Obama 2.0

This is the leader and the campaign we've been waiting for. What if we took it to another level?

Let's take the 'Obama fundraising & campaigning model' and reach beyond the Democratic platform: enable a grassroots participation campaign for the best new ideas and the best proven practices for progress and positive change. Not just by asking for policy suggestions and leaving them in a blog or a hard drive at the Obama campaign headquarters... but actively and transparently on the internet & in community meetings. The Obama movement can enable people to define a platform for what a federal government can do directly and what it could inspire through Presidential leadership and in sharing best ideas and practices between states, cities, schools & people. McCain wouldn't know what hit him... the uprising of participation and support for a 'new kind of listening & collaborative politics'.

Leverage the existing Obama grassroots campaign structure right now!
We can all make calls to people in Pennsylvania. Yet before and after the vote there, we have plenty to be concerned about and to work on right here and now in our own states, cities, towns & communities. This makes the Obama promise local, concrete and meaningful – that the aim is not just to ‘win’ the Presidency or to collect money, but to catalyze and lead America in a reinvigoration of its democracy, in the trust that the greatest value lies in the American people.

This says: “Barack Obama wants more than your vote, your money and your endorsement. Starting NOW, he wants you to bring the best that you have & know to this process.”

This will not only inspire the folks in Pennsylvania and all the upcoming states yet to vote, it will build on the passion and participation that was aroused and now lies waiting in all the states that have already voted... It will energize Obama & Clinton supporters alike to participate & collaborate regardless of the specific outcome of the primary campaign (likewise drawing in independents & Republicans).

This asserts in action that Barack Obama is not only capable of leading the democrats as their nominee or the nation as President, but that he is in fact leading the nation NOW.

This begins the most crucial part of a 'grassroots' federal Presidential campaign as it actualizes the most vital dimension of the 'new politics': NOT JUST LISTENING to people, but also inspiring them to take responsibility to organize their ideas, to listen to each other, to share and to learn about the best practices that are already in place, proven and ready to be suitably deployed in other parts of the country. New ideas will certainly emerge. But locked up in every corner of America there is undoubtedly a gold mine in possibilities for progress & positive change that are already in practice and time tested. This process will unify the country through its best spirit, ideas and action.

How.

Tap the Obama network by email and online, and also the community at large through media events and national advertising to organize:

Small meetings – in homes, offices, community centers, schools
Larger gatherings – regional & national conventions centered on specific issues (education, infrastructure, health, economy, poverty, etc. with representatives from the above small meetings)

Publish evolving results as:

• A collaborative web community to compile best ideas & the overall ‘policy platform’: a ‘wiki-polity’ that evolves political policy.
• Printed documents available by mail & as media inserts.
• As press releases for the web, newspapers, radio & TV.

Raise funds for this as an autonomous process APART from the campaign, ie.: a 527 organization that funds a ‘collaborative political platform process’ [in place of ‘partisan advertising’.]

Keep the focus tight: What are the key issues? What has been done? What can we do?

This builds on the existing Obama organization and momentum NOW. This builds on the overall enthusiasm among all Democrats and reaches beyond party boundaries. This invites everyone else who has been watching from the sidelines to participate. This is what underlies the power and promise of Barack Obama’s candidacy, a return to what America has always stood for and just makes it smarter, fresher and better:
Innovative leadership, sensible use of technology and participatory politics as voluntary enhancements of representative government. It is up to us not only to vote, but to be deeply involved.

After all, we are the ones we’ve been waiting for!