Obama won by a landslide. It wasn’t even close, and his perfect campaign will forever be the model of future candidates aspiring to the White House. He leveraged technology to the hilt for raising funds from millions of small donors and keeping them in constant touch with the campaign. His ground game and “get out the vote” effort was massive, second to none. He took the fight to many states that Democrats once feared to tread in, ensuring many possible paths to 270 electoral votes. From Virginia to North Carolina, Indiana to Florida, he cracked Republican dominance almost everywhere and reaped the rewards.
Four years ago, in the despair following Kerry’s defeat, I wrote in my personal blog about what I thought Democrats were doing wrong, and what the prescription was for fixing it. For years later, what’s the result? Let’s take a look.
“1) Acknowledge that values and security are the two most important things to the public in post-9/11 America.”
This is still true, but incomplete given the reality of the times. Obama worked very hard to convince voters that he shared their values, and that he would keep them safe. Republicans tried to paint Obama as foreign, as “other,” as someone with values alien to “real Americans” (whatever that is.) They failed. Nobody who saw Obama’s sheer pride and joy in swooping up his daughters to kiss them, or who saw him weep upon receiving news of his grandmother dying one day before his election, or who heard him speak thunderously about the need for us to take individual responsibility for improving ourselves and our communities, could argue that this man was alien to the values that we hold dear. He convinced people that he was just like them.
On national security, he took a tough stance on terrorism and Iran, making clear that America would not be pushed over under an Obama administration.
What I did not include was the focus on the economy, which always benefits Democrats. In 2004, few people suspected the depths of the economy’s underlying problems because of the illusion of surging housing prices. We all reached the edge of a cliff and looked over to what laid below economically just prior to the election, and we realized the tenious nature of our economic quality of life. The economy helped Obama a great deal, and future Dems will never let voters forget that our economy is a fragile thing that must be carefully preserved through good stewardship and common sense oversight of financial institutions.
“2) Stop ceding the entire South to Republicans; a party relegated to the two coasts cannot win.”
Dead on. We cannot and must not ever cede the South again entirely to Republicans. On the contrary, we must build on last night’s victory in Virginia, North Carolina and Florida–and work on “up and coming” states that didn’t quite make it over the top–Georgia, Louisiana, Arkansas. In the reddest states like Alabama and Mississippi we can work on getting vote margins up and getting more Dems elected to local offices.
Democrats can win on values, as Obama proved. There is no need to fear speaking to Southern voters about family, about security, about responsibility, or even about guns.
In politics you’re either on offense or defense, and offense is unimaginably better.
“3) Come up with a simple, clear, easy-to-explain ideology that voters of all persuasions can agree are important.”
Easy. For Obama, one word: Change.
If you go for more than one word answers:
a) Ending our energy dependence.
b) Fixing our healthcare system.
c) Ending the war in Iraq.
d) Restoring the economy to health.
Simple, easy to understand and remember.
“4) Seize the banner of fiscal responsibility permanently, first suggested by Clinton’s balanced budgets, after years of horrendous deficits and potentially great impending economic harm under Republican leadership makes that party forever unable to re-claim their status as the party of fiscal prudence.”
I still think this is important, but I didn’t hear a lot about this from Obama (or McCain). The country has serious fiscal problems, from huge deficits to entitlement programs like Social Security that aren’t sustainable as they are in the long term. Baby Boomers will begin to retire en masse during Obama’s administration, and these problems are going to start to pinch–along with dealing with the huge economic bailout.
I still think this is an opportunity for future Democratic candidates to make further inroads. We must not cede the mantle of fiscal responsibility to Republicans, when everyone knows they wrecked any notion of fiscal prudence over the last eight years.
“5) Acknowledge charisma and empathy matter more than pure intellect, and nominate candidates that can connect with voters.”
In Obama we were blessed to have a candidate with the best of all worlds in this regard. He connects with voters, his charisma is undeniable, and his idealistic speeches can move grown men to tears. At the same time he is extremely intelligent and profoundly well-read. America couldn’t ask for a better combination.
I concluded my blog post for years ago by saying:
We can insist on pushing our candidates to stay on the far left, we can scream, we can throw tantrums, we can threaten to move to Canada, we can insist on intellect trumping emotion on the part of our candidates, and continue to lose election after election. Or we can acknowledge the reality that today’s America is relatively conservative, values-driven and security-obsessed, fight the Republicans on that turf, and win.
“This doesn’t mean that Dems have to become anti-gay, anti-abortion, anti-environment, or pro-war. I think Mark Warner, governor of conservative Virginia, is an excellent example: he’s centrist, pro-gay, pro-choice, and doesn’t bend on his principles…Why is he so popular? He focuses on economic issues, he uses straight talk to speak to people’s hearts about what’s important, and he acknowledges the importance of values even if he respectfully disagrees with some of the positions of his constituents. Barack Obama used the same strategy to win over rural farmers in his own state of Illinois.”
Heh, pretty prescient in retrospect. Anyone want to offer me a job as a Democratic strategist? 
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