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One of the best kept secrets of President Obamas 2007-08 campaign was how much its structure and strategic focus was influenced by the Bush-Cheney reelection strategy. Obama wanted to create the same kind of voter databases and contact schemes. He marveled at the Bush operations ability to identify potential supporters, learn their likes and dislikes, and keep them motivated.

Obamas team looked at the 2004 race with a mixture of revulsion and awe. Bushs composite approval rating on Election Day was 48.9 percent (48 percent according to Gallup). The country was becoming more dubious about the Iraq war. Bushs Supreme-Court-sanctified presidency looked to be in jeopardy.

Bushs challenger, John Kerry, harnessed every available tool within the Democratic Party to build voter turnout. Labor unions and party activists abetted those efforts with the most expensive and far-flung get-out-the-vote effort ever. And it worked. Kerry expanded the Democratic vote by more than 8 millionfrom Al Gores 50,999,897 to his 59,028,444. The only two comparable cycle-to-cycle boosts in voter turnout were President Carters 11.6-million-vote gain over George McGoverns lackluster 1972 campaign, and President Johnsons 8.9-million-vote vault over President Kennedys 1960 total. But Kerrys was more impressive. He took on a White House incumbent, built off Gores 2000 plurality of 48.4 percent, and found 8 million new votes.

And lost.

Because Bush was the better community organizer.

Bush increased his vote by 11.6 million, also without precedent in modern Republican Party presidential politics. In the key state of Ohio, the president upped his vote by more than 500,000. Bush also won two states that he had lost to Gore: Iowa and New Mexico. The Bush ground game increased its cycle-to-cycle vote in Iowa by more than 117,000 (18 percent) and in New Mexico by more than 110,000 (41 percent). Neither state, unlike Ohio, had a ballot initiative to ban gay marriage (which Democrats argue artificially increased that states GOP turnout). Bush became the first president to win reelection with a 48 percent approval ratingby organizing a bigger Bush-Cheney community.

Obama and his team went to work on Bushs get-out-the-vote efforts and microtargetinga new method of voter outreach that combined consumer preferences with polling data to sharpen voter appeals and increase the success of direct campaign contact with potential voters. Obama also built permanent grassroots organizations and harnessed enthusiasm for change.

The enthusiasm for Obama now is not like it was then. But ground operations are robust. In just about any big city, one can find Obama reelection events. Take Las Vegas. From Tuesday until March 31, the campaign has 156 (you read that right, 156) events plannedmeet-ups, voter-registration drives, phone banks, neighborhood walks, house parties, and coffees. An outlier? The campaign has 63 events scheduled for the same period in Raleigh, N.C. Obamas Chicago headquarters builds awareness and connectedness to these events and reelection messaging via Facebook (25.3 million likes), Twitter (12.7 million followers) and other social-media platforms.

They have taken a majority of the voter-contact techniques that were the hallmark of the Bush-Cheney campaign and the [Republican National Committee and] taken it into the data arena with social media, said former RNC Chairman Ed Gillespie. They are storing data and matching it up. They are very far ahead of the curve on this, and on the conservative/Republican side, we are dangerously behind. I dont know why.

Gillespie knows that Obama doesnt need the turnout operation he had in 2008 to win. Obama won 52.9 percent of the vote four years ago, and he can slough off 2.5 percent and still prevail, even more if a third-party candidate is in the mix. They know they wont have as much organic turnout as they did in 2008, Gillespie said. So they are trying to offset it with manufactured turnout. I do admire it.

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Ground Control

GIVING a statutory body the power to force news outlets to publish an apology smacks of government control, the media union says.

An independent media inquiry, headed by former Federal Court judge Ray Finkelstein QC, has recommended that a News Media Council be created to regulate news and current affairs coverage in print, online, radio and television.

It would combine the roles of Australian Press Council and relevant functions of the Australian Communications and Media Authority to enforce standards and deal with complaints.

But Christopher Warren, the federal secretary of the Media Entertainment and Arts Alliance, said government regulation of the media should be resisted.

"Where the Media Alliance parts company with Mr Finkelstein is this notion that a government can somehow impose self-regulation on the news industry by statute," he said.

"As far as we are concerned, a government-funded body with the power to determine what newspapers should and shouldn't publish smacks of an attempt to impose government control on a free press."

Under Mr Finkelstein's proposal, the News Media Council would be an independent statutory body funded by the government instead of the current arrangement where industry funds the Press Council.

It would have the power to require news outlets to publish an apology, correction, retraction or give a person a right of reply.

