(Standing) clap, clap!

And there's a reason many people do not want to turn over the Democratic Party unless it's to someone who has had enough on-the-job training or practice to inspire the confidence that he or she can do the job.

This might make sense if the "on-th-job training or practice" had included some successes.

Pres.Obama probably hurt the other Democratic candidates in Tennessee, simply because of his race.

But the fact is the Obama campaign was as close to perfection as it gets.

I'm not against learning from more experience people.

But seniority doesn't necessarily equal abilities and skills that are applicable in the present time. Different times require different strategies, different tactics.

The Democratic Party is more important than any one person

That may be true theoretically, but Pres. Obama has changed the party from "theoretical" to "can do." Republicans are pushing "party purity" over people, and you see where it's getting them: further and further into the wilderness.

People these days are less and less attracted to either party. It seems that the traditional Democrats would be over-accomodating to the "young Turks," because it's the party that needs them, not the other way around.

If the Obama supporters can continue being mobilized for key issues and key votes, then that's all that matters. And in these days of instant mass communication technologies, I'm not sure the party structure, for either side, is all that relevant, as it once was.

It's interesting here in Blount County. Two of our most vibrant Democratic party members who know how to bring the party together for a cause are from generations 50 + years apart, Joe Gallagher and Brandon Cook.
As they both know, Democrats have been elected before and will more than likely be elected again. They're just hopeful a few more will get elected in Blount County some day.

Winning the presidency should have been easy this time. I'm beginning to think it's more about the benjamins than anything. However, there may be solace in the fact that the party/person that gets the most benjamins may be supported by a majority.

I've voted since 1972 and don't believe I've felt about any presidential candidate (and resulting president) as some do about Obama and as Don did about Ted Kennedy. I really like Jimmy Carter and Bill Clinton, before, during and after their presidencies. I like Barack Obama. He's only been in office for 45 or so days. So far, so good.

I do think it is the general philosphy of the Democratic party that attracts members, not necessarily individuals. I could be wrong, it has happened before.

I remember several party loyalists repeating the mantra, "There are more Democrats than Republicans. When Democrats vote, we win." I'm not going to rehash in depth why Democrats quit voting, except to point out that there is currently little difference between the D's and R's at the state level. We have right and far right.

We've watched most of the nation face the reality of the failure of the neo-conservatives who took over the Republican party and drove it and our country to ruin. While the rest of the nation moves in the other direction the TN Democratic party seems hellbent and determined not to change in the face of its failures. That has an extremely large number of us looking for something different. Faced with the possible loss of influence, old line Dems seem to be willing to die rather than accept change. Rather than open up and accept the people and process that was immensely successful on the national level, the old guard seems to want to close ranks into an ever decreasing circle of wagons. It's fine for them to make that choice but not for the rest of us.

We have work to do.

1.I 100% support the Democrats that represent me here in the Fort.

Armstrong,Strickland & McKenzie.I stay in touch with 'em & I help 'em in the ward come election time.

2.The College Democrats keep me fired up if I get down.They talk about tomorrow not yesterday.

3.I will attend the convention & ward/district meeting.

May or may not be a delegate to the convention.

If new blood wants to be a delegate from the Fort thats fine with me.

4.Just one thing of the new blood in the Fort & on campus.

Be here in the summer of '10 & help get McKenzie re-elected to county commission.It's important!

5.I will make a motion @ the '09 Knox County Convention that anybody who is a member per Art II of the bylaws & attends the '11 Knox County convention shall vote.

From being on both sides I'd say that no group of any kind responds well to a bunch of new people saying here we come to do it better. It seems after every presidential campaign we get that, a few stick around and some don't. Don, if you're running for chair go ahead and say it and if Gloria is, she should also say it. Let the games begin.

So I read Gloria is running, as per usual around convention time rumors are rampant. The current one is that Gloria never voted for a Democrat until Obama. I would invite her to answer that, basically out of curiosity. I know Joe and Brandon in Blount Co. and they have done a great job. Blount has actually added Dems on their commission where other areas are loosing them. And, I'm so sick, as a native, of hearing how Tennesseans are a bunch of racists. While there are some, for sure, Harold Ford did way better than Obama here, and there were reasons to vote for McCain or a Green candidate, what have you, that had nothing to do with race. I voted for Obama, btw.

They pretended Barack Obama did not exist.

And it seemd like Obama pretty much returned the favor, but Tennessee wasn't necessary to win. Being designated "expendable" is not a positive in politics.

