Would it have made the difference had Obama campaigned for Martin in GA?

Would it have motivated the Dem base in that state as much or more as Palin's trek may have for the repuke base?

The race doesn't even look close now, with 60% in, although Fulton county has just started reporting. It will tighten. The question is, if Chambliss wins, by whatever margin, had Obama had stormed the state with rallies, ads, etc, would it have changed the outcome?

As an aside, I find myself wondering what might have happened had Max Cleland challenged Chambliss for his old seat. Just wondering...


as I go to post this thread, MSNBC just projected Chambliss wins...

why is he trying to blame him now.

seem to be ignoring that. Inconvenient, I suppose.

:shrug:

Obama will be able to get enough moderate Republicans on board for anything serious he wishes to accomplish. Most of them know quite well if they take an obstructionist stance their jobs will be flushed down the same toilet as the colleagues who suffered forced retirements this season.

The fact is with the senate looking how things are now Chambliss just had a much easier message he had to deliver to win, stopping the opposition's unchecked power.

Besides that, even if we tried to make it a contest between the two individuals running instead of national significance, Georgia isn't exactly the best place to do it.

Posted by mphillip
November 12, 2008 7:02 PM
I live in Atlanta and campaigned heavily for Obama - and tried my best to do what I could for Martin.

Facts:

If I wanted to attend an event for Martin, I had to go to midtown or Buckhead. Martin, as far as I know, never actively campaigned on the southside or in South Fulton (Note: If you know Atlanta metro area, you know the distinction between midtown, certain parts of DeKalb County/Decatur - and South Fulton. The distinction is not necessarily a social class one, there are affluent/middle-class African Americans everywhere in the metro area. But as in most metro areas, there exists a racialized geography that is complex (it covers a great deal of internal diversity), but works really well as a kind of short-hand.

What I am saying is that the Martin campaign has made NO effort to reach out to "Obama voters" who are not white and/(or?) relatively affluent.

The NYTimes did an article about the race, and suggested to Martin that AA voters would be very important to his chances. Martin responded politely, saying that he was "honored" to have Black support, BUT he had support from all quarters. That may have been true, but I just wonder if he had given 1/2 the effort to ALL of the metro Atlanta area that he gave to midtown and Buckhead...

What position would he be in now??
Frankly, I think Martin decided to use the strategy the guy used in Mississippi - holding Obama at a distance, which was really unnecessary in Georgia (lots of transplants/middle-class/educated voters/voting as a social change tool is in the city's DNA/Black elite political class w/great moblization power). But that's the way he decided to do it. No presence, no signs -nothing on this side of Atlanta.

Nothing...

No visits to the consortium of hbcus...

Nothing.

And I'm paying attention. Other people don't have time to play "where's Jim?"

Many of Obama's supporters were first-time or sporadic voters. It was truly beautiful how disengaged/alienated people found a reason to take a chance on the "system." Those voters, however, needed to be paid specific attention to and given a reason to vote for Martin.

He didn't bother.

I voted for him, of course, and really encouraged others to do the same. As I move through the south side of Atlanta (and more broadly, South Fulton or South or West of Atlanta), you hear the rallying cry: "They don't think we will come out again. But we know it's not over."

So people will come out again. Will it be enough? I kind of doubt it.

But that is Jim Martin's fault. I work with people who know him well, and they tell me he's a great progressive kind-of-guy.

Great. Why is he keeping it a secret?

BTW: AND I can't think of anything more insulting than him showing up in a couple of churches the Sunday before the 1st Tuesday in December.

I don't go to church.

A report from on the ground, if anyone cares...

AND>>>>

Who won the MS Senate race???

Just asking...

Also: His ads left much to be desired, leaving accusations in the Chambliss ads unaswered. AND he gave no one a REASON to vote for him.

Just sayin'...

http://tpmelectioncentral.talkingpointsmemo.com/2008/11/gop_outworking_dems_in_georgia.php

#18, I think. This poster from TPM is expressing what I was saying immediately after the GE (though he/she says it better) in the Georgia forum, that if Martin wanted to win he needed to increase his presence in other parts of Georgia. (See the BLUE http://www.cnn.com/ELECTION/2008/results/individual/#mapSGA">HERE

The party, state, national, BOTH could have helped him.

I didn't find him very impressive at all. Now, I didn't get to feel him out much, but in terms of the charisma factor, I didn't sense "it" at all...in fact, it was nearly going into the negative for me. Now, that's at gut reaction, but that can be quite important, especially when one has to compel folks to come out and vote again. So, on the surface, Martin didn't appear to be a very strong Democrat to go up against an incumbent....but perhaps I am misreading him.

