Recently, I wrote here about how a search of the candidates’ own websites shows that supporters of Barack Obama have many more events literally all over the country, even in presumed GOP strongholds, than John McCain.
The Obama campaign has built a machine that is crushing what passes for the McCain/Palin effort. The latest evidence is the Big Ten Battleground Poll, which covers the states of Wisconsin, Minnesota, Illinois, Iowa, Michigan, Indiana, Ohio, and Pennsylvania.
It shows Obama going from dominance only in his home state of Illinois to double-digit leads in all the Big Ten states, including Indiana, in one month.
Even worse news for the McCain/Palin camp is that Obama's organizing efforts are blanketing the Internet with multiple prods each day to work, register and vote for Obama. Phone banks are springing up like mushrooms, sort of a dial-your-own infestation of cell-phoners that come together in living rooms and the next day move to someone else’s kitchen.
Importantly, the Obamans aren't dialing for dollars. The calls are aimed at previously identified Obama supporters. It is this facet of the Obama juggernaut that is determinant; the huge leads identified in the Big Ten Battleground Poll can be turned out at the polls.
In the end, the size of McCain/Palin's support may be irrelevant; they don't have the boots on the ground to turn it out.
Voters like winners. And they will quickly abandon losers. For Obama, this means more volunteers, more money and more fun. It's the smell of a political winner.
For the McCain/Palin ticket, it means cancelled checks, cutbacks in appearances and campaigning, and the smell of yesterday’s news.
Phil Ball, Viet Nam veteran and 1970s Madison mayoral assistant to Paul Soglin, served on Gene McCarthy's national staff in the 1968 presidential race.
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