Political Strategy

It is the biggest and broadest American political force ever created -- a vast, electronically linked network of activists, neighborhood organizers and volunteers who raised record amounts of money and propelled Barack Obama to the White House. Now, as Obama turns from campaigning to governing, his advisors are struggling to harness this potent web of supporters to help him move his agenda over the next four years. But it is no simple task to convert an insurgency into a standing army.

Heading into the home stretch of the presidential campaign, John McCain has been sharpening his closing argument against his Democratic opponent, saying that Barack Obama's tax policies would produce a redistribution of wealth that borders on socialism.

One day after John McCain's running mate escalated the vitriol of the presidential campaign by invoking a 1960s radical, Barack Obama accused Republicans of trying to distract voters from the sagging economy with "smears" Speaking to thousands of voters Sunday afternoon at Asheville High School, the Democratic nominee argued that McCain shares President Bush's economic philosophy. "Sen.

Entering the final stage of the race, the two presidential campaigns are plotting strategies that rely on vastly different readings of the electoral map, with Democrat Barack Obama competing hard in a large number of traditionally Republican states and John McCain, the GOP nominee, focusing on a small set of familiar battlegrounds. A wild card in their calculations is McCain's surprise vice presidential choice, Sarah Palin. Strategists in both parties say it is too early to assess whether the Alaska governor's conservative profile, which has energized core Republican voters, will put new states in play for the GOP ticket.

Speaker after speaker at this week's Republican National Convention defended small towns from the perceived slights of urban elites. They talked of working people, and ridiculed those with the time to become "community organizers." They railed against the media, Hollywood and the Washington cocktail circuit. Cultural affinities, which President Bush played on heavily to paint 2004 Democratic nominee John F. Kerry as elite and out of touch, are now central to the campaign strategy of GOP presidential nominee John McCain.

Through a mix of marketing and campaign discipline, Barack Obama turned the selection of his running mate into a genuine drama. For weeks, the Obama campaign kept silent about virtually every aspect of the process, with the candidate coyly telling reporters the other day that he had made up his mind -- and "wouldn't you like to know" exactly when he would tell the world? Top campaign strategists and surrogates for Obama professed to know nothing about his intentions, the better to keep the mystery alive.

Eager to take down Hillary Rodham Clinton's toughest opponent for the Democratic presidential nomination, a top aide came up with a novel -- and hard-edged -- strategy. In a March 2007 memo to the candidate, Mark Penn, a longtime pollster and strategist for the Clintons, urged the New York senator's campaign to paint Barack Obama as "fundamentally" foreign. Clinton never embraced that theme, preferring instead to cast Obama as untested and too inexperienced to be commander in chief.

It's over between Roberta and me. At least for now. What with her constant travels, her series of handlers and the 3,000-mile separation (she's in D.C., I'm in L.A.), it just wasn't working. I concede, with only a tinge of embarrassment, that I've been captivated by that world traveler, grandmother, freeway speedster and potential First Mother of the United States, Roberta McCain.

Charlie Black has had his moment of straight talk -- and chances are he's not going to let it happen again. Fortune magazine, in an article posted online Monday, cited the "startling candor" by the strategist for John McCain in discussing how concerns about national security could offer political dividends for the Arizona senator and presumed GOP presidential nominee.

Phil Jackson huffed along the sidelines and unleashed a post-game rant: His Lakers were manhandled, but the Celtics got all the calls. Basketball is not a bad primer, it turns out, on how our political ballclubs carry on. Team McCain has been complaining no end about how easy that lanky young rookie, Barack Obama, has it with the press, while their scrappy veteran suffers "fiction" at worst and inattention at best.