

[joanVA]

Nice article. I haven't noticed too much in the way of McCain organizers around here in southwest Virginia. However, they have a strong campaign of putting up McCain signs. Also, thieves are stealing our Obama signs. We have replaced many of them but we have lost the sign battle. We won't stoop to stealing their signs. For more on what's happening here, click on my article:

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/joan-kark/obama-signs-and-confedera_b_137607.html

[blood1]

Those of you who are planning to vote on NOV 4th, seem to be missing the message here. If all the GOP electorate are planning on clogging up the VOTE on one day only, then the smart thing for those not supporting the GOP ticket is to vote BEFORE NOV 4th.

[jobecky20]

If you are still deciding who to vote for, watch this entire video from the Wassup guys.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ndzWVnD7-vQ

[ngcny]

Republicans do not like community organizing as we heard at their convention - so be it.

[citizenfirst]

I live in a predominately Republican area in NC, and can tell you that yes - "Republicans do not like community organizing" as this kind of organizing reminds most of them of all the "free-wheeling liberals" who are hell-bent on "destroying" the country. LOL! Nevermind, that most organizing in the south happens at church during services, church functions, and bible classes. In fact, most gatherings here in the south outside of church and family seem to be "suspect" enterprises whose main function is to undermine the "status quo", which is to be avoided and prevented at all costs. It is my guess that the local churches are using the pulpit to quietly reinforce political views, and also to "rein in" members who dare to think outside of the group. But from what I've seen here, Southerners are very smart, independent thinkers, who generally keep their opinions private, so you can never really tell. They could very well say one thing, but do another, as long as their ties to their religious groups are not threatened and no one finds out.

[kayatarms]

Kelly,

There is dispute with that link in my comment that may be pending. Don't post, I understand the person was perhaps screaming redistributor, but can't be sure. Everything else I stand by!

[Brian Ross - Huffpost Blogger]

McCain doesn't need volunteers. He has GOP operatives, as I found in Pennsylvania, being sent in from out of state by person(s) unknown to do their dirty work for them:

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/brian-ross/prominent-republicans-inv_b_138085.html

He also has campaign offices using paid temps to go out and campaign for him, since they can't find enough door knockers.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2008/10/27/mccain-hiring-field-organ_n_138159.html

I see the signs, and I hear the booing, jeering nimrods at the Palin rallies, but they appear to me like Kerry supporters: Nice to hear and see at the rallies but no one out there wholeheartedly in the community.

McCain goes to a town and draws 4,100. Obama goes to the same town and brings out well over 100,000. I could be wrong, but if even a fraction of those people vote that way in that proportion that is a very impressive thing.

[honestpolitician]

LISTEN ALL: Please Go Vote! There has been confirmed reports of voting fraud with the Republican Party and Obama is need of all the votes necessary to create a landslide. Let's make sure that our state turns blue! Voting is a right and a privilege. Let's all make history together!

A quote from Obama in his closing speach : "In one week, we can choose hope over fear, unity over division, the promise of change over the power of the status quo. In one week, we can come together as one nation, and one people, and once more choose our better history. That’s what’s at stake. That’s what we’re fighting for."

NEW POLITICAL AD ATTACKS(Videos) http://politicaladattacks.blogspot.com/

[Amazed42]

It is interesting, Here where I live in Washington State, in my town, there is 1 McCain sign, in the entire town, and several Obama Signs here and there, I guess i would have to say that McCain had not even thought of Washington as being important to his Campaign.

Obama/Biden 08/12

[NoMoFearNoMoHate]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9UFzkO5OhKY&eurl=http://my.barackobama.com/page/s/dayoffbg