The big canvassing effort launched last weekend has not made much of a splash with the blue dog Democrats Obama needs to lobby in Congress, as of yet, McClatchy reports:
Obama supporters knocked on an estimated 1 million doors in all 50 states. Canvassers asked people to sign a two-point pledge saying that they support Obama’s “bold approach for renewing America’s economy,” and that they’ll ask family, friends and neighbors to back it.
Ed Morrissey puts into words the involuntary shivering douchechills we all got when we first heard about this:
But the mission here seems very, very strange, and not in line with traditional politicking at all. The creepy, ubiquitous Obama logo on their material gives the game away. They’re not supporting the economic policies, which by the way have yet to be fully explained. How can they encourage people to support Obama’s economic policies when even the Obama administration has trouble articulating them and providing details? And even if they could, the omnibus budget bill and Porkulus have already passed Congress and been signed into law. So why do they need a door-to-door campaign?
The policies don’t need the door-to-door campaign; Obama does. They’re pushing their Obama fetish, not grassroots policy change. And that’s very, very creepy.
Alas, it doesn’t seem to have made much of a difference:
•”News to me,” said Rep. Lloyd Doggett, D-Texas, a House Budget Committee member, of the canvassing. Later, his staff said that his office had heard from about 100 voters.
•”How many of these folks have read the budget?” wondered Rep. Stephen Lynch, D-Mass., a House Financial Services Committee member.
•”You live in Terre Haute, Indiana, or suburban Denver, and someone you don’t know knocks on the door and talks politics — the election is over,” said Peter Brown, the assistant director of the Quinnipiac University Polling Institute in Connecticut. “I’m not sure if it will make a big difference.”
•Rep. Melissa Bean, D-Ill., once a coalition member but now vice-chair of the New Democrat Coalition, said she wasn’t aware of the effort and has heard no response to it from her district.
Moderate Dems, however, need to brace themselves as more liberal groups add pressure:
The Campaign for America’s Future and other groups have scheduled a joint news conference for Tuesday to announce what they term a “new campaign to dog the Blue Dogs.”
In a statement, they said that “President Obama is back in campaign mode as he pushes for a budget proposal that has faced opposition from a group of Democratic senators led by Sen. Evan Bayh,” a moderate from Indiana.
In addition, Obama is expected to tout his budget on Tuesday night in a prime-time news conference.
Once again, I’ll be cleaning out my kitchen cupboards, so I’ll have to miss it, darn the luck. I’ll read all of the highlights from the Teleprompter’s speech online.
Nice Deb 
Gee … I hope those damned automatic sprinkler heads don’t go on at some inopportune time. That would really be a shame – it still being barely above freezing around here.
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