The Sydney Morning Herald
Back to basics: How Obama aims to win a second term
Think insurgent, not incumbent for Barack Obama in 2012.
That is shaping up to be the early strategy for the Democratic U.S. president's re-election campaign.
"We ought not to act like an incumbent. We have to act like an insurgent campaign that wakes up every single day trying to get every single vote we can," Obama campaign manager Jim Messina said in a video posted on Monday on www.barackobama.com.
The president made the case himself last week when he said in a series of political fundraisers that the next presidential election may well be harder to win than in 2008.
"This is going to be just as hard, if not harder, than 2008," Obama said on Thursday. "Our work is not finished."
Messina warned against complacency when he outlined the campaign's re-election strategy. He said the 2008 campaign was "special" - Obama rode a youth-driven movement to become the first black U.S. president - but Obama's supporters needed to step up their game to win in 2012.
"If we just run that same campaign we stand a good chance of losing," he said. "We have to assume every single day that we need to build something new, better, faster, and sleeker."
Even as many indicators show an improving U.S. economy, Obama faces pessimism -- recent polls show a majority of Americans think the country is on the wrong track.
The president launched his re-election this month and faces a still-unformed Republican field with no clear front-runner.
"Republicans are going to be fired up to take on President Obama and so we all, and all of you out there. have to take the reins of this thing and really build it together," Messina said.
He referred to a U.S. Supreme Court decision last year that removed restrictions on corporate and union campaign spending, which Obama and Democrats have said opened the floodgates for special interest money in politics.
"What this has done is fundamentally change the way campaigns are funded," Messina said. "We have to compete with that."
Obama raised $750 million in 2008, helped significantly by small donations from grassroots supporters.
The 2012 election is expected to be the most expensive in U.S. history.
Last week Obama attended events in San Francisco and Los Angeles that were expected to bring in between $4 million and $5 million, according to a Democratic official who was not authorized to publicly discuss the party's fundraising. The price of individual admission ranged from $25 for parties for younger voters to $35,800 for exclusive dinners.
The president and his wife, Michelle, will travel to Chicago tomorrow to tape The Oprah Winfrey Show. Later in the day they will attend fundraisers in New York City.
Analysts say they expect the 2012 presidential election to cost $3 billion, about 50 percent more than the $2 billion the Federal Election Commission said was spent in 2008 by candidates, the political parties and outside groups.
Obama raised a record $745 million in 2007-08, and he was the first major-party nominee to reject public financing for the general election.
So far no clear Republican frontrunner has emerged. Mississippi Governor Haley Barbour said yesterday that he will not seek the White House in 2012. Former Governors Tim Pawlenty of Minnesota and Mitt Romney of Massachusetts have established presidential exploratory committees, taking the first official step toward bids for the White House.
Former House Speaker Newt Gingrich of Georgia on March 3 announced the establishment of a website to enable him to raise money and possibly run for president. Other prospective 2012 Republican candidates include former Arkansas Governor Mike Huckabee; former Alaska Governor Sarah Palin, the party's 2008 vice presidential nominee; Governor Mitch Daniels of Indiana, a former director of the Office of Management and Budget; and former Utah Governor Jon Huntsman, who is stepping down as U.S. ambassador to China this month.
with www.bloomberg.com
http://www.smh.com.au/world/back-to-basics-how-obama-aims-to-win-a-second-term-20110426-1dus5.html
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