How Obama Is Shaking Up Campaign
MSNBC Sun, 08 Jul 2007 6:23 AM PDT
How Barack Obama is shaking up old assumptions about what it means to be black and white in America.

To the candidate, the debate says more about America’s state of mind than it does about him. "I think America is still caught in a little bit of a time warp: the narrative of black politics is still shaped by the ’60s and black power," he tells NEWSWEEK. "That is not, I think, how most black voters are thinking. I don’t think that’s how most white voters are thinking. I think that people are thinking about how to find a job, how to fill up the gas tank, how to send their kids to college. I find that when I talk about those issues, both blacks and whites respond well."

He may be right. One eye-catching measure of Obama’s broad support is his extraordinary fund-raising. More than 150,000 donors gave $31 million for his primary campaign in the second quarter, roughly $10 million ahead of Hillary Clinton and far ahead of anyone else in either party.

Race for ‘08: Obama banks on charisma, ability to motivate
The Sacramento Bee Sun, 08 Jul 2007 0:18 AM PDT
DES MOINES, Iowa — Running first in fundraising and second nationally among Democratic presidential contenders, Barack Obama is asking voters to take a leap of faith and embrace the promise of his charismatic leadership to change America.

Running first in fundraising and second nationally among Democratic presidential contenders, Barack Obama is asking voters to take a leap of faith and embrace the promise of his charismatic leadership to change America.

He’s betting that voters will rally behind his motivational style and personal appeal despite his relatively thin national credentials, that they’ll choose him as a clean slate for the future rather than restore a Clinton political dynasty, and that they’ll embrace his idealistic if vague vision of a unified, post-racial America.

"There is this narrow window that doesn’t come around that often — maybe once a generation — where we have the opportunity to put our shoulder into the wheel and move history in a better direction," Obama told about 1,000 people Tuesday evening.

They were gathered around a gazebo in the old-fashioned town square in Fairfield, Iowa, where residents are known for their interests in meditation and environmental consciousness.

"That’s the moment we’re in," Obama exhorted, his voice building steam. "But we’ve got to seize it.

"If we seize it together," he said, allowing the last word to linger, "we are going to transform the United States of America. It’s a matter of who can ignite the American people to build a movement for change."

That’s the soul of Obama’s message. Many Democrats find it electrifying.

Obama’s views not always what some expect
USA Today - USA
By Jill Lawrence, USA TODAY WASHINGTON — Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama is making a habit of telling people things they don’t necessarily …

Thomas Mann, a government scholar at the Brookings Institution, says Obama makes his points "in a very calm, measured way" that reinforces his broader message that "the time has come to try to bridge some differences and deal with real problems confronting people."

Mann also says Obama balances his edgier ideas with words his audiences can embrace: In Detroit, an offer to help automakers with retiree health costs. In Philadelphia, a promise on merit pay that "I’m not going to do it to you, I’m going to do it with you." In Spartanburg, acknowledgment that the government needs to do more to help black men get education and jobs.

Obama’s Viral Marketing Campaign
TIME - USA
Barack Obama speaks during his Minnesota campaign kickoff at the International Market Square in Minneapolis, MN. on June 29, 2007. …

As eye-popping as Barack Obama’s second-quarter fund-raising total was–it raked in $31 million for his campaign for the 2008 Democratic nomination, beating even the much vaunted Clinton money machine by better than $10 million in funds for the primary race–what really has the political classes chattering is another figure Obama reported: 258,000. That’s the number of people his campaign says have already donated to him, and it amounts to more than a doubling of his fund-raising base in the past three months. "He’s got a much more viral campaign than we do," says an envious Hillary Clinton strategist, using a term for word-of-mouth advertising and marketing techniques. "He’s got a real buzz about him."

Obama’s Tightrope
Washington Post - United States
Up seemed down and everything was out of sync as the front-runners for the Democratic nomination, Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama, spoke. …

There is no better example than Clinton’s comment about the disproportionate effect HIV has on black communities. She said that if "HIV-AIDS were the leading cause of death of white women between the ages of 25 and 34, there would be an outraged outcry in this country." For Obama to have said the same words in the same fiery manner could have been political suicide. By forfeit, Clinton essentially becomes the black candidate; it’s not a space America would allow Obama to fill.

Not long after Obama announced his candidacy, the buzz in the media was, "Is Obama black enough?" Many black Americans privately laughed at this question. We know that it takes only a slip of the tongue about slavery’s legacy or reparations, a hiccup about institutional racism or paying special attention to the needs of black Americans, and suddenly the love would be gone. We know that the question has less to do with black America than with whether white America trusts that Obama is not too black for its political taste.

We laugh at the question of Obama’s blackness because we live with a version of Obama’s tightrope dance every day. We do the same dance in our workplaces, with our supervisors, our neighbors and our college classmates. In that way we know Obama couldn’t be more like us, he couldn’t be more black. We along with Obama know that even the most skilled tightrope performance may not be enough to ensure that you land on your feet.

Obama ‘electrifies’ crowd with his message, mingling
Huntsville Times - Huntsville,AL,USA
… an experience with Democratic presidential hopeful Barack Obama as most of the supporters who paid $1000 for beef tenderloin and roasted vegetables. …

Shortly before Obama walked past, Garner wrote a sign and taped it to an empty chair at their wrought-iron table: "Reserved for our future President Obama."

"I like what he has to say," Garner said, her hands shaking with nervousness as she wrote out the sign, "but I’m still in the thinking phase."

The presidential contender saw the sign, grinned and took a seat.

"Oh, I’ve got to sit here," he said.