Hopefully Tennessee won't suffer too much when it comes to authorizing and appropriating federal dollars in the future for Tennessee...but, making nukes have never been a big priority for liberal Democrats. And if it hadn't been for Florida going for Obama, I think NASA would be in danger. NASA won't be now, but will ORNL?

I'm curious. Bill Clinton won Tennessee twice. What was the difference? Gore was his running mate but he didn't carry the state against Bush.

And while we appreciate the significance of changing the name of “Obama for America” to “Organizing for America,” it’s going to take more than a stirring phrase to make it stick.

Organizing for America is our President's attempt at giving us a new online tool to be used by volunteers for communication within the party structure. It's purpose, as I understand it, is to refocus all of the little groups started by people across the country at barackobama.com preceding the election, to attempt to keep some of that vast majority productive that used to disappear until another four years passed. If the state leaders do not use this new tool, volunteers will use it without leadership. People tend to choose to be led by those that make themselves accessible and with whom people can identify. Whether politics is changed forever or if people will soon lose interest in the new communication tools remains to be seen.

As it is with a new coach's playbook, the players are going to have to buy in to the system, but President Obama announced OFA Jan 17, and it's still not even easy to find. Let's start our search with the Jan 17 Washington Post article "Obama announces Organizing for America.":

The new group will be the flagship of "Obama 2.0" as many people have taken to calling the transformation of the political organization created during the 2008 campaign.

The new group will work within the Democratic National Committee -- led by Virginia Gov. Tim Kaine -- to advance the Obama agenda. "President-elect Obama has laid the foundation to meet the great challenges facing our nation, but we can succeed only if we build grassroots support for the administration's agenda," said Kaine in a release announcing the formation of Organizing for America.

The new group had been long expected within Obama's inner circle and, although no details on how it would be staffed were released by the transition office today, it is expected that longtime Obama loyalists will be placed in charge -- following the blueprint set out at the DNC.

Now let's go to the DNC homepage at democrats.org. Since there's (still) no mention of OFA, let's see what this "party builder" box has going on. Let's search by keyword Tennessee, not forgetting to change the drop down tab from ZIP code to keyword. The first group in the long list of tiny groups is Tennessee Democrats. Click. 49 people, blog and a listserve, no familiar names, the group administrator calls him/her self "dk2." I will spare you with the details of my further travels with "Party Builder." It is useless, at this point, post election anyway. Let's go back to google.

Goggling "Organizing for America" will lead you to barackobama.com where there is the promisingly prominent upper left logo of Organizing for America. At this point there should be a "select a state" button which would lead me to a homepage for Tennessee which should lead me to a PERSON in charge of greeting volunteers and directing traffic to groups, events and actions within the state and counties. The first box on the right of the page I notice is "Visit the DNC." Let's pass on that showcase, we've already been through that loop. I will point out that the ning social networking platform upon which the "Rebuild the Party" Republican website is built has the potential to be a powerful and user friendly communication device but they haven't figured out how to work the damn thing... at.... all. So, we've got that going for us.

Let's click "Login to MyBO" and see if anything is different since the announcement that Obama for America is now Organizing For America. Find groups by state, Tennessee. From "TN Call Team" to "Beer Drinkers for Obama," it's the same fine bunch of groups that helped President Obama get elected. I joined several of them previously, and have received an enormous amount of emails from the listserve of the MyBO group USA CAN. I began noticing "please welcome so-and-so as the volunteer liaison for OFA 2.0 Oregon, New York, Nevada, Virginia...this week: Tennessee, Jeff Ingram." USA CAN is not an official Obama project, but after finding what I could on the internet, Jeff Ingram seems legit. I sent him a congratulatory email and "friended" him on facebook. (I am also "friends" with Gloria Johnson although we have never spoken. There are many Don Daughertys but none identifiable as a Tennessean or Democrat. I just sent a friend request to Ray Abbas so I will know where to find him come September.) The next day I noticed in my facebook news feed "Jeff Ingram has created the group OFA 2.0 Tennessee." Sweet. Click. Join. Send Invites. Plugged in. Ready for orders. That was Friday. 41 people have joined that group already and 240 more invites are awaiting reply. (I did not send most of those invitations, but I seem to have a tall "friend" in common with most of the invitees.)

