The following two screenshots (Obama’s to the right, Romney’s on the “flip”) are from a lookup I did of Romney and Obama grassroots events within 25 miles of Leesburg, Virginia. The disparity in the number events is truly glaring: 79 for Obama, only 1 (one!) for Romney. Personally, I think this says a great deal about priorities: 1) Obama on the grassroots and bottom-up engagement, even in Republican-leaning areas; Romney on coming up with new lies to tell people, attending fundraisers with millionaires and billionaires (where he talks disparagingly about “the 47%” and makes other bizarre, extreme comments), and trotting out economic plans that make no sense whatsoever (hey, that takes effort! LOL).
By the way, as much as Republicans like to mock “community organizing,” the fact is that following a community model has helped the Obama campaign put events right in people’s neighborhoods, in neighbors’ homes, in a way that’s accessible to supporters just about everywhere. In stark contrast, when you look at Team Romney’s events, you see a smattering at best, with many of them having their supporters standing around and listening, rather than acting to reach out to other voters.
Why does the Romney campaign have this top-down, arrogant, controlling attitude towards its supporters? Do they assume their supporters are idiots and/or incompetent? I don’t know, but it’s striking, especially when you see how much confidence and responsibility Team Obama puts in the hands of its supporters. I’d argue this is highly reflective of their attitudes and philosophies in general (e.g., building America from the middle out/bottom up rather than “trickling down”), and yet another illustration of why we should all be voting to reelect President Obama tomorrow.
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