Game on.
The Obama campaign is running a 50-state campaign. Today's NY Times takes a look at how the campaign is gearing up -- and staffing up -- for the challenge ahead. This has got to send shivers down the spines of Republicans. Nothing is safe for them this year:
Senator Barack Obama’s general election plan calls for broadening the electoral map by challenging Senator John McCain in typically Republican states — from North Carolina to Missouri to Montana — as Mr. Obama seeks to take advantage of voter turnout operations built in nearly 50 states in the long Democratic nomination battle, aides said.Since January, it always seemed like the Obama campaign was a couple steps ahead of the Clinton campaign -- and the media. They're going to run circles around McCain's crew. Obama will set the terms of the debate, not McCain. That means, of course, the GOP will have to go aggressively negative -- even more than usual. But, this time, the Democratic nominee will be ready. (And, it's really good to know that Dan Carroll is on board to do oppo research.)
On Monday, Mr. Obama will travel to North Carolina — a state that has not voted for a Democratic presidential candidate in 32 years — to start a two-week tour of speeches, town hall forums and other appearances intended to highlight differences with Mr. McCain on the economy. From there, he heads to Missouri, which last voted for a Democrat in 1996. His first campaign swing after securing the Democratic presidential nomination last week was to Virginia, which last voted Democratic in 1964.
With Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton now having formally bowed out of the race and thrown her backing to him, Mr. Obama wants to define the faltering economy as the paramount issue facing the country, a task probably made easier by ever-rising gasoline prices and the sharp rise in unemployment the government reported on Friday. Mr. McCain, by contrast, has been emphasizing national security more than any other issue and has made clear that he would like to fight the election primarily on that ground.
Mr. Obama has moved in recent days to transform his primary organization into a general election machine, hiring staff members, sending organizers into important states and preparing a television advertisement campaign to present his views and his biography to millions of Americans who followed the primaries from a distance.
Obama set the tone for the general election campaign on Tuesday night when gave his speech after securing the nomination in the very place where McCain will hold his convention. The message was clear: No place is safe for the GOP in 2008.
Game on.
