Barack Obama has
finally arrived. He’s inspiring a new generation of hot Canadian operatives. According
to John Ibbitson, Trudeau’s
team is “Taking a page out of Obama’s playbook”:
“Justin Trudeau's leadership team is
attempting to bypass Liberal Party elites and allegiances, according to sources
close to the campaign, using the same methods that Barack Obama's campaign used
to do an end-run around the Democratic Party and make him president.
“If Team Trudeau pulls it off, a new
generation of young and minority voters – many who have never cast ballots
before – could transform the political landscape. But it remains a very big if.”
Go ahead: comb
Obama’s playbook. Get inspiration wherever you can. But please don’t rely
on Obama’s last chapter to dress up Pierre Trudeau’s son as a transformative
leader.
Obama didn’t beat Hillary
Clinton, John McCain, or Mitt Romney with a superior website and Election Day
volunteers. He didn’t “end-run” any one of them simply with technique and cool.
His campaign against Hillary Clinton was a long, bitter affair that was sustained
by a gutsy policy record that set him apart from the Washington Democratic establishment—crafted by him, well before he had a crack team of advisors. This year, his dangerous, clear choices
on taxes, immigration, health insurance, and marriage divided Americans, but they also
gave his ground game something urgent to sell.
It’s suspicious, but
not impossible, for Justin Trudeau and fellow lifelong Liberal insiders to
“end-run” their elders. However, they’ll need more than the favorable clicks of
thousands of website surfers to beat any serious opponent in a national
election, let alone transform Canada’s politics.
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