Will OFA "stick?" It certainly won't decide who's running the state parties, and it will fizzle if the people running the state parties don't participate. It could be a useful way for the leadership to easily find us when they need to remind us to stick around until next August to help elect Democrats to the offices of Mayor, Trustee and County Commission; and stick around until November to help elect a Democrat Governor. It's as much about the party connecting with us as it is about us connecting with the party. Mr. Daugherty, I have read a lot about how the inner struggle between veteran and newcomer Dems is happening across the country, but your heartfelt assessment has the makings of the first productive discussion I've seen on the matter - you provide challenges without being antagonistic, and I sense an overriding desire to figure out how to make this work, how to get the people working together. I'm not going to save anybody's day, but I would be up for some tasks, especially if one of those tasks were tutoring veteran campaign workers as to how to work the new Barack O buttons on the computer. Maybe some online reputation management for potential candidates? Legislation tracking? Our state is about to get a pile of Recovery Act money. Are we working right now to influence how it will get spent? If not, where can we all get together and do that? Without some coaching, I'm one of those teenagers doing doughnuts in the mall parking lot with your pride and joy.

"The truth is really pretty simple; it's the mechanics of making it work that breaks men down"- fairly obscure Hunter Thompson quote for the day. Howard Dean is back at DFA, and I'm interested to see what he starts pulling together.

You still won't yet find any DNC-run OFA groups at the OFA/MyBO site - it seems that the waters are being tested on facebook and the Tennessee OFA 2.0 chapter is one of only about a dozen nationally so far. Maybe we're in some sort of test market.

benintn, is a complete liar. Some call him benintotaldenial. He is a shill blogger for Chip Forrester and has been sent here by Forrester to attack knoxrebel because he is bringing up legitimate arguments against Forrester. Benintn lives in Nashville. He has nothing to do with Knoxville or Knox County politics.

Forrester is worried about this idea of a group outside of the Democratic Party raising money and supporting candidates because there is talk all over Nashville that a new statewide group is being formed. Chip and his TNDP will soon be totally irrelevant.

Knoxrebel, keep going. Chip and his thugs like benintotaldenial are scared of you.

Janet Stepperson, the group Forrester fears has already been formed. Here its called Bluedog Democrats of East Tennessee. There'll be a Press Release in Knoxville this week sometime which hopefully the local media will pick up on. We've prevailed on a really, loudmouthed, active, controversial old-time Tennessee Democrat to serve on an limited,interim basis as Interim Chair. And it's not Don Daugherty. DD is a Spring chicken compared to our Interim Chair. But we are urging Daugherty to get back up in the saddle and run for Chair again. After the Convention, win or lose, we'll elect a permanent, hopefully much younger, Chair.

We're opposed to Glorious Johnson and her unbridled ego to the utmost; she has no leadership background; she knows nothing of Parliamentary procedure; our investigations show she worked for a Republican seeking the Republican nomination for Governor and she voted in the Republican Primary out there; and that she had never voted in Knox Co. until this past Spring. She's welcome in the Democratic Party but not as a leader until she pays her dues.

Left out that Glorious Johnson worked for Republican Governor candidate and voted Republican IN COLORADO>

unbridled ego

That's a disqualifying trait in politics? LOL

Ego and unbridled ego equals two different animals. "Disqualifying" depends on how many votes the various parties can muster to put a dent in the ego or unbridled ego, as the case may be.

This whole discussion is exactly why I've never been an active participant in the local Democratic party.

Maybe you should all think about that for a few minutes.

Rachel's comment is interesting.

In my view, the function of the state and local party organizations is to:

1. Articulate the party platform/agenda
2. Organize and energize
3. Recruit good candidates
4. Raise money for said candidates
5. Communicate, educate and agitate
6. Get out the vote
7. Hammer the opposition

Anything else is noise.

All this internal soap opera drama might be entertaining to some (especially the opposition), but it's not helping.

Maybe Tennessee Democrats ought to take a step back, think about what we want/need to accomplish, focus our energies on that, and figure it out from there.

And maybe acknowledge that an East Tennessee/rural Democrat might have have a different electoral challenge and point of view than a Shelby or a Davidson County Democrat?

Can't we all just get along? And get some good, progressive leadership, starting in the Governor's office and continuing on down the party line, to help us advance our agenda?

And what is our agenda? It seems to have been lost in all the drama.

This whole discussion is exactly why I've never been an active participant in the local Democratic party.

Maybe you should all think about that for a few minutes.

I agree with that looking at it from a viewpoint that is closer, but not much, to the other side.

