Obama Campaign Reached 17 Percent Of Ohio Voters By Text Or Email
Buried in the new ABC/Washington Post poll of Ohio is a fascinating number that sheds some light on what the Obama camp has accomplished with new media organizing.
The poll finds that an astonishing 17% of Ohio voters say they've received a text message or email from the Obama campaign.
Ohio has 8.2 million registered voters now. So that means the Obama campaign has reached around 1.4 million voters by text or email in Ohio alone.
What makes that even more impressive is that these voters aren't merely passive recipients of texts and emails -- some of them are organizing, too.
Tim Tagaris, the former Web director for Chris Dodd and Ned Lamont, knows about online organizing, and he says this is a very big deal, which means it is a very big deal.
You're not kidding! My 18 month old niece in Athens has seen the Obama logo so often that now whenever she sees something that looks like it (like, for example, the Pepsi logo), she squeals out with joy, "OBAMA!"
(Of course, it helps to live in a family where the euphemism for behaving badly is "acting like a republican.")
October 14, 2008 2:08 PM | Reply | Permalink
I think 17% of all my email has been from the Obama campaign . . .
October 14, 2008 2:08 PM | Reply | Permalink
Most savvy campaign ever!
October 14, 2008 2:09 PM | Reply | Permalink
An interesting story is in the NY Daily News today about CNN's Anderson Cooper and Michelle Obama.
Apparently Cooper's great-great grandfather was a plantation owner back in the day and Michelle Obama's great-great grandfather was his slave.
A few generations later, Cooper may be calling his great-great grandfather's former slave descent First Lady Obama. And they say God doesnt have a sense of humor!
http://www.nydailynews.com/gossip/2008/10/14/2008-10-14_michelle_obama_is_invited_to_visit_the_g.html
October 14, 2008 2:16 PM | Reply | Permalink
Weirdest. Campaign. Ever.
http://pufferfish.typepad.com/
October 14, 2008 2:18 PM | Reply | Permalink
Maybe Cooper will cover the Obama/Cheney family reunion.
October 14, 2008 2:29 PM | Reply | Permalink
It's unsurprising, given our history, but still really very weird. We're more bound by our history than we will ever want to admit.
October 14, 2008 3:33 PM | Reply | Permalink
Obama campaign. 21st century. Organized. Positive. Effective.
October 14, 2008 2:16 PM | Reply | Permalink
McSame campaign. Stuck in an infinite-reboot loop.
October 14, 2008 3:12 PM | Reply | Permalink
I get an e-mail every day--nay, every hour--from David Plouffe. I just hope when all is said and done, his devotion will continue to grow. Our love is boundless. Mine and my pen bard, David Plouffe's.
October 14, 2008 2:16 PM | Reply | Permalink
I'm in Ohio.
I think it's actually 71% of my e-mail is from the Obama campaign.
October 14, 2008 2:20 PM | Reply | Permalink
Sorry for the ignorant question, but did all those people agree to be contacted? Or did the Obama campaign get their number & email addresses through other means?
Just trying to decide if I should admire or hate them for this...
October 14, 2008 2:23 PM | Reply | Permalink
They are not spammers, people give them their email addresses when they sign up and request email (and/or text) updates . . .
October 14, 2008 2:51 PM | Reply | Permalink
I accidentally gave them two different email addresses I have so now I get the same thing twice (duh). My wife gave hers as well, so . . .
October 14, 2008 2:55 PM | Reply | Permalink
I'm in New Hampshire. I get email from DNC and related, from the Obama campaign itself in various forms, from Biden, Clinton, Richardson, MoveOn, Democracy for America, National Committee for an Effective Congress, NH Democrats, NH Governor Lynch, NH Congressional Rep Shea-Porter, NH Senate candidate Shaheen, and probably others I can't recall right at the moment or happen to see in the trash folder from the last three days. This has basically been going on non-stop since long before the first Primary (which by now makes this race seem awfully damn long).
Some of it is for the down-ticket races, of course. Even those, though, tie it back to the Presidential race, clearly seeing the value of Obama's coat tails, and strength of the the anti-Bush, anti-Republican firestorm.
October 14, 2008 2:48 PM | Reply | Permalink
Why isn't the Secret Service attending all McCain and Palin events to arrest these lunatics?
October 14, 2008 2:56 PM | Reply | Permalink
And it's not just new media that his campaign has mastered.
Imagine my surprise when I went to my mailbox and found a note on old-lady stationery, written in a lady-like hand by someone I never heard of in Charlottesville, Virginia. (I live in New York.)
She was writing to tell me that she hoped I would consider voting for Mr. Obama!
Amazing.
October 14, 2008 6:12 PM | Reply | Permalink