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Media union to fight 'government control'

DAMASCUS, Feb. 29 -- Specialized authorities in Syria are still hunting down remnants of armed groups at restive Baba Amr neighborhood in Homs province, said private al-Ekhbaria TV Wednesday amid other reports by Syria's media claiming that the restive neighborhood is almost under Syrian army's control.

The Ekhbaria TV said many armed men were killed as others have turned themselves in to the authorities in Baba Amr.

Meanwhile, the Syria Now website cited what it called "security sources" as saying that army troops carried out mass cleansing operation in the restive neighborhood, adding that the soldiers are searching all the cellars and tunnels in Baba Amr in search of weapons and "terrorists."

"Baba Amr is living the last hours of fighting and cleansing the area completely is around the corner," the report said.

Baba Amr has emerged as the epicenter of armed confrontation between troops loyal to President Bashar al-Assad and armed rebels comprising partly of army defectors. Activists said the region has been under the army bombardment for nearly a month.

Activists said hundreds of people have been killed in Baba Amr since Feb. 4, when the Syrian army started its assault on "armed groups."

Earlier in the day, Syria's state-run SANA news agency said three gunmen were killed and others were wounded as they tried to cross from Lebanon into Homs, adding that a Syrian soldier was wounded in the clash.

On Tuesday, the Syrian Arab Red Crescent (SARC) said that it had evacuated 30 people from Baba Amr.

In a statement carried by SANA, the SARC pointed out that its volunteers in Homs have been working around the clock since Friday in cooperation with the International Committee of the Red Cross to evacuate the injured form Baba Arm neighborhood.

It added that humanitarian aid was also provided to other restive provinces such as Daraa, Hama, Homs, Deir al-Zour, and some suburbs of the capital such as Madaya and al-Zabadani.

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Eastday-Rebellious Baba Amr area in Syria's Homs largely under control: media reports

BEIJING (Reuters) - China's top official in Tibet has urged authorities to tighten their grip on the Internet and mobile phones, state media reported on Thursday, reflecting the government's fears about unrest ahead of its annual parliamentary session.

The move is the latest in a series of measures the government says are intended to maintain stability, and comes after a spate of self-immolations and protests against Chinese control in the country's Tibetan-populated areas.

It is likely to mean phone and online communications will be even more closely monitored and censored than is normal.

Chen Quanguo, who was appointed the Chinese Communist Party chief of Tibet last August, urged authorities at all levels to "further increase their alertness to stability maintenance" ahead of the National People's Congress, the official Tibet Daily newspaper quoted him as saying on Wednesday.

China's rubber-stamp parliament session meets next Monday.

"Mobile phones, Internet and other measures for the management of new media need to be fully implemented to maintain the public's interests and national security," Chen said.

China has tightened security in what it calls the Tibet Autonomous Region and other Tibetan parts of the country following several incidents in which people have set fire to themselves, and protests against Chinese rule, mostly in Sichuan and Gansu provinces.

March is a particularly sensitive time for Tibet, as it marks five years since deadly riots erupted across the region.

Twenty-two Tibetans have set themselves alight in protest since March 2011, and at least 15 are believed to have died from their injuries, according to rights groups. Most of them were Buddhist monks.

Chen also vowed to "completely crush hostile forces" that he said were led by the Dalai Lama, suggesting that he will not ease the government's hardline stance towards the region, enforced by his predecessor Zhang Qingli.

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China's top Tibet official orders tighter control of Internet

Jammu, Feb 29 : Jammu and Kashmir media fraternity, who were protesting against Speaker Mohammad Akbar Lone's remarks that 'media is under his control', this afternoon called off their boycott against the Assembly proceedings.

The media called off the boycott in the backdrop of Speaker Mohammad Akbar Lone saying that he had no intention to hurt media.

The protesting mediapersons were this afternoon invited by the government representatives to attend the House followed by a dialogue with the Speaker.

The scribes including the photo journalists decided to resume the House proceedings tomorrow and called off the boycott after Mr Lone said there was some miscommunication and he has regards for media.

Earlier in the morning, the Assembly and the Legislative Council boycott continued for the third consecutive day.

Carrying placards, 'we are united', 'fighting for rights', the media people staged dharna outside the Legislative Complex.

Advisor to Chief Minister Omar Abdullah, Devinder Singh Rana, MLA Langate Engineer Rashid and other members of the House also appealed to the media to call off their strike.

However, entire media walked out of the Civil Secretariat and held a meeting at Press Club of Jammu thereafter.

The protest was called off after the government representatives invited media for talks with the Speaker in his chamber, which went fruitful.

Four Legislators of the Bhartiya Janata Party this morning extended their support in favour of media and boycotted the House.

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Media call off Jammu Kashmir Assembly boycott