In Obama-Hillary Battle for Super Tuesday, Retail Politics Is the Key

By Steven Rosenfeld, AlterNet. Posted February 4, 2008.

All the ingredients are there for a historic outcome on Tuesday, not just for Hillary Clinton's or Barack Obama's presidential campaign, but for the Democratic Party.

The country's appetite for change is unassailable. States that used to watch from the sidelines are engaged. Voters have not been as active or energized in years. Both campaigns are spending record sums on ads and running get-out-the-vote operations not seen for decades in primaries or caucuses. That final ingredient -- the grass-roots organizing -- may make the biggest difference in 22 states that vote on Feb. 5, not just for the candidates but for the identity and fate of the party.

The Clinton and Obama campaigns are not just about the candidates, but about different strategies of governing, leadership and what kind of party the Democrats are and will be. And the biggest fault line appears to be whether a historic grass-roots effort by Obama can beat a professional top-down operation with its own grass-roots component, by Clinton.

In other words, the stakes are not just Obama versus Clinton, but the party's Old Guard versus its vanguard. As Tuesday nears, both are touting their grass-roots effort.

"We've put together a grass-roots campaign," Hillary Clinton told thousands of cheering supporters at the San Jose Convention Center at a Friday evening rally. "This weekend, be part of our bring-your-own-phone calling effort. We will call 1 million Californians this weekend."

"We are running the biggest field campaign in California since Robert Kennedy in '68," Erin Callahan, Obama's northern California spokeswoman, said late last week, noting the NorCal effort has 700 community groups, 250 volunteer teams and many others. The Southern California effort is even bigger. "When we started, people didn't think you could do that in California. We have proven you can."

"This is a really important historic moment," Sen. John Kerry, D-Mass., told hundreds of Obama volunteers and supporters at a packed early Saturday rally in San Francisco, speaking of the leadership choice faced by Democrats. "We're coming from behind in this race. The momentum is building. I just talked to Barack Obama in Idaho. They expected 3,500 people. They had over 14,000."

Like Clinton, Kerry urged his candidate's volunteers to bring out their voters.

"This is a really important and historic moment in the journey for all of us," he said, in closing remarks he would echo in rallies in San Jose and Sacramento. "You have so much more power than you think. You can resolve to bring 20 people to the polls ... It's not enough to say 'Yes, we can.' It is 'Yes, we can' if you do the work that is necessary."

The race tightens

The San Jose rally for Clinton was a telling barometer of just how close the contest for the Democratic nominee has become. Like January's Nevada caucuses, where she won a large segment of the Latino vote, that same voting block is seen as possibly swaying the California Democratic primary. On Saturday afternoon, the press reported that Clinton unveiled a new stump speech. But on Friday night in San Jose, she stuck with the old policy-and-prescription script for a known and reliable political ally, Latino voters.

Clinton was introduced by, among others, Dolores Huerta, a legendary figure in the farm workers movement, who, after leading "Si se puede" chants -- yes, we can -- compared Hillary Clinton to the even more beloved farm worker leader, Cesar Chavez. "Do you know Hillary Clinton and Cesar Chavez have something in common," she said. "They both started their careers going door to door registering voters in South Texas, and we know that Cesar did the same thing in East San Jose."

"Cesar Chavez fasted for 36 days," Huerta continued. "He cared about the environment. She cares about the environment. She voted no to put nuclear waste in Yucca Mountain. That is why Robert F. Kennedy, Jr., has endorsed Hillary Clinton ... Hillary Clinton sponsored and co-sponsored over 30 pieces of legislation for working people. She is the champion of working people."

Summing up, Huerta said, "Well, they say she can't bring people together, but she brought us together today."

The room cheered. It was filled with a middle-class and working audience, not college students. Perhaps half or more of the audience appeared to be Latino. Earlier speakers included other women who had been elected to Congress, who extolled how they and Clinton were breaking glass ceilings. When the candidate finally took the stage, Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa and Sen. Dianne Feinstein, D-Calif., stood with Clinton.

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Steven Rosenfeld is a senior fellow at Alternet.org and co-author of What Happened in Ohio: A Documentary Record of Theft and Fraud in the 2004 Election," with Bob Fitrakis and Harvey Wasserman (The New Press, 2006).

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