Perhaps worst case situation. In rural TN, AK, NC, GA there may have been an inverse Obama effect….many of these counties went up to 20% more Republican than Kerry experienced. And some of the voters were Democrats, and some are influential in their local party apparatus. In deep blue areas, the issues and approaches will be vastly different. There are already existing Democratic organizations in all 50 states, some strong, some not so great. How integrate? How get that famous discipline? How energize when an exciting election is not pending? Lots of thinking out needed.

OK, so the key is finding common ground, common issues those voters and progressive voters can mutually support. I am echoing Obama here, and I am sure he is aware that he will have to generate common support through consensus issues to launch, move and sustain his programs. And it must be bottom up or it will not work.

Keeping 50 to 150 top notch organizers on a payroll without some really good thought as to what they will do, and how the work differs enormously from getting Obama elected presents cart/horse problems.
I think, and fervently hope thought has been given to this, and I do not know that it has.

I agree with chadlupkes@70. These guys knew what their job was. They will have few problems moving on and up, and the farther and higher they go, the better off we all are. Keep your eye on them.

We need to bring these experienced party officials along now. We need their knowledge and contacts working with us. We can use their knowledge, and learn from the past without being bound to it.

This is exactly why Rahm Emanuel is much more helpful on the inside shooting arrows out, rather than on the outside shooting arrows in.

The fact is, we need more than 60 Senate seats to get 60 votes in the Senate.

If we want to get real control of our Government and keep it, we need to get over the old idea of states that count and those that don’t.

We also need to get over the idea that after the election, you can just fold your tent and go home. We need community organizers working all the time, not just parachuting in when we need something.

Wonder if Obama’s ok with this?

I think that he’s just fine with it, actually – he’ll certainly never mention it. I’m learning to live with disappointment.

http://wa-demchairs.org/blog/node/252

Please read the comments, including one from our state tech director. Many of the people who worked hard on this election want to move on and move up. I’m already getting emails from Obama delegates who want to run for City Council here in Seattle, and I’m sure that’s true all across the country.

We need to hold fast to our ideals of grassroots organizing, no matter what the DNC does and no matter what happens to the Barack Obama campaign. We can push for the national party to be smart and keep the organization running, but now that the election is over, we don’t know what the financial realities are of keeping it running.

The only thing that we can do is to keep organizing locally so we have groups ready to be plugged in to another national campaign in 2010. Remember, we have the power, and that power grows every time we attend a meeting, hold an event or contact one of our elected officials.

By the way, I’m going to be stepping down from my role as Chair of the Washington State Progressive Caucus so I can focus on the 46th Legislative District in North Seattle. I’m running for Chair of the 46th District Democrats.

The organizational abilities will be outside of the party’s control and able to get people moving for candidates who are outside of the party structure.
Yes. We. CAN!

That’s just my opinion. I’m usually happy when I’m wrong.

Same strategy — different results? Prolly not.

The other real benefit is to maintain a counterweight to the DLC, or what remains of them. There’s no need to “move to the right” or to “triangulate” or whatever f*ck all nonsense the DLC was blathering about. The Democratic Party can establish a legislative and policy agenda where its various parts want it to — not where corporate sponsors demand they go.

Obama’s campaign money came from small donors; Dean’s funding of the 50 state strategy came from small donations (mine among them). If Rahmbo thinks his is the only way, we need to remind him that just as quickly as we made money available, we can shut it off.