The Obama campaign does an excellent job of organizing its base of support and keeping people focussed and motivated. People generally think of the GOP as the party of discipline, marching in lockstep behind its candidate. This cycle, though, if the GOP has been the Wehrmacht of American politics, it’s just run up against the Democrat Red Army - a proverbial horde of young, inexperienced and somewhat rowdy campaign combatants held together by an almost fanatical belief in their cause and the leader at their helm.

So the comparisons aren’t flattering. Whatever. Barack Obama is indeed a once in a lifetime leader who’s able to inspire his followers to perform prodigies. He projects an air of visionary idealism, moving forth on a platform of inclusiveness. WE. US. OUR. Behind that, though, hums a precision machine of command and control. Where GOP discipline works in obvious ways - enforcement, coercion and the threat of being socially ostracized, one wonders about the extent of control the Obama machine exerts over its followers. Positive reinforcement is one of the key attributes of effective influence that can be effected on a person. While punishment and peer pressure are part of that mix, the power of positive reinforcement, coupled with a powerful social network are things that the Obama campaign appears to be exploiting in spades

In many ways, team Obama is the first socially networked campaign - while Dr. Paul’s campaign might have been just as viral, Obama, to his team’s credit, went one step beyond and built upon that to create, manage and maintain the grassroots they’ve tapped into. I’ve just started to wonder whether the level of control that team Obama actually exercises on the message that gets out of that grassroots might have reached an unhealthy level. This is most evident online - Obama has been running rings around his opponents in cyberspace. Look anywhere and you’re bound to run into something praising Obama. On social sites, he dominates. “Obamabots” are admirably controlled when contrasted with the general internet population (which, paradoxically leads to them being most easily identified - they’re the most reasonable sounding people on a board filled with childish flames), but they’re…EVERYWHERE. They’ll be defending their candidate on anti-obama sites, engaging the unconvinced and zealously hammering rumors and batting aside negative press.

I guess all is fair in love, war and politics. I just wonder how much of an effect his organization is effecting the message online. It would be interesting to find out just how many of these “Obamabots” are genuine grassroots supporters and how many are actually controlled by the campaign. Personally, I’d kill to have an army like that to command. If the Obama foot campaign is as effective as his net campaign, McCain doesn’t have a prayer.