The big story left out of the post-election coverage is that in 2006, Democrats finally came up with an answer to Karl Rove's get-out-the-vote "72 Hour Program."

Rove built a volunteer-driven machine from the ground up, backed by the full unity of a ruling Republican Party. The Democrat's answer was was much harder to come by. But this year, finally all cylinders were firing at once -- and what an amazing sight it was to see:

bumped - Matt

If the fundamental nature of political campaigning is turned on its head, and no journalist reports it, then does it really happen?

The following represents as big of a transformation as the arrival of TV in politics half a century ago: This weekend, an army of more than 100,000 ordinary voters, spread across every state in the nation, will work together as single disciplined team as they conduct a sophisticated GOTV operation to reach "drop off" Democratic voters in competitive House and Senate races.

MoveOn.org's "Call for Change" program (motto: "It's too close NOT to call") provides its volunteers the same kind of high-tech online console that tele-marketers use to contact micro-targeted voters as report in results. The difference is that these volunteers actually believe in what they're saying, and therefore connect with voters in a way that paid tele-marketers can never. As anger peeks at cynical and negative  campaigning, putting voters directly in touch with other voters is a brilliant strategy -- one made possible only recently by new technology and new organizing techniques.

Last week Mark Warner held a press conference in "Second Life," a virtual world where people fly, build cool things and pay for sex. A new kind of marketing company, called "Millions of Us" arranged the gathering at a virtual theater with room for a thousand or two. Less than 30 Second Lifers showed up.

Considering that people can teleport anywhere instantly in second life, the sparse turnout was a huge failure. Tens of thousands were online at the time of Warner's event. Second Lifers spend an average of four hours per day in the virtual world -- so it's not like they didn't have time to check out the first pre-presidential visit to a virtual world.

I'm working on a new article series, and I'm publishing it as I go -- even as I edit and revise it. I'm hoping that others will contribute comments into the document, disagree, and discuss.

Read the article in progress at the New Organizing Institute wiki. It's addressed to the candidates themselves, but written with the understanding that their staff and consultants will be reading too. Here's an excerpt:

A long time ago in America, politicians stopped being leaders. Let's not blame them, it was a long string of historical factors that forced politicians to become what they are today: packaged, advertised, distributed products. For a long time, the rules of the game have favored simply "the guy you'd most like to have a beer with," taking no stands riskier than "cut taxes" and "love families", and mechanistic deal-making with constituency groups.