| And here we go. From a press release.
In a resounding vote today, MoveOn.org Political Action's members nationwide voted to endorse Senator Barack Obama for the Democratic nomination for President. The group, with 3.2 million members nation-wide and over 1.7 million members in Super Tuesday states, will immediately begin to mobilize on behalf of Senator Obama. The vote favored Senator Obama to Senator Clinton by 70.4% to 29.6%.
Senator Obama accepted the endorsement stating:
""In just a few years, the members of MoveOn have once again demonstrated that real change comes not from the top-down, but from the bottom-up. From their principled opposition to the Iraq war - a war I also opposed from the start - to their strong support for a number of progressive causes, MoveOn shows what Americans can achieve when we come together in a grassroots movement for change. I thank them for their support and look forward to working with their members in the weeks and months ahead."
Eli Pariser, MoveOn.org's Executive Director, issued the following statement on the group's endorsement:
"Our members' endorsement of Senator Obama is a clear call for a new America at this critical moment in history. Seven years of the disastrous policies of the Bush Administration have left the country desperate for change. We need a President who will bring to bear the strong leadership and vision required to end the war in Iraq, provide health care to every American, deal with our climate crisis, and restore America's standing in the world. The enormity of the challenges require someone who knows how to inspire millions to get involved to change the direction of our country, and someone who will be willing to change business as usual in Washington. Senator Barack Obama has proved he can and will be that President."
"With 3.2 million members nationwide and over 1.7 million members in states that vote next Tuesday, we'll be able to immediately jump into action in support of Senator Obama's candidacy. We've learned that the key to achieving change in Washington without compromising core values is having a galvanized electorate to back you up. And Barack Obama has our members 'fired up and ready to go' on that front.
It's not quite as skewed towards Obama as it was in the Dailykos poll, where Obama took 76% to Clinton's 11%, but it's pretty close.
UPDATE: I just spoke with Ilyse Hogue, communications director for Moveon, and she tells me that the group is going to mobilize volunteers for Obama in key states and use call for change technology. That's the stuff that lets their members do phone-banking with their browsers to targeted individuals, and often what Moveon will do with this is have Moveon members in non-key states call other Moveon members in key states for GOTV. We'll see what they do.
I have a few more thoughts on this, one meta and one just a small practical observation. Practically, this is a boost for Obama's campaign, but it is driven by Moveon's members. Moveon members have never been 'far left'; the group was started to censure Bill Clinton. These are mainstream liberal Democrats, and they are driving the leadership of the group to endorse Obama. Part of it is cultural and creative class driven, but part of it is Clinton's conservative actions in the Senate and failure to lead.
On a larger 'meta-politics' level, it's interesting that Moveon is using tools developed, in particular the call for change tool, in the last few years to generate political power and organizing help for Obama. There was not a lot that individuals could do prior to 2006 to help campaigns, since most politicking was organized around large media buys and direct mail. You could hold a sign, maybe, or go into a local office and make phone calls, many of which were wrong numbers. This has radically changed, as I wrote about for the Nation. Individuals at Moveon are going to be the ones who make this endorsement meaningful, since it's those people who are the ones who are going to do the work for Obama, or not. It's not like AFSCME, where Gerald McEntee can just get his people to work on behalf of Clinton. Obama needs to motivates Moveon's people to work directly, but the upside is that it's possible for each person to have a real and measurable impact.
UPDATE AGAIN: Interestingly, the numbers for Moveon-style Color of Change, if Edwards swings over completely to Obama as they did here, are more Dailykos-like than Moveon-like. |
