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Yesterday afternoon I participated in an Obama campaign conference call briefing for media. Campaign manager David Plouffe spoke at length about “where the campaign stands” and their “path to victory in November”. Understandably Missouri fits prominently into their electoral equation and strategy. Plouffe stated that the campaign will not be relying on just one electoral scenario. They believe that they are competitive in all of the comprehensive list of states he mentioned.
At the end of his remarks he took a number of questions. Jo Mannies of the St. Louis Post-Dispatch got in the last one:
Voice: We’ve got time for one more question.
Operator: Thank you. And now for our last question. Caller, your line is open. Please go ahead.
Reporter: Yes, Joe Mannies, St. Louis Post-Dispatch. Is there anything particular about Missouri that makes you feel optimistic about Missouri? As you know Bush carried Missouri in ’04 by, by about two hundred thousand votes. Gore lost it by about eighty thousand. Is there something particular about Missouri that is giving Obama confidence?
David Plouffe: Well Jo, we think first of all that if you look at voters in Missouri, very unhappy about the direction of the economy. Very unhappy about the direction in the way Washington works. And so we think sort of foundationaly people in Missouri are looking for change. And, if you, in the rural areas and the smaller town areas, real economic hardship. And so we think we have an opportunity to perform well with these voters. Secondly, we do think that in terms of turnout, we think we can really, in Missouri create an optimal turnout scenario. We were able to do that in the primary where we won narrowly, but it’s important in a state like Missouri that is so competitive to make sure that every single voter that is supportive of Senator Obama is registered and turns out. And so we’re obviously going to have to do a very good job of maximizing the Democratic base in Missouri. And we think we’re gonna do that. We have a terrific organization there. It’s one of our strongest organizations, on February 5th. Senator McCaskill is obviously helped to guide our strategy there and, and understands the state as well as anyone. So, you know, we think that it’s gonna be close. We think it’ll be a lot closer than it was in two thousand four. And we think it’s highly competitive. And so, you know, we’re sending some of our best field operatives to Missouri to try and build a terrific grassroots organization. And we spend quite a bit of time there, Senator Obama has in the last couple of months, and will continue to do so because we thinks it’s an area of opportunity. You know, we, we have real strength throughout the Midwest. I mentioned the upper Midwest, Iowa, Minnesota, and Wisconsin. Again. it’s early, but we start out with strength there. Indiana and Missouri. Both, we think, are prime opportunities and, and big states, eleven electoral votes in each. So we’re gonna mount, as campaign as we can in the State of Missouri…
to compare what is said in these media press conferences and then use the information to figure out how the media is doing in following campaigns. I REALLY like that you tried to reprint it word for word.
For a long time bloggers have read the traditional media in print or watched it on the air and analyzed its strengths (few) and weaknesses (many). Now bloggers are allowed to get a glimpse at some of the ‘backstage area’. On the national scene, the big name national bloggers have mostly only used this opportunity to report on the call in summary form becoming, in a way, a part of the traditional media and one more ‘spin outlet’.
I guess what I’m saying is – that statement by the Obama spokesman has a whole lot of ‘read between the lines’ stuff – it’s going to be interesting to see how the Missouri media reports on it. Word for word as spin? Reading between the lines? And if so, in a positive or negative way?