He just had no "presence" in any sense of the word, even to someone like me who had been paying attention.

Today I'm trying to sort out my thoughts on the state of the party in Georgia. Ga. is in the hold by a Bush-like situation, repug Gov, repug control of both houses of state legislature, 7 of 13 U.S. Reps are repug, and both Senators.

When Purdue was elected Gov in 2002, he was the first repug Gov since 1871. In 2006, Ga. elected its first Lt. Gov. EVER. He defeated Jim Martin.

Maybe it is the Diebold machines. Maybe it is that the Ga. Dem Party needs to look for new energy in its ranks.

It is time to start thinking about these things and working on them.

:think:

actually said the other day that Sarah Palin should get the credit if Chambliss wins...I shit you not.

When you look at the numbers that bears out.

Race has nothing to do with it.

This state is full of right-wing wackos of all kind (gun nuts, evans, and libs). They are scared of Democrats here, not black people.

Obama was lucky to get as close as 5 points in the GE.

Martin never had a chance in a runoff. His only chance was in the GE. For Obama to campaign for Martin would have been throwing good political capital after bad.

First off, he had more important things to do. Second, no way was Martin going to win so Obama would've come out a loser.

I can't believe Georgia kept that sack-of-shit Chambliss in office but I'm not surprised.

At Sarah Palin's hands no less *ugh* :puke:

It stole the seat for the rancid son of a bitch in the first place, and its the only thing keeping him there.

You could have had Obama, Santa Claus, or even the Lord Jesus Christ Himself campaigning for Martin, and it wouldn't have made a damn bit of difference.

Well, maybe Jesus might have been able to override the Diebold hackers. But since He hasn't made any campaign stops in about 2000 years, it wasn't likely. :(

Thus diminishing his high approval ratings, overall stature and victory aura.

:rant:

I really think it could have made a difference if more of the GREAT Dem leaders FROM Georgia had campaigned for the runoff. John Lewis and Jimmy Carter, for instance could have made a difference, and some of Ga's former Dem Governors. Hell, even some of our Dem state legislators.

There were no BIG Martin rallies for the runoff outside of Atlanta that I'm aware of. Al Gore and Bill Clinton both appeared in Atlanta. And I am thankful for that. There was ONE rally in Albany with Jim Martin and Jim Powell. Jim Powell was the Dem in the runoff for the Ga. Public Service Commission.

The repugs went to Augusta and to Savannah.

I was just checking my emails to see if I had missed any. There was only ONE email from the Ga Dem Party. One.

Yes, I feel like the party let us down here. It was a friggin runoff and GOTV is THE issue in a runoff. Where were the energizers?

So, yes, I feel like the PARTY let us down.

Thanks for letting me rant.

...communities support either.

I can see it in the map. And he got the "Rid-us-of-the-Saxby-Sleazeball" support. But there could have been so much more of it in this runoff with the right effort.

...glad Obama didn't support this guy. Obama is going to appeal to the minds of moderate conservatives; Martin wouldn't be a moderate conservative IMHO if he thought running away from the first viable black candidate for prez in a state with a notable black population.

Chambliss was going to win in a cake walk. Those who had criticized Obama for not going down were flat out wrong. He was smart to stay away from what would have been a more deflating lose had he been involved.

I know Martin picked up a lot of votes from Obama's surge, but I am wondering how "easy" it was to vote for Martin if you didn't really know him that well (only that he was a DEM).

Tweety was mentioning that there were "undervotes" in the GE ballot. I he saying some people voted for Obama, but just didn't mark in the Senate race at all?

If that's true, I'm really embarrassed if some of my people (blacks) screwed this up. It makes us seem petty and unaware of how important the partnership of a President and Congress is.

Did the Obama outreach people really stress the importance of voting for ALL democrats, not just Obama?

I doubt he was in much of a position to help Martin.

race was because of Bob Barr being on the ballot. If you think Bob Barr votes would have shifted to the democrat you might want to research his platform a little bit.

that most Georgians rejected would have turned around a landslide 60-40 loss.

he had something like 49.8%, what made the difference was no third party candidates. Obama made the right decision.

and campaigned for Obama - and the turnout among blacks probably would have been hire

and that would have been good win-or-lose

It could have been very effective with the AA community.

Although, it still wouldn't have made a difference with the outcome.

And, I actually live in Georgia.

We lost this election because of low turnout. Period.

Despite the margins, MANY more people voted for Martin in the general election than voted for Chambliss in the runoff.

An Obama appearance or two might have made all the difference . . .