That, and the belief that in the end, it is a person who holds an office and not a party.

Now that's funny right there. I don't care who you are. . .

I'm with Rachel.

I'm sick of reading this crap. TN Republicans are making asses of themselves, and how to TN Dems react?

By forming a circular firing squad.

Dumbasses.

'beanster...I defer to your expertise in the area to which you refer.

And Rachael, you said you'd never participated in Democratic politics so I just thought I was taking you at your word.

Having never participated, I guess that means you feel qualified to be Party Chair. We have another like that, unless you are her.

I'm not worried about last time..I'm working for next time.

Real Democrats aren't the folks that voted the other way last time.

Real Democrats are the folks that vote our way next time.

That would be the County & State general elections.

2010.

Electoral campaigns, like circus tents, quickly disappear after the show is over. But Obama is our first community-organizer president, and he sees the way he got elected as being almost as crucial as the fact that he won. Because of the emphasis he put on organizing, barackobama.com might fairly be seen as the most successful high-tech startup of the last two years.

Over and over, Obama has spoken of change coming from “the bottom up,” and the organization he built down to the precinct and neighborhood level could be an agent of that change. But how?

The discussion among Obama’s lieutenants focuses on several alternatives. In one view, the Obama apparatus could be integrated into the Democratic Party and be run through the Democratic National Committee. Many of Obama’s top lieutenants, including his campaign manager, David Plouffe, are veterans of traditional Democratic politics.

Turning the Obama network into a vast national party organization could give Democrats durable advantages it has not enjoyed since the New Deal era, when Franklin Roosevelt built an alliance between local political machines and a growing labor movement.

from :truthdig Nov 20, 2008 Should Obama's Army Lay Down It's Arms?

Now that all of the neighborhood groups that were built from the "bottom up" during the campaign are getting some top town directives from the DNC, the people involved in state party structures before the campaigns are worried about getting bypassed and forgotten. So, to refocus, Don's problem in Tennessee is a similar concern of many veteran campaigners across the country. Just because Obama was able to raise a lot of money using the toys of the new technology doesn't mean the Democratic Party needs to ignore the people that were the major source of funding pre 2008.

So what are these "directives" that are of so much concern? The problem is not that Gloria Johnson

or other political neophytes are suddenly transformed into Democratic Party royalty and heirs to the throne.

The problem is that Organizing for America is being adopted as the new DNC structure, and the old royalty is feeling disenfranchised. I can't stop what OFA is building, which began with David Plouffe's 13 million person email list:

No president has ever entered office with this much information. The closest thing to it, Begala says, were direct-mail lists like Ronald Reagan's back in 1980. But, he says, "it's a different thing than Reagan writing, 'Send me thirty-five bucks if you want to fight the Commies.' " This list is granular. And it is flexible and transferable to myriad media outlets — even those not yet invented. Begala believes it could potentially "revolutionize progressive politics."

The idea is a national operation, likely named Organizing for America, that will resemble Obama's grassroots operation in reach and love. It will be as finely tuned as the campaign behemoth and funded the same way — no money from third parties. If Obama has a policy initiative he wants to push, or a message he needs to disseminate, or a gaffe he wants to bat down, he will call David Plouffe and Plouffe will unleash the many-million-mouthed dog, just as he did all across America for these past two years.

If you believe in Obama and in the need for change and for a new, streamlined, hyperlinked Democratic party, then this is a watershed idea. It is a mechanism that could truly morph the power structure in Washington — waking up the unused, overslept public, as Plouffe successfully did on the campaign, and making an end run around lobbyists and interest groups.

But if you are part of the Old Guard — part of the pre-Obama DNC or a liberal interest group like the Center for American Progress or labor or the environmental lobby — which has spent years trying to figure out a way to rouse and organize the Democratic machine, then this new initiative might give you pause. Because if Plouffe runs it like he ran the campaign, unless you join the ticket and stay on message, you will be left on the bench, asking Sarah Palin for a light. It is a new Democratic take on the old Bush maxim: Either you will be with Organizing for America, or you will be against it.

Esquire Feb 2

Plouffe is actually semi-retired in similar fashion to Carville "92, and OFA is being run from the DNC. I hope whatever it becomes doesn't have the attitude described in the above article; I hope that the kids that have been lippy with Don are isolated cases. I hope that veteran campaigners can become part of the structure, adding expertise and guidance instead of chopping away at the many headed beast. I hope that the early adopters of the OFA structure will be responsible enough to reach out to veterans, and if they don't I will try myself if I see any open letters in discussion forums. I could keep them informed about who has "extra sets of keys to the vehicle" and how to get in touch with these people so a state plan can be developed by a responsibly mixed group of people.

