==Today, thanks to The Times' Robin Abcarian and a source of hers within the Barack Obama Iowa campaign, we get a detailed inside look at how they organize, communicate with, motivate, inform and, most importantly, listen to their network of nearly 2,000 precinct captains across the state.
...The key is regular phone calls with headquarters. The captains get maybe two days' notice to call a certain number at a certain time. Meanwhile, they're encouraged to e-mail questions they are hearing on the street and would like answers to. Even if only a few hundred of them do this, those missives give the tacticians back in Chicago an on-the-ground feel for the steadily shifting sands of a campaign. And how tired or enthused their own workers are.
...At the appointed time for the Obama phone meeting, most of the captains call, punch in a code that's different every time, and are connected to a giant conference call. All the callers' lines are muted, but an organizer in Chicago introduces herself and thanks everyone for their hard work. She gives a brief general update on the campaign, encouraging poll numbers and the candidate's activities for a few days; reiterates the campaign's message of the week and the importance of personal front-door contact with voters; and then turns the phone over to "a guest."
Suddenly, Obama himself is on the line, thanking all the grassroots workers profusely for their hard work. He sounds enthusiastic, appreciative and genuine, and even though no one can actually talk to him, he instills a sense of conversation, of intimate contact with the guy they're all working for night and day. For new political workers, this can be a spine-tingling moment. Obama gives a general but always upbeat report on what he's seeing on the trail and then answers two or three of the e-mailed questions.
On one recent call, a question concerned how to handle what seem to be increasingly negative attacks from other campaigns. Obama said these were to be expected since recent polls showed their efforts pulling into the lead. He told the workers not to be defensive or abrasive, to answer with facts and to stay focused on the reality that they were changing the nation and the world. He cautioned them against "faking it" if they don't know the answers and urged them to check with their assigned field organizers and get back to the individual voter...==
http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/washington/2007/12/insideobamacamp.html
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