Obama's grassroots presidential campaign never swayed in its focus, writes Denis Stauntonin Chicago
ON A scorching September afternoon last year, 15,000 Democrats gathered at a hot air balloon field in Iowa for Tom Harkin's Steak Fry, an annual fundraiser for the veteran Democratic senator. All the Democratic presidential candidates were there, lined up before bales of hay to make their pitch to voters in the state that would hold the first caucuses of the campaign in January.
Hillary Clinton appeared to be the prohibitive frontrunner, armed with huge financial backing and the most powerful brand name in Democratic politics. Just before the event began, however, a fleet of buses pulled up at the field and hundreds of young people trooped in wearing badges in support of the first-term senator from Illinois, Barack Obama.
"I believe that he can bring people together," Obama supporter Chris Causey told me when the speeches were over.
"I think he will take Iowa because, in spite of what the polls say, there's a lot of people who are willing to caucus for the first time. He's got the best volunteer staff."
Obama's appeal to young voters was based not only on the transformational character of his candidacy but on his consistent opposition to the Iraq war, which Clinton had authorised in a Senate vote.
Clinton aides at first dismissed the significance of the huge crowds that greeted Obama everywhere he went but these mass rallies were more than feel-good political events - they were organisational tools. Everyone who attended an Obama rally submitted their contact details, which helped his campaign build a huge database of potential voters, volunteers and donors.
Obama knew from the start that winning Iowa was the key to securing the Democratic nomination and he went about it by creating an unprecedented grassroots organisation of mostly young volunteers. While Clinton built up her campaign war chest on big donors giving the maximum $2,300 allowed for the primaries, Obama used the internet to gather hundreds of thousands of small donations, often of as little as $5 or $10 each.
The night before the Iowa caucuses, Clinton's campaign felt certain of victory but they watched in shock a day later as Obama's multitudes flooded caucus venues throughout the state. Winning Iowa did more than knock Clinton off her game, it persuaded African-Americans, most of whom had until then supported the former first lady, that Obama could win the nomination and they moved behind him en masse.
Clinton's comeback in New Hampshire the following week plunged many of Obama's supporters into despair but his highly disciplined team, led by campaign manager David Plouffe and chief strategist David Axelrod, held their nerve and stuck to their game plan.
By now, Clinton's campaign was broke and the candidate was using her own money to keep it going, while Obama was able to return to his small donors again and again.
While she focused on the big states voting on Super Tuesday in early February, Obama's volunteers worked all over the country to push up their numbers, especially in the states that held caucuses rather than primaries.
Obama received an important boost from endorsements by senior Democratic figures such as Ted Kennedy and John Kerry, whose support gave cover to others in the party to abandon the Clintons.
He emerged from Super Tuesday with a delegate lead he never lost, even after Clinton's multiple comebacks later in Pennsylvania, Ohio and elsewhere. While Clinton reinvented herself every few weeks and her campaign staff bickered among themselves and snarled at the media, Obama remained calm, refusing to go on the attack even when polls suggested he could lose.
When videos emerged of controversial sermons by his pastor Jeremiah Wright, Obama at first defended his spiritual counsellor while distancing himself from his more incendiary remarks. After Wright suggested that Obama was simply saying what he had to say, however, the Democrat swiftly and ruthlessly declared that their relationship was over.
The extended Democratic primary campaign, far from damaging Obama, allowed him to establish ground operations in every state in advance of the general election.
Republican nominee John McCain, never as popular within his own party as he was outside it, had no such resources and was forced to shore up his standing with his party's base even after securing the nomination.
McCain's choice of Alaska governor Sarah Palin initially gave the Republican a boost, putting him ahead of Obama for the first time after the party's convention in September. Clumsy performances in early interviews raised questions about Palin's readiness and by the end of the campaign she had become an electoral liability.
Obama had a huge financial advantage going into the election because, unlike McCain, he opted out of the public financing system and the $84 million limit it places on campaign spending. In all, the Democrat raised about $750 million, allowing him to open dozens of offices in the battleground states and to employ hundreds of paid staff to direct his army of volunteers.
In the final weeks of the campaign, Obama had more paid staff in Florida alone than McCain had in the rest of the country.
What may have secured the victory for Obama, however, was the financial crisis that followed the collapse of Lehman Brothers investment bank in late September. McCain appeared uncertain how to react to the crisis, declaring at first that the fundamentals of the American economy were strong before briefly suspending his campaign to return to Washington for negotiations on a bail-out of Wall Street.
Obama, by contrast, appeared calm throughout the crisis, projecting a cool authority in Washington and presenting a coherent economic message on the campaign trail. During the three presidential debates, Obama's calm demeanour contrasted sharply with McCain's nervous, fidgety performances and while the Republican changed his line of attack every few days, the Democrat held firm to his original message of change and renewal in Washington.
After eight years of unpopular Republican government under President George Bush, this was always likely to be a good year for the Democrats. Obama's fresh style, his unique appeal to young voters, to African-Americans and Hispanics and his innovative political organisation helped to deliver something more - a landslide victory and a mandate for radical change in Washington.