Mitchell Bard suggests that, issues and personality aside, another way to decide tomorrow is looking at how each of the candidates have run their campaign.
Running a presidential campaign is like running a business with just one product: yourself. It requires strategy, tactics, responding to changing events, logistics, communications, finances, personnel — indeed everything in the latter from hiring policies to choosing managers and advisers, both centrally and at the state level. In short, it can be an amazing example of a top-class executive job.
And Obama’s done it.
I’m trimming out the lengthy bits here where Bard knocks McCain (you can read the whole thing yourself; it’s much better organized than the below might indicate), to focus on the positives here for Obama. (Emphasis below is mine.)
I think a question every voter needs to ask himself/herself before voting is: Which candidate has run the kind of campaign operation I would like to see the federal government emulate? I think the answer to this query has a clear and simple answer: Barack Obama.
[…] The two leading figures in Obama’s campaign, David Axelrod and David Plouffe, have been with Obama since his 2004 run for the U.S. Senate. Obama and his team settled on a message and a plan that they have stayed on for two years. You’ve heard it so many times, you can probably recite it along with me: change (ending the financial and foreign policy strategies of the last eight years and adopting new ones that work better for all Americans), inclusion (no red states or blue states, only the United States), and hope (inspiring rather than tearing down).
Obama identified a goal, came up with an effective plan to attain that goal, and followed it. Not a bad thing for an administration to do, no?
[…] If Obama wins, the big story will be the historic act of America electing an African American president. And it should be. But what may be lost is the impressive feat that Obama pulled off, namely that as a first-time candidate for the White House, he was able to put together and oversee a vastly better operation than either of his two well-connected insider rivals, Hillary Clinton and McCain.
Starting from scratch, Obama and his campaign built a large, powerful, active, engaged and effective organization that worked harder and better than anyone else’s. It allowed him to dominate the Democratic caucuses and get out the vote for the Democratic primaries, and it looks like it will allow him to win in the general election in states in which nobody thought a Democrat could be successful.
After eight years of a government that is broken, it would be great to have an administration that works as well as the Obama campaign has.
And for those who say, “Well, he had so much money,” I have two replies: First, how do you think he got all that money? Sure, people had to be excited about the message, but without a well-organized campaign, Obama would not have been able to turn that enthusiasm into millions of small donations. Second, even with a money advantage, Obama’s campaign was leaner and meaner than McCain’s. Of the 10 highest-paid campaign employees, seven of the 10 work for McCain, including the three highest earners. At a time of economic crisis, the ability to work efficiently is essential, and Obama has proven he can do it.
[…] Regarding the vice presidential selections, Obama’s vetting process was so thorough, Tim Kaine joked on The Daily Show about how in-depth it was (including his “high school girlfriend’s middle name”). The result was the selection of Joe Biden, an experienced Senator with impeccable foreign policy credentials, the one area that was perceived to be a weakness for Obama.
[…] McCain’s conduct [in the economic crisis] was in stark contrast to the way Obama handled things. He took counsel from economic experts, stayed in touch with Congressional leaders, made his feelings known, and, most importantly, didn’t try and disrupt the legislative process by thrusting himself into the middle of it. And most of all, he remained calm, steady and collected.
[…] As you look back on the 2008 election, whose campaign would make you prouder to be an American? Obama certainly ran some tough ads challenging McCain’s policies and voting record, but McCain took the campaign into the gutter […] Obama never asked, “Who is John McCain?”, even though Obama really would have had more to say. […] Obama never struck back, allowing McCain to portray himself as he saw fit, unchallenged. […] Obama never raised anything from McCain’s past, even though I have no doubt that many undecided voters would be greatly affected if they read Dickinson’s article. In six months, you have never heard Obama utter the name “Keating,” and even when given a chance to say something bad about Palin during the third debate, he declined to do so (and McCain followed by eviscerating Biden).
At a time when the standing of the United States in the world has been battered by eight years of damaging conduct by the Bush administration, it is important for America to re-establish its international credibility. That is why looking at the way Obama and McCain conducted themselves during the McCain is so important. Obama offered an approach we can all be proud of, while McCain’s descent into the gutter is all too reminiscent of Bush’s behavior.
[…] Obama has rejected money from lobbyists and surrounded himself with advisers who have distinguished themselves in their fields (people like former Treasury Secretary Lawrence Summers and former National Security Advisor Tony Lake). You may not agree with the politics of Obama’s advisers, but they are unquestionably less tainted than the lobbyists with whom McCain surrounded himself.
[…] Obama took a 21st Century, post-partisan approach to the campaign, saying early on he would compete in traditional red states, a position that was roundly dismissed as wishful thinking by both the Clinton and McCain campaigns.
But Obama was proven correct. He is ahead in the polls in the Bush-won states of Virginia, Colorado, Nevada and Iowa; he is essentially tied in the formerly red states of North Carolina, Ohio, Missouri and Florida; and he is close in the formerly bright red states of Indiana, Montana, North Dakota, Georgia and Arizona.
[…] If you put aside the issues and personalities and judge Obama and McCain based on their campaigns, there is a clear choice as to what kind of America you want for the next four years. And if you’re looking for competence, organization, steadiness, vision, good judgment and behavior we can be proud of, the choice is obvious: Vote for Barack Obama.
Again, the full article is worth reading.