Ira on GOTV

This American Life’s “Ground Game” (episode #367) is quality:

This American Life goes to Pennsylvania, a battleground within a battleground, to figure out why, and how, John McCain and Barack Obama both think they can win there. And we get to know the ordinary people who’ve become the candidates’ most forceful foot soldiers.

It’s a solid overview of grassroot campaigning/voter registration drive efforts and they find some real characters.

I listened to it in pieces while driving around Estherville, IA working on Obama’s GOTV effort.

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They mention some Yale professors who sound like laid the academic/intellectual framework for GOTV. I am gonna try and do some research on that. Seeing the Obama campaign on the ground has made me really curious about how grassroots campaigning like this has come about and evolved.

Also, in the next day or two, I am gonna try and upload Barack Obama talking on a conference call tonight to over 20,000 volunteers across the country.