"Organizing for America" while Securing Support

Obama was on Jay Leno. He did an interview on 60 Minutes. Now Team Obama is carrying his message all across the 50 states. The GOP's response reiterates the latest talking point that Obama is too far to the left to succeed. But by going to the people, the Obama administration is getting his message directly where it counts. That seems to be not only a novel idea but quite smart. While Obama is telling everyone why they should say 'yes', the Republicans are telling everyone they should just say 'no'.

In a significant first, Organizing for America — Obama’s political operation housed in the DNC — is launching between 1,200 and 1,300 canvassas tomorrow in all 50 states to build support for Obama’s budget, an OFA official confirms.

The number of canvasses, which hasn’t been announced, is more than double what the Obama team expected, the official says. It’s the first time that OFA — a reconfigured version of Obama’s campaign apparatus and email list that’s being pressed into service to drive the White House agenda — will canvass in support of Obama’s legislative goals.

“The canvasses on Saturday, the pledge drive and the calls to Congress are all designed to put our elected officials in Washington on notice that Americans expect that the change President Obama campaigned for becomes reality.” OFA director Mitch Stewart said in a statement emailed to me.

Canvassers will go door-to-door in all 50 states to secure pledges from voters to back Obama’s budget, making this the first major test of whether Team Obama can mount a campaign-style ground operation that can effectively drive Obama’s legislative agenda.

Update: Brad Dayspring, a spokesman for GOP House minority whip Eric Cantor, emails over a response:

“When the DNC has to launch a massive campaign to convince their own moderate Democrats to support the President’s budget, it speaks volumes about how far outside the mainstream this agenda really is. We hope that Republicans and moderate Democrats can convince the Administration to return to the political center so that we can work together on bipartisan solutions to help small businesses and middle class families overcome the economic challenges they face.”