By Michael Giglio in Rome
No block of voters is more scattered and detached than the estimated 6 million Americans living overseas. There has never been a concerted effort to mobilize them, and turnout is always low. But the Obama campaign has come this far largely by getting people to organize themselves into what Aaron Smith of the Pew Internet & American Life Project calls "autonomous campaign units" -- or, according to Penta, "letting people run with the ball." This was set in motion by the social networking site created by Facebook co-founder Chris Hughes as the now-famous My.BarackObama.com, known by its users as MyBO.
"It doesn't have to be confined to the local labor office or church or bowling league -- you can take the model of a community who respect each other's ideas and interacts and blow it up to encompass tens or hundreds of thousands of people in a way that's not possible when you're doing it face-to-face or phone call to phone call," Smith says.
"Instead of having to figure out where all the like-minded individuals are," Smith adds, "now I have the ability to punch my name into the site, and boom, it's all right there, even if we're hundreds of miles apart and living in different cities, or different countries."
This required a campaign that prides itself on discipline to give up some control. But grassroots success means starting outside of established institutions and bending them to your will, and that takes considerable resources in money and manpower. Regardless of Tuesday's result, Obama's biggest coup has come in besting the Clinton machine, which he did largely without the help of the mainstream party -- especially in the early days. It took the entire primary season, and a good deal of teeth-gnashing, to get everyone on board -- along with unprecedented grassroots support.
In late January, Molly Gage found the group in Italy after moving to Rome with her Italian husband. Like many of its members, she typed "Italy" and "Obama" into Google and went from there. In its infancy the group included around 10 people who met occasionally in cafes. After the Iowa caucus, though, things started to change. The group registered itself on MyBO a day later, and its first widely publicized event on January 25 drew over 100 people.
Nina Gardner, a founder of the group in Italy, describes herself as a classic political hand. She was amazed at the site's simple efficiency: "I could just put an event up on the Web site, and people could sign up."
The group began using it as a clearinghouse for information. Gage took over when Gardner moved back to the States this summer. When organizing events, she is often asked to have her office send over campaign material. She directs all queries to the Web site. The url (my.barackobama.com/italy) has been plastered onto T-shirts and flyers as well as the banners that accompany the group's events, which don't seem to have much trouble attracting publicity.
Volunteers have pedaled through Rome in a "Register and Ride" rickshaw decked with American flags. They've gathered on the Sant'Angelo Bridge as part of the international "Yes We Span" campaign, in which groups across the world posed on famous bridges to celebrate Obama's ability to create them. And they even spelled the candidate's name in bread.
After discovering that member Alison Victoria, a local English teacher, is handy with a camcorder, they also began spreading the word via Internet videos. Type "Italy" and "Obama" into Google now, and the first result is a clip of Gage's husband making his case in front of the Colosseum. That inspired another group member's husband, a gondolier in Venice, to film a video of his own, crowing a version of the famous "Volare" song with "Obama" substituted wherever possible. It has garnered over 143,000 views on YouTube, and the sequel was picked up by CNN.
All of this is meant to help new members find them, not the other way around.
"Steve Lane," a co-founder of Americans in Italy for Obama who preferred to remain anonymous, compares the prospect of actively recruiting in Italy to trying to pull a particular type of fish out of the sea.
"That's why social networking is so important. The fish catch themselves," he says. "The turning point is when you actually get people together and they meet one-on-one and they form real social connections. This is what has been happening in America. But in America these are people on your block."
Other members across Italy keep in touch through the site and in person when possible, as was the case when Gage arrived by train to help the Venice group start up this summer. Americans in Italy for Obama has also been working with Democrats Abroad, the official overseas party arm, during the general election. But the group's greatest coordinating success came in the form of a virtual block party in September, when house parties in 11 cities tuned in to a 20-minute conference call with Nancy Pelosi, the first Italian-American Speaker of the House. Pelosi thanked them for the T-shirt they sent her.
The true test for whether the netroots can co-exist with the old Chicago style will come when the election is over. The IAF's objective lies in maintaining an active base to push a specific agenda on those in power. Should Obama get that power, he will be the one that needs to be pushed.
Gage now counts many Americans in Italy for Obama members as her friends and plans to keep the group together, using next year's G-8 summit in Sardinia for motivation. Whether she and her counterparts at home and abroad are able to push on could make the difference between a true grassroots movement and a cult of personality.
Penta believes there will always be a tension between the two models. But he points out two of Alinsky's maxims: Do what you can with what you've got -- and stay within the experience of the people you're trying to reach."
During a break in the interviews outside the theater, a passing American student stops to ask Gage about the group on her shirt. She spins around and points her thumbs at her back. There's the URL, and a message:
"Join us."
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