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Obama for America 2.0

Submitted by Patrick Ruffini on Sat, 01/17/2009 - 19:01
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Barack Obama today answered a lingering question on the shape of his political organization as President:

Defying expectations, Obama 2.0 (Organizing for America) will not be a 501(c)4 nor will it be a political committee independent of the DNC. It will be an operating unit of the DNC, and presumably running the show on South Capitol.

This is a wise decision on their part. A (c)4 would have limited direct involvement on behalf of 2010 candidates, and probably would not have provided a seamless transition to a re-elect. Crucially, Obama 2.0 gets to keep the BarackObama.com URI ($) and presumably the President's visage all over the place, thus capturing people motivated by Obama and not by the DNC (Dean discovered how hard this was...). As a political committee, Obama 2.0 will have broad leeway to say or do whatever it wants. This is not quite as aggressive as filing Obama 2012 with the FEC on Tuesday, but it's close.

There is a lesson here for the right. We tend to file (c)3's when we should be filing (c)4's, and (c)4's when we should be filing PACs. Usually, this is to get the benefit of unlimited contributions or tax deductibility, but when you've figured out how to massively fundraise $50 at a time, this is not as much of a dilemma.

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Stay for the accountancy

Submitted by NoMoreBlatherDotCom on Sat, 01/17/2009 - 19:32.

Can I suggest that a slightly toned-down, based-on-the-facts-as-they-become-known version of the comments here is the better way to react to this news?

Clinging to Hope

Submitted by stl on Sat, 01/17/2009 - 21:31.

Obviously the people who have Hope in their hearts are the Republicans.  We have a known mega $$ machine in permanant campaign mode.  We have the Left at the levels of power during a time of crisis.  We have a President who will be wrapping himself in Lincoln and Roosevelt.  We have welfare statism on steroids (and I'm not talking only about "refundable tax credits").  We have a robust and connected public employee union.

And we have 4 senate retirees in 2010.  The R's seem to be thinking that Obama will lead toward the center, that he's pragmatic, that the bluedogs will moderate what can get done.

My hope is that someone on our side is beyond putting a lot of post-it notes on the wall and brainstorming ideas.  Blogs and talk radio is not enough.  Those are for choir members.

And where, pray tell...

Submitted by davidfarrar on Sat, 01/17/2009 - 23:05.

...is the Republican Party's 13-million member strong "Saving America" committee, dedicated to getting our message out: Spending money we don't have will never be the solution to our economic crisis. We will end the war in Iraq when America's interests in that region are achieved. Drilling for oil is the quickest way to power the economy and protect our environment?

Clearly, the Republican Party must understand it cannot continue as it has before and still hope to be competitive in 2010. The party must start building its own online network at the local level, precinct by precinct. It must do so not by simply offering to listen to the voices of its membership, but by actually giving our membership a voice, allowing it to speak and to be accurately heard.

We have one big advantage over "Organizing America". We know they are going to try and fake it. We must offer the real thing. We must build an online party network that will be the actual voice of its members.

ex animo

davidfarrar

Technical vs. fundamental

Submitted by lgm on Sun, 01/18/2009 - 10:20.

Republicans have a fundamental problem: the number of Republican style conservatives is small and rapidly shrinking.  Clinging to Bush policies: "cut taxes to build deficits", "invade countries to build temporary political support", "flaut laws to seem macho", "deny global warming", etc. is a losing strategy and will only get worse.  Changing from 501(c)3 to 501(c)4 will not fix that.

This post, with all due respect, shows a certain detatchment from reality that drives this whole blog.  There is more rotten in the land of Republican than branding and tax filings.  You won't make America trust Republicans by changing the font in the ads or making a better logo. 

nice article...

Submitted by sponge21 on Sat, 11/14/2009 - 09:42.

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