Obama posed for pictures with those eating lunch on the patio, and he shook their hands and gave a fourth-grader a fist knock. He commented on what a pleasant place it looked to have a nice lunch.

His ease and charisma won over Garner and Jordan.

"I don’t need to think about it anymore," Garner said. "I’d vote for him. He was fantastic."

NH’s Stonyfield Farm CEO endorses Obama
Boston Globe - United States
… who also is among the most important Democratic activists in New Hampshire, yesterday endorsed Barack Obama for the Democratic presidential nomination. …

Gary Hirshberg, chief executive of Stonyfield Farm in Londonderry, said Obama was the one candidate who could appeal to both Democrats and Republicans alike.

"This guy can heal a divided nation," Hirshberg said on a conference call with reporters. Stonyfield is an organic dairy specializing in yogurt and known for environmental activism.

The endorsement came a week after Hirshberg held a house party for Obama at his Concord home. He said that his choice came down to Obama and John Edwards.

He said that he had a long conversation with Elizabeth Edwards yesterday.

"This is not to be interpreted as a negative on John Edwards," Hirshberg said, but he added that what "moved my needle" in recent days was finishing Obama’s book "The Auducity of Hope," watching Obama interact over dinner with the soccer team Hirshberg coaches, and hearing Republicans say they are interested in Obama.

Obama’s book club opens soon
Portsmouth Herald News - Portsmouth,NH,USA
By Sarah Hines "Am I surprised with Barack Obama’s success? Not at all," said Michael Kruglik, who served as community organizer alongside Obama on …

"Am I surprised with Barack Obama’s success? Not at all," said Michael Kruglik, who served as community organizer alongside Obama on Chicago’s South Side in the late 1980s. "He has the same qualities of character and leadership as a presidential candidate that were already present in him before he exploded onto the national scene."

Kruglik discussed Obama and his beginnings at a Friday news conference at SecondRun Books in Portsmouth, where Obama’s N.H. campaign formally launched "From Doubt to Hope," a series of book clubs in different New Hampshire towns, lasting throughout the summer. The program will allow undecided voters to get acquainted with Obama’s past by reading and discussing his book, "Dreams From my Father."

Each book club will run five two-week sessions, with a meeting each week. Obama supporters will run book clubs in 12 towns across the state: Manchester, Nashua, Portsmouth, Derry, Lebanon, Exeter, Keene, Concord, Laconia, Dover, Peterborough and Conway.

"Reading his book is as close as you can get to knowing him," said Kruglik. "It’s very honest and revealing."

Fellow Obama supporter and the book club host in Dover, Christine Davidson, said, "This book will allow more people to know and understand Obama and his origins."

The Internet
U.S. News & World Report - Washington,DC,USA
By Kenneth T. Walsh As Barack Obama made clear last week, candidates have discovered ways to raise millions of dollars in contributions from the Internet. …

Last week, Nielsen Media Research released figures on traffic to candidate websites that put Obama at the top, with close to 650,000 visitors in April. Hillary Clinton’s website came in second with around 500,000. McCain’s site was the highest trafficked among Republican candidates, with 212,000. Seen another way, Obama has more than twice the number of page views as Clinton—nearly 3.8 million for Obama compared with 1.6 million for Clinton in April. This suggests more return visitors and a more devoted online readership. John Edwards actually had more page views—1.7 million—than Clinton did.

Obama catches fire with netroots
Pittsburgh Tribune-Review - Pittsburgh,PA,USA
By Salena Zito In a word, Barack Obama’s second-quarter fundraising numbers are shattering. There never has been anything like it. …

In a word, Barack Obama’s second-quarter fundraising numbers are shattering. There never has been anything like it. For a guy who was in the Illinois Senate three years ago not only to be in the top tier of his party’s fundraising but to have raised the most of any candidate in a quarter is mind-boggling.

One thing Obama’s success does speak to is the maturation of the "netroots": If you have an incredible story and a compelling case to be made, you can catch fire among the political activists in the blogosphere. It’s not always about a thick Rolodex and an institutional operation. A fantastic chapter in politics has not been written about the netroots movement — and that is, how does a candidate cross the threshold of being presidential while maintaining the cause that enabled him to catch fire?

…

But Obama clearly has caught fire with the netroots. And that success should beget success in everything.

The netroots are looking to be inspired. Right now, they think Obama’s a winner. It’s a case of audacity versus inevitability and excitement versus establishment.

Obama’s team works to get out his back story
Baltimore Sun - United States
By John McCormick OSKALOOSA, Iowa // The crowd of several hundred was still getting settled in at the Smokey Row coffee house when the Barack Obama trivia …

But for the majority of the hundreds of Iowans assembled in the coffee house, the answers to the candidate biography questions were anything but obvious.

Even after national magazine cover stories, hundreds of television and newspaper interviews and two best-selling books, most of those who will cast the first votes of the nominating process next January know very little about the senator.

"People are not connected into this process," the candidate’s wife, Michelle Obama, said later. "The average person is not paying attention yet to this race."

The lack of knowledge about Obama’s background is one reason his campaign recently started running biography ads in Iowa. The ads, running statewide on television and radio, feature details about his life and career.

Obama has demonstrated his experience, judgment
In-Forum (subscription) - Fargo,ND,USA
By Dan Hannaher, I applaud The Forum for its recognition of the movement forming around the presidential candidacy of Barack Obama (editorial, July 5). …

Michelle Obama Sees Election as Test for America
NPR - USA
by Michele Norris Michelle Obama, wife of Democratic presidential hopeful Barack Obama, introduces her husband at a fundraiser in March 2007. …

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