Another Clinton campaign miscalculation: "skip"about the caucuses

Joe Trippi; the former campaign strategist for John Edwards presidential campaign has an article on the Huffington Post discussing how the Clinton campaign's fatal strategy was to "rebooting demopcracy and "skipping" the caucus states. Currently Obama leads Clinton by 152 in pledged delegates (trails by 38 in superdelegates) and of that has generated a difference of 129 delegates from the caucus states.

The Clinton campaign's decision to "skip" the caucuses by not matching Obama's investment in local organizing, may be the biggest political strategy blunder since the ignore-the-swiftboat call.

Idaho. Maine. Texas. Nebraska. These are not obvious "Obama states" yet he grabbed big delegate leads in each of these caucuses.

Why? Because Obama's campaign embraced bottom-up campaigning. Because it pumped money into local organizers. Because it gave tools to precinct captains and volunteers.

While Obama also ran television advertising and leveraged endorsers, Clinton's campaign is marked by its top-down messaging and its use of local political machines. Obama perfected bottom-up organizing - and the caucus system rewarded him.

I'm torn when it comes to caucuses. On one hand I respect their political intimacy, the retail politicking, and the face-to-face discourse they require. And I've admired the Obama movement in its execution: armies of Obama'ites rolling up their sleeves, packing events, knocking on doors, calling neighbors. It's the image of democracy thriving.

On the other hand, caucuses are overtly undemocratic....

...The benefits of bottom-up inclusion, financial and organizational, are too great to sacrifice in favor of top-down control. And whether it is a caucus or primary, the bottom-up, caucus-style, army-driven political strategy is here to stay.

While our democracy is refreshed through bottom-up campaigning and all-star candidates with inspiring messages, we must find ways to sustain this increased participation, starting with a dialogue about the state of our voting system. When it comes to our primary calendar, we must make voting more accessible, whether its eliminating caucuses, moving them to to Saturdays (as Nevada and Wyoming did), or just adding absentee caucus ballots. And, in the general, we should consider instituting a national Election Day holiday, expanding mail-in ballots, and experimenting with Internet voting.

Our grassroots has been liberated through bottom-up campaigning. Now we need to upgrade our voting system to sustain this renewed enthusiasm in democracy.

Being one of those bottom up volunteers I can attest how little the Clinton's invested in the caucus here in Colorado. But then where did they go wrong in So. Carolina, Virginia, Wisconsin, Maryland, Mississippi, Georgia, Alabama, Missouri, Maine, Vermont, & Nebraska are not caucus states but Obama also won there too. And I venture to say that Vermont, Wisconsin, Nebraska & Maine are not Obama demographics either.