The Three Ashleys

Interesting summation of the race, based on telling the story of three Ashleys. The first helped propel W. in 2004. The second is the crazy, girl from Pitt who lied last week about being attacked. The third is the Ashley Baia, the young lady Obama referenced in his speech about race back in March.

You know, the story of our mayor's race has been used by Obama's national campaign and was picked up by the national press. (See here and here). And Ashley was here in Florence for quite some time. I think it is more than pretty cool that these two stories became big parts of Obama's campaign. I think it shows how truly efficient the campaign was. Obama's emphasis on grass roots organizing meant one thing: you paid attention to your lowest volunteers. When you do that, you find out about these stories and you can use them. You are not, for instance, watching tv, seeing your opponent answer a question from some guy and then scrambling to write that guy into your campaign (ala Joe the Plumber).