Politics | Barack Obama 'Campaign of People' Buoys Obama Candidate, message, technology all combined to take campaign viral By Matt Cantor Posted May 25, 2008 12:55 PM CDT Copied A crowd cheers as they watch the arrival of Democratic presidential hopeful Sen. Barack Obama, D-Ill., during a campaign stop in Old San Juan, Puerto Rico, Saturday, May 24, 2008. (AP Photo/Brennan Linsley) Barack Obama’s grassroots campaigning is what brought the underdog to the top of the heap, the Chicago Tribune says. His camp’s goal from the start was to dodge the Democratic party’s political machine and address voters directly. “You could see in the first few hours that something was happening,” said the candidate’s web guru of the birth of the site that’s helped bring in some $200 million. “We wanted this to be a campaign of people,” said campaign manager David Plouffe. The team sought a “holistic relationship” with the public—not just taking in support but speaking to voters through, for example, web videos. Thanks to its bottom-up style, “Obama didn't just defeat any top-down campaign," said a former Howard Dean campaign manager. "He beat the best top-down campaign in Democratic Party history, by far.” Read These Next Driver kills 3, then asks, 'Why should I apologize?' He was an Olympian. Now he's the FBI's most wanted. Researchers believe simple test could save thousands of lives a year. A Canadian man just lost a whole of cash found by cops in his rental. Report an error