Insight: Could Obama's "ground game" clinch the election?
(Reuters) - From the outside, it looked like an abandoned storefront in a run-down part of Cleveland. But inside, dozens of supporters of President Barack Obama gathered on a recent Sunday for an event that was part political rally, part religious revival.
"Gotta vote" signs hung from the ceiling and smoke from an outside grill wafted through the room. Hot dogs, buns, chips and sugar cookies were laid out on a table for the volunteers, most of whom were African-American.
"God is not going to allow this man to fail, because of people like you," radio host Yolanda Adams told the volunteers who had gathered to make calls and knock on doors, encouraging neighbors to register and then vote for Obama.
"You're making the world a better place by saying, 'Hey, have you registered?' " Adams said to shouts of, "That's right!" and, earlier in her remarks, "Amen!"
If Obama holds off his Republican rival Mitt Romney in the crucial state of Ohio and goes on to win a tight race, it could be thanks to roughly 120 such field offices across the state - and hundreds more nationwide.
They are home to an Obama "ground game" operation that is sophisticated in identifying potential supporters yet basic in relying on personal contact from neighbors to register potential voters and help get them to the polls.
Democrats say the breadth of Obama's organization is unprecedented in national politics - a claim that draws skepticism from Republicans, who have built a large get-out-the-vote operation of their own.
One thing is clear, however: Obama's organization - which his campaign says involves hundreds of thousands of people nationwide - reflects the power of incumbency.
Some of Obama's local offices never closed after the historic 2008 election that made him the nation's first black president. As a result, Obama is viewed even by some Republicans as having an advantage in on-the-ground organization, the trench-warfare part of a national campaign.
That is especially crucial now, with early voting under way and the campaigns blanketing key states such as Ohio, Florida and Virginia with television ads.
Obama needs such edge at a time when the economy, although showing signs of life, continues to struggle. His lackluster performance in his first debate with Romney on October 3, which gave the Republican a lift in the polls, has increased the urgency for results from the operation built by Obama campaign manager Jim Messina.
"We've got a stronger organization on the ground than we did in 2008," said White House adviser David Plouffe, Obama's campaign manager four years ago. "What Jim's built here is ... going to break new ground organizationally and technologically."
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