The DNC is beginning to hire State Volunteer Liaisons for Organizing for America. Tennessee's Volunteer Liaison is Jeff Ingram. I know that Gloria Johnson has made contact with him because I got an email from her today

"eric, we had our weekly conference call and jeff ingram explained what is happening with ofa. they are still in the hiring stage and we will actually have ofa staff all over the state! we do not know exactly how many yet. he will be on our call each week. are you interested in an active role? i would love to talk with you if you are interested. feel free to call or email (555-0000 i teach until 3:30 so before that leave a message)."

So that's the wizardry behind the curtain of OFA 2.0. People exchange emails and phone numbers, discuss what each can bring to the table, and go to work. The 2.0 implies that there will be a 3.0, and hopefully some leaders will develop in the crowd that will hopefully be gathered by September when we get Ray Abbas elected in the fourth district....

So far OFA 2.0 Tennessee doesn't have much more than a point man, (25 year old recent U of Memphis graduate Jeff Ingram, jingramgbr@gmail.com) and a facebook group, OFA 2.0 Tennessee which now has 80 members and one discussion started, Old Guard/New Guard Discussion at Knoxviews.com

The whole deal sounds good to me.

I was active in Jerry Brown's '92 presidential primary campaign.

In '92 Brown's campaign introduced the 1-800 pound guerrilla.

The 1-800 phone number was effective on three levels:

1.Raised money

2.I got a contact list of folks from Knox County Tn that had called.

3.If folks had a specfic question on where Brown stood on
an issue other than me floundering around trying to give a half assed answer.Just call 1-800 & the national campaign would give them Brown's position.

The Obama campaign/White House has built on the '92 Brown 1-800 idea & gone 21st century.

I'm very much a believer in using 21st century technology to reach the voter next door.

Simply,go to the website..print a few copies & work the block.

Or better yet..if your neighbor has a computer..knock the block & tell em to go to the website.

But never ever forget..to get something done..you have to win elections & the only way to win elections is with votes.

Technology doesnt vote...the folks on your block do!

I think that the fundamental shift though has more to do with philosophy than with the understanding of technology and it's applications.

People voted for Obama for a number of different reasons. The key for the Democrats to be successful is to understand what the Republicans did to them over the last fifteen years.

And this is what they did:

"...beating liberal ideas wasn't the goal. This wasn't about ideas at all. The Washington conservatives aim to make liberalism irrelevant not by debating it but by erasing it. But winning elections was not a bid for permanence by itself. It was only a means. The end, as we have seen, was capturing the state, and using it to destroy liberalism as a practical alternative." p. 257, The Wrecking Crew by Thomas Frank

If the Democrats wish to maintain power, they are going have to counter the above and create a workable alternative.

I certainly do not recognize the Gloria Johnson I've gotten to know in her day job as a special ed teacher at Central High School (I am the SN's CHS beat reporter this year). Can't say that I much appreciate anonymous trolls coming over here to trash her. As one with friends on both sides, it sure makes me want to stick up for her. I'll leave it to others to say whether I'm as valuable an ally as some wacked-out creep from Nashville posting under the name of a dead crooked sheriff.

Wacked-out creep??? "Dead crooked sheriff???" Wow, 'beanster, you're as mean as you are ugly. I am dead, but I had more political power in my little finger, than you've ever dreamed about. Because you work at a little rag for your Republican chum, I'm not sure how helpful an ally you'd be in any Democrat fight. I was re-elected Sheriff of Davidson County five times and the Feds did send me away on one of their trumped up IRS raps. If being a target of Republican regimes makes me a crook in the minds of incompetent quasi-journalists like yourself, so be it.

And if you want to defend other incompetents like Glorious Johnson, just hang with her when the various Federal and State campaign fund agencies come around hunting for all those unreported campaign donation funds to an unauthorized campaigns.

To all others, sorry for this intrusion on your time. But the clueless 'beanster started the name calling and I can't lay down for that even if I am dead.

