Was Dem GOTV in Ohio as bad as this film implies?

[papau]

The Usual GOP message via a documentary that used 15 camera crews across Ohio to chronicle the final days of the house-to-house struggle between Republican and Democratic political organizers in OHIO with the NY Times saying it shows Bush's consistent message vs. Kerry no message, Kerry not attacking and restraining Democrats from attacking Bush at Dem convention vs. Bush attacking Kerry at GOP convention - all coming from a director whose Dad was a prominent Democratic donor. It will be interesting to watch it in person to see how biased this write-up is. :-)

http://www.nytimes.com/2005/11/10/movies/10ohio.html


Is There a Hit Film in the Battle for Ohio?

Marissa Roth for The New York Times

To the lengthening list of political films vying for the attention of a polarized public, James D. Stern - a serious Hollywood financier and Broadway producer who dabbles at directing his own movies - hopes to add one that looks squarely at the 2004 presidential campaign between President Bush and Senator John Kerry.<snip>

While it lacks the partisanship and personality of Michael Moore's "Fahrenheit 9/11," the as-yet-untitled picture relies on a dispassionate, journalistic delivery - Mr. Stern's liberal leanings notwithstanding - to provide concise, pointed and even funny answers to anyone still wondering how Mr. Bush managed to defeat Mr. Kerry.

<snip>The resulting film, which the co-directors are still polishing in hopes of getting it accepted by the Sundance Film Festival, shows Republican campaigners functioning like a well-oiled machine and Democrats looking incapable of ordering lunch, let alone organizing a major get-out-the-vote operation. These scenes, interspersed with interviews with top strategists for both the Bush and the Kerry campaigns - with the glaring exceptions of Karl Rove and Bob Shrum - by and large leave the impression that the Bush campaign was run by major-league professionals and the Kerry campaign by bush-league amateurs.

One sequence is particularly memorable: After Tad Devine, a top Kerry consultant, is quoted earnestly explaining the Democrats' strategic decision to appeal to swing voters, or "persuadables," an unshaven young Democratic operative is shown knocking on doors of these supposed persuadables in Ohio. When a young man eating his breakfast says he is leaning to the Republican side, the hapless organizer meekly asks, "Can I persuade you otherwise?" but has nothing more to add as the door shuts in his face.<snip>

[WI_DEM]

1. I don't know about that afterall Kerry got 553,762 more votes than

Gore did in 2000, the problem is that Bush got 507,522 more votes than he did in 2000. So I think that Kerry did well in the gotv and Bush had with his friends Diebold.

[KoKo]

2. I didn't work with GOTV...but with my local Democratic Party

and when I was trained, we were told NOT to get into the War in Iraq. Not to bring it up and not to engage in a discussion, but to refocus the conversation to jobs and healthcare. It made it awkward because we were told to only talk to the "Democrat of the House" or to call and speak only to the Democrat of the house and there were times when folks really wanted to talk about Iraq, so it was hard to change the subject and ask people if they were worrried about their job or their healthcare.

If you only wanted the GOTV point of view, then this isn't helpful, but I did go to meetings with some of the GOTV folks and assumed their job was focused more on Registering New Voters and not what we working for the Dem Party were trying to do in focusing on MESSAGE.

We saw a five minute film of Kerry which was a pep talk and most of us who were over 40 found it kind of lacking in substance. We had some 20 something trainers who were trying to give us talking points...but the talking points were pretty limited. I didn't see any "scruffy" people, but then I didn't hear anyone telling us how we should dress or be groomed in going "door to door" either. I guess we figured none of us would be going around with a "BUSH SUCKS!" T-Shirt on or something like that...but one never knows what folks will think appropriate given that it's a big country. :shrug:

On Edit: I'm not from Ohio so I guess I shouldn't have replied...sorry.

[papau]

3. Thanks for the reply - anyone familiar with our GOTV effort has info

we all need!

:-)

[David Van Os]

4. I'm not surprised.

[AndrewCMc78]

5. I was on the front lines there

We could've done better. Personally my time was spent with the College Dems ferry college students to and from the polls around here. But before that we registered about 90 people on a miniscule campus (around 1600) if I remember right we took about 50 or 60 people to the polls.

But before GOTV I worked with ACT and a State Senate campaign. With ACT I had Muskingum and Licking counties and to be very honest with you all, I'm surprised we did as well as we did in those counties, it was pretty rough going esspecially when about every 5th or so house you came across you risked getting in a fist fight with either an old man or someone who just didn't care and didn't want to be bothered.

I'm glad I did what we did but I never did like these videos that were dispised by people who just wanted to go back to dinner and were still on the fence.