Politics
Where to Find Barack Obama This Fall
In this Oct. 10, 2014, file photo, President Barack Obama speaks at Frank G. Bonelli Regional Park in San Dimas, Calif. (AP Photo/Evan Vucci, File)
(Politico) – Democratic candidates and campaign operatives don’t want to talk about it, but President Barack Obama is quietly being deployed as a sleeper element of the get-out-the-vote effort that Democrats see as their last hope to stanch Election Day bleeding.
In targeted mailers and ads for radio, print and on YouTube and Facebook, the White House and Democrats are returning to methods Obama used two years ago to rev the base for his reelection — just with a whole lot less money and staff involved, and many fewer people eager to see him.
But operatives in the White House and on the Democratic National Committee are relying on the blocs where Obama still runs strong and micro-targeting using the celebrated campaign data lists to find the core voters they might be able to get going in the final two weeks.
The rock star rallies that put him in the White House in 2008 and again in 2012 are gone — the only two election rallies thus far came Sunday in blue states Maryland and Illinois — and so is the massive data and campaign operation that revolutionized voter outreach along the way. From the 250 people he had working in “the Cave” at headquarters alone, he’s down to fewer than a dozen people on staff total in his political office and another dozen on the digital team at the DNC.