I agree that Obama wasn't going to win Tennessee. At the same time, I also didn't like Bredesen's barely-concealed contempt for the nominee, and didn't understand why he needed to do that, since he's not going to be facing the voters again. I also believe that the Dems could have done more to hold onto the state House majority. For starters, being a bit more respectful to Frank Buck just might have kept him around for another term -- that would have held the majority, since Stacey Campfield's little airhead groupie wouldn't have/couldn't have beaten him (the Repubs spent a huge pot of cash in '06 trying to do just that).

And Don, I'm not even understanding what all this sturm und drang is all about. Looks like entropy; you guys are hurtling off into space, spinning apart from the middle as you go.

But I'm not a Democrat, so I guess it's easier to stand outside and lob spitballs.

ps: Appears to me that Gloria &Co. did some real significant work campaigning in North Carolina.

5 minutes? Really?

This aint the place for em.

Beanster I dont agree that Bredesen showed contempt for the President.
I know the quotes but I didnt see that way.Did the Governor campaign for the President in other states? I dont know but he might have.

I was for Obama back in Oct of '06.Started registering voters & talkin Obama up for '08 in Feb of '07.We done good here in Fort..won 60+% in the primary & the general for Obama.

Gloria & all those volunteers were a great help but most of all the voters here in the Fort who just fucking got it.

Gloria went to South Carolina for the primary there.Dont win South Carolina...game over Hillary wins.We won & the rest as they say is history.

I dont know Gloria that well but I thought she did a hell of a job.
If she wants to run for Chair fine with me.I've not committed to vote for her or anybody else.I dont even know if I'll be a delegate.

Will Gloria win? Stay tuned.

Look last year Randy Nichols did not support Tyree for sheriff.Folks who know me know I'm big time supporter Tyree.

But I didnt go off about it on this blog or anywhere else.

I consider Randy Nichols a friend & an ally.If he runs again I'll vote for him.

Thats the way politics is.One year you try beat each other..the next year you join forces & try beat somebody else.But you never burn them bridges.

As soon it became clear that Amy had won..big..I called Amy & told her I was for her...10 or so..maybe 9:30.I made people mad in making that call including you..I guess & I posted that I had made the call on knoxviews.

In '06 I was for Mark Harmon & Billy Tindell.That didnt make anybody happy.By '08 I'd been beating Amy over the head for 2 damn years.

Time for ME to talk peace in the valley.Thats called I'm a self serving son of bitch.

I wanted Piper to win..I think the world of her but it wasn't in the cards.

Nichols?..I hoped Sheriff Tyree & General Nichols would move foward.We lost.

Ditto '92 when Jerry Brown got beat by Clinton.

Ditto '86 after Ned beat Dick in the primary.

ECT..ECT...ECT

When it comes to politics I reckon I is one self serving son of a bitch.I'm also a yeller dawg Democrat

but I can speak for that amalgamated, wonderful urban mess that is Shelby County. the Obama 08 crew (which is now known as Mid-South Community Organizers) ran their campaign here like clockwork, without any help from local or state (the SCDP has been, for all intents and purposes, leaderless and drifting for two years), and they won big.

yes, our demographics contributed to that, for sure. However, the way the state leadership turned their back on Obama, they DESERVED to lose. We made no attempt to counter the racism or idiocy because we didn't want to offend or drinking or hunting buddies (or the fat businesses that contributed when we were in the majority).

Look where that got us. I, for one, blame Bredesen, who has done damage to the state Party from which it will take YEARS to recover. I also blame the trolls, who I believe made money from the bad decisions at the state level.

Whites Creek is no troll, and I agree with him, which is not to say that I in any way do not respect the service that Don has given to the party in Knox County, but we HAVE to change, or stay backwards and backwoods.

the old ways are DONE, people.

We had all the voter registration and campaigning with groups led by Amy Broyles and Delainia Davis in 2004, I was part of it for about 9 months . Kerry's numbers were better than Obama here I think.

Here is some election math for you. I have analyzed election results and changes in Democratic Performance for the last 20 years from 1988 to 2008 in Knox County. While the 2008 Democratic ticket did have an increase in voters of 4,202 from 2004 to 2008, this was less than the increase of 5,044 voters from 2000-2004.

While some may wonder why I have looked at the last 20 years, it is because this area has always been Republican. So even though Bill Clinton carried the state in 1992 and 1996, the area has been Republican.

