Hildebrand: Uh-huh.
Rob: What can you tell me about the philosophy that went into this'bottom up'? I know Obama talks about 'bottom up' all the time particularly now when he talks about economic solutions. But I'm curious how it was applied to your work in the campaign.
Hildebrand: Well, it really came from Barack in terms of the philosophy surrounding his campaign. There was a small group of about eight of us who regularly met with he and Michele in the two months leading up to his decision to run for the Presidency, a small group trying to advise him on whether or not this campaign for the Presidency made any sense and if so, how to do it. In one of those last meetings, Rob, he said, " If lightning were to strike and I actually won the Presidency, that would be pretty phenomenal, but what if, in the situation that we're in in Washington right now, where our country is so polarized, where the political parties are so polarized, what if we can build a grassroots movement for change that we can bring to Washington with us so that we have the wind at our back and we can get something done?"
And that was really him stating that, " If I'm going to run for this office, I want to build a national grassroots movement for change that doesn't just help me get elected but it helps me pass my agenda in Washington." And that's a lot of what we're talking about right now is: how do we use the support of these millions and millions of Americans and try and make them have a stronger voice in passing important legislation in this country than what the corporate lobbyists' voices are? I think that he's got all the potential in the world to be successful at this. It was really Barack stating the kind of campaign and the kind of Presidency that he wanted even before he got into this; so it was really his design.
Rob: Now, what you just told me was that it was Barack's vision that directed your campaign. How did you implement that differently than you had in previous campaigns?
Hildebrand: I've always been very much a grassroots, kind of a field general. I believe that organizing at the local level is critical. It is a more important way to win an election than just through expensive television advertising. That's been my background and a lot of us that came to his campaign in the leadership level have that similar background. So it was taking his philosophy and marrying it with our organizing skills and background and implementing it.
It was important from the kind of language that he used, starting with his announcement speech two years ago, where he stated that it's time for America to take Washington back from the lobbyists and the special interests that control this country. And he invited people to join in as part of that important aspect of the campaign. We went out, starting with the Iowa caucuses, the first contest in the Presidential election, and built a very 'bottom up' campaign, putting regular people in charge of their own destiny, so to speak.
We went through that 50-state primary with Hillary Clinton and each step of the way we were working to organize people locally. We had neighborhood teams and neighborhood captains. We had more volunteers come to this campaign and spend more of their time than any campaign in history. It was just remarkable.
Rob: I was a volunteer for Kerry and I was a volunteer for Obama and the difference, locally, in terms of the organization, the energy, the planning was just phenomenal. It was light years ahead.
Hildebrand: We're really proud of what we were able to do. It was Barack's vision but it's also the fact that he's a very inspirational person to rally behind.
Rob: Now, that's an interesting observation. Everybody says he's inspirational. What I've seen is there's a kind of leadership that is a 'bottom up' leadership. I'm going to have Tim Carpenter on shortly after this interview. He's the head of Progressive Democrats of America and I've seen him work, and his leadership is very 'bottom up'. Are there ways that you would describe how Obama takes a kind of a 'bottom up' leadership approach?
Hildebrand: He's a guy who-I've know him just over two years now-what I've seen from day one and through the end of the campaign was he's a guy who wants strong input from all kinds of people at all kinds of levels. He doesn't just sit around and let the lobbyists do the talking. He's somebody who engages people in important conversations to try and find resolutions to difficult problems. He's already out there asking people to provide their health care stories and to use some of those things to help shape the kind of health care bill that ultimately he will move forward. He uses his strong voice to invite the American people to have a seat at the table and he will, throughout his administration, ask the American people to rally behind important items on his agenda that we need to get passed to help get this country moving again. If there are times when Congress gets in the way, he's going to call upon the American people to sort of raise their voices and make sure that their voices are a lot stronger than the lobbyists' in Washington.
...that we need to get past to help get this country moving again, and if there are times when Congress gets in the way, you know, he's going to call on the American people to sort of, you know, raise their voices, and make sure that their voices are a lot stronger than the lobbyists in Washington.
Rob: Which brings us back to the original topic of the conversation, which was the accusation from the blogosphere that you had kind of told the progressives to shut the f up. It doesn't sound at all like Obama's attitude would be that he wouldn't want to hear from people. Not at all.
Hildebrand: Again, that's language that people used to criticize the column that I wrote for HuffingtonPost, that is not the language I actually used in that column.
Rob: of course, I didn't mean to suggest that.
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