The Observer (Kampala)
Anne Mugisha
27 August 2008
opinion
Barack Obama's Campaign for Change as it has come to be known is busy planting 'Obama offices' in as many cities, towns and rural areas as there are supporters. I conducted a 'virtual tour' of the campaign to get an insight into what his campaigners were doing ahead of the election. In North Dakota, Obama Teams are being rolled out. Each team consists of a team leader who coordinates with every member of the team and is responsible for the overall goals of the team. A phone bank captain is responsible for recruiting, preparing, training, and managing phone banks.
A canvassing captain will be responsible for recruiting, preparing, training, and leading canvasses. A data captain is the IT manager in charge of entering data and ensuring that it is done in a timely fashion. Team members do the leg work of walking door to door and making thousands of phone calls to make sure people will come out to vote for Obama on polling day.
I am often reminded how out of touch I have become when I try to relate campaigns in the USA to those at home but I am a firm believer in the fact that people are essentially the same everywhere. We all want to be free to pursue our happiness with our elected officials facilitating to those common concerns that bind us together as a nation. So when it comes to political campaigning I find that the methods used to win votes vary only in the delivery modes because of advancements in technology. The goal of organizing however remains the same: To reach the electorate and persuade them to vote into office the candidates who you believe will best deliver on the promise of better public goods and services.
The Obama campaign has brought so many new voters into the process and with them the real chance for Democrats to win traditionally Republican seats on Capitol Hill. The campaign's ability to raise huge amounts of funds from small contributions of grassroots supporters has enabled Obama to keep powerful Washington lobbyists, who usually fund elections, at arm's length. A quote from one of his campaigners sums up the energy that is generated by this unique campaign and unique candidate, it was Obama's attitude that convinced him to volunteer, "He gives me hope, he makes me feel like I did in the sixties that I could make a difference, that what I think and what I feel is what a lot of other people think and feel, and that we can change things."
Anyone can have a role in this campaign. People are not sitting back waiting for some 'leader' to come to their town or village to campaign for change. The moment you get on the mailing list you receive tools to take the campaign deeper and deeper into your neighbourhood. Now while this is facilitated by the power of the World Wide Web, in as far as distributing materials and information is concerned, the real work of the campaign is still done the old fashioned way by trained foot soldiers walking door to door and spreading by word of mouth the message of change.
Volunteers deliver training to canvassing teams so that they know the gist of the campaign's message and are motivated to share it. As a non-voting participant, I am fired up to do whatever I can for this campaign. The thought of Obama's victory however enchanting, is not what motivates me to remain engrossed with this campaign. It is the energy that is derived from interaction with Obama supporters that make the possibility of 'change' so appealing and so real. I cannot help wondering how different things will be when we garner this level of enthusiasm for change in Uganda.
Meantime it is time to get packing and ready to head to Orlando. Word has it that Amama Mbabazi will be the government's representative in Orlando this weekend. A suave operator, currently in the heat of a land controversy involving NSSF funds, he's also a man who is quickly aging in line as he waits for the Movement queue to move along. When Mbabazi accused KB of jumping the proverbial queue in 2001 he probably anticipated that he would be at the head of the line or very close to it by 2011. Sadly he has since turned old and grey and the end of the line is nowhere in sight! It will be interesting to hear his strategies for overcoming the 'queue challenge' before retiring. If he answers that question, you'll be the first to know.
Anne Mugisha, The author is a Special Envoy, Office of the President, FDC. , www.fdcuganda.org
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