So let's begin:
1988 Election:
41,829 - Dukakis at 36.2%
73,092 - Bush at 63.3%

1992 Election:
59,702 - Clinton at 41.9%
66,607 - Bush at 46.7%

Democratic Voter increase of 17,873 voters since 1988
Republican Voter Decrease of 6485 voters since 1988

1996 Election:
61,158 - Clinton at 43.7%
70,761 - Dole at 50.5%

Democratic Voter increase of 1456 voters since 1992
Republican Voter increase of 4154 voters since 1992

2000 Election
60,969 - Gore at 40.5%
86,851 - Bush at 57.7%

Democratic Voter Decrease of 189 voters since 1996
Republican Voter Increase of 16,090 voters since 1996

2004 Election
66,013 - Kerry at 37.0%
110,803 - Bush at 62.1%

Democratic Voter Increase of 5044 voters since 2000
Republican Voter Increase of 23,952 voters since 2000

2008 Election
70,215 - Obama at 37.7%
113,015 - McCain at 60.7%

Democratic Voter Increase of 4202 voters since 2004
Republican Voter Increase of 2212 voters since 2004

1988-2008 Democratic Voter Increase 28,386 voters
1988-2008 Republican Voter Increase 39,923 voters

Other Observations regarding Registration:
I am going to use numbers thrown around by the people from the Kerry campaign and the people from the Obama campaign.

2004 voter registration = 10,000 new registrations
5044 new voters/10,000 new registrations is an effective rate of 50.44% So, essentially according to campaign numbers 1:2 registrations potentially resulted in a voter going and voting Democratic

2008 voter registration = 20,000 new registrations
4202 new voters/20,000 new registrations is an effective rate of 21%
So, essentially according to campaign number 1:5 registrations potentially resulted in a voter going and voting Democratic

Other points of information:
The Obama campaign actually lost in Knox County not once, but twice. The Obama campaign did not carry Knox County in the primary, either

2006 election:
53,293 - Ford
69,129 - Corker

Democrats in 2006 turned out 80% of their 2004 vote
Republicans in 2006 turned out only 62% of their 2004 vote

Personal Opinions:
Both the Democrats and Republicans have benefited from strong candidates who culturally identified with the people here. We gained 19,000 voters during President Clinton's two elections and have essentially held on to them. The Republicans made HUGE gains during George Bush's two elections and have continued to hold those voters. This year the two parties made small gains with what were likely newly arrived base voters or perhaps newly motivated voters but this was not seen on a wide - scale from either campaign.

While total number of Democratic Voters increased, this appears to be more of a general trend given that over 5000 New Democratic Voters appeared in 2004.

It also appears that the Democrats can really galvanize their voters when the time calls for it as is evidenced by the 2006 election. I personally do not think we could have pulled much more than 80% of our 2004 turnout out of this county and therefore I believe HFJ lost this county more because of the increased numbers of Republican voters already present in the Republican party.

In regards to the party chair, I believe the party chair represents the face of the Democrats of Knox County. Knox County did not vote for Obama, twice. Therefore, I think the national election of Obama is not a relevant point to run on for party chair. A "community organizer" who learned some things in South Carolina is not going to turn this county blue. It is important for the county chair to work with everyone, run effective meetings, pour their heart out Democratic candidates in local elections and positively promote this Democratic Party.

For election data please visit (link...)

I crossed checked the numbers on this website with the reported numbers of 2000, 2004 and 2008 on the TN SOS website and the two sources were identical. So, I am assuming all data prior to 2000 from this website is correct.

I wished you would have shared this a year ago. It would have saved me five minutes! Looking at your data above I have concluded that the so called old guard democrats have NEVER been successful so why should someone from that group be the face of the Democratic Party for Knox County ever again. Your data also shows we have been loosers all of my voting life. Why do we need to re organize at all? Lets just keep things the same, it appears we are very happy with the results we are getting.

According to available data, the best year for Presidential Democratic performance in this county was 1964:

42,463 - Johnson at 49.8%
42,797 - Goldwater at 50.2%

There is no county data available on this website prior to the 1960 election.

What you can see is an area that is traditionally republican

I think what the trends show is that it is very important to have an engaged party on local candidates and state candidates. Further, it is unfortunate that we've spent the last 8 years being ignored by the DNC because when we have a national party with a national candidate that connects to our voters, we can motivate and galvanize the base and new people.

Lastly, I'd like a definition of old guard. Is it strictly age? Is it anybody who wasn't for Obama from the beginning? Is it someone who's voted in and for this party their entire lives? Is it someone who's voted and traveled for it's candidates, donated, and worked since their first election even if that election was in 1992 or 96 (which would make them 30 or 35 years old)?

Sorry, i see OFA along the same lines as DFA which is an interest group and DFA was/is a politcal action committee. OFA's main objectives as they have been presented to me is to advance the Obama agenda and in leadership, objectives, and action are no different than DFA. In fact, most everything I've seen so far from Obama and Obama campaign is an exact COPY of the DFA playbook.

That is not the DNC.

OFA has a director
DNC has a chairman

These organizations, while having overlapping goals, are separate. The differences are even explained on huffingtonpost at the link below

(link...)

Besides the DNC's role is to get a president elected. My point was having the national party in our state during the presidential election has shown to help us build our party and our base voters. That is my point. I understand why Obama did not come here during the general but the consequences of this going on for 3 national elections has made it difficult to capitalize on the national election.

Based on obama's performance this year in Knox County specifically and Tennessee in general (where he carried only 5 counties) we as a party do not have a lot to build on for the midterm elections.

The old guard folks are not running for chair, Gloria is. I think her group did a good job, but they did not do anything our group didn't do in 2004. We also registered thousands and did all the internet stuff. There was also an incumbent president and campaign efforts in 1996 and old Bob Dole won Knox County. I don't have a dog in the fight, I doubt I'll attend the convention. Also, these new guys will one day be "old guard." What constitutes old guard anyway? I've been around since Clinton and Gore, others have been around before that. At what point will the Obama folks be old and in the way?

There is one thing that no one on this thread has hit upon, and it is something that has been killing Democratic candidates. The steady drumbeat of corruption, misbehavior, and insider dealings.

Some of this has to do with the advent of investigative journalism in television news. Blogs have helped spread the word, and, to the extent that their campaign communication was effective, the Republicans only ran two tracks - Democrats are liberal and Democrats are crooks.

We have to admit that for several years now there has been a steady stream of stories coming out of Nashville of legislative Democrats taking brides, ripping off the state, driving drunk, ripping off campaign contributors, pulling backroom deals to hold onto power.

Now Chip Forrester and Gary Odom fight Governor Bredesen to protect a completely indefensible tax break for Bill Freeman, their treasurer, and mega-wealthy real estate developers.

This is killing us, and Chip is intent on continuing business as usual.

I can't help thinking that knoxrebel would like all the "fresh faced" Obama supporters to wait our turn before joining in County politics.

Kim Webber
Volunteers For Obama, Assistant Office Manager
'75 West High Graduate
'75 Tyree Volunteer
Attending Democratic functions since '64

the last post on this thread seems to be in March, 2009.

And only 2 or 3 responses to "knox rebel" were even close to describing how OFA helped the Democratic Party elect President Barack Obama and how the local Democratic Party "contributed" to OFA's work for him here and elsewhere. Some real, true "old guard" Dems came and helped every day they could, doing whatever was asked of them.

Some were bitter that Hillary or Biden, et al, didn't win, so they refused to support our chosen Candidate. Many other reasons contributed to why Obama did not carry TN. Barack Obama could not have won here no matter how many new voters there were registered. 1) He is black. 2) Many Dems here were angry that their Candidate was not selected...Hillary supporters come to mind. 3) The right wing religious believed all the lies..."he is muslim", "he supports abortion", "he is not a citizen"...blah, blah. and 4) He IS black.

Most folks here think Harold Ford Jr would have won in '04, except for the blatant racist commercials from the Corker campaign against Harold.

And the reason Obama could not campaign in Red Tennessee was the thousands of death threats against him and his family...even last year when he was invited to the 75-year celebration of the Smokey Mountains, it was pointed out what a great target he would be, out in the open!

This is why OFA pulled many vols to go and help his campaign in other States...it worked in NC, OH, FL, and more.

The KC Democratic Party is coming together, under Gloria Johnson's leadership. after being scattered here for years in Knox County (as is indicated by all these posts from 2007 til 2009.

It is time to come together, forget all that mess that was the past and help our CURRENT Democrats win here and across the state. These races are NOT about who has the most money...or who is 'popular'. They are about who can lead in Tennessee. And to all of you who claim you are REAL Democrats, you need to prove it and get involved and support our local and State Candidates...including Mike McWhorter, Randy Walker, Sam Alexander, Mike Dockery, Amy Broyles, and Ezra Maize, our Candidate for County Mayor.

If you do not, then you have no legitimate claim to being a 'old guard' or "real" or "dedicated" Democrat...again.