Progressive think tank, NDN, holds discussion on “Unchartered Political Terrain” with Joe Trippi

The progressive think tank, NDN, held a discussion on the “Unchartered Political Terrain” in the 2008 Presidential Campaign. Speakers included Joe Trippi, former chief strategist for John Edward’s presidential campaign, and Amy Walter, editor in chief of the Hotline at National Journal.

Trippi gained notoriety for popularizing the internet as a political campaign tool while hired as the campaign manager for former Governor Howard Dean during the 2004 presidential election. At the discussion, Trippi told the audience that political campaigns are fundamentally shifting strategies of garnering funds and support from a traditional “top-down” approach to an increasingly popular “bottom-up” method. He said that the Dean campaign proved the effectiveness of online social networks and grassroots campaigning. He said the Clinton campaign is in trouble now in large part because it failed to adopt an Obama-style bottom-up campaign. According to Trippi, Obama has raised more campaign money than Clinton with only about three percent of his donors maxed out compared to ninety percent of Clinton’s donors maxed out.

Amy Walter built off of Trippi’s address saying that Obama had no choice on how to run his campaign. She said that Obama did not have the resources or connections to run a top-down campaign. She also noted that Clinton was in a position that made it much more difficult for her to run a bottom-up campaign since she already had already established important connections throughout her years in the White House and Senate. Walter said that Obama “stole” independent voters from the other candidates while depicting McCain as very unpopular with independents. However, she warned that Obama’s success with the bottom-up strategy in the primaries may not necessarily work to his advantage in the general election.