The Obama campaign is famous for its ground game. The question is, does it have a post-game ground game? It's time to consider what happens if Obama goes into the election with an insurmountable lead in the polls, and ends up losing thanks to manufactured chaos at the booth.
The likelihood of the election being stolen � if not directly than by a combination of intentional and fortuitous shenanigans