Database Mining: The New Ward Heeler

The Republican Party has led in database development for the last 20 years, mostly with the work of former direct mailer Richard Viguerie, with his Moral Majority and Reagan contacts. I remember reading about it in industry journals at the time.

What Obama's campaign has done is made this kind of database scientific. There is no contact that is not followed up on through any of the following means: text message, email, phone, facebook, or twitter. This has been the Democrat's strategic advantage since he entered the race. The way his campaign has stayed on top of technology throughout has been impressive.

When everything is said and done after this campaign, everyone will point out the massive GOTV effort by the Democrats will have provided the edge. But this edge, of people walking their states, would not have been possible without the social networking and database contacts.

I probably received, in the last 2 months, 8 entreaties to phone bank or canvass in battleground states near me EVERY DAY. I had to look to do this in 2004.

Standing in the Shadow of the Birthplace of Democracy

BOSTON - To take this picture, I stood at the spot where the Boston Massacre sparked a nascent movement for liberty, sovereignty, and freedom from colonial rule.

As I stood there, I imagined what it must have been like to be standing the exact same spot in 1776 with the rest of the assembled masses as the first reading of the Declaration of Independence in public. That was the technology of the day: public oratory and pamphleteering, the olden day version of YouTube and Blogging (sans the instantaneous global reach).

After Senator Obama's speach last Thursday night, I'd say oratory is still big in the ever-more United States of America. After walking the Freedom Trail, I felt a part of our revolutionary history.

To see more pictures from the Freedom Trail taken by The Wife and I, follow this thread to Flickr. My particular favorite is the Boston Massacre Monument, which is in the Boston Commons, the oldest Public Park in the USA.

For a Fenway Park story, go to http://sabermetrati.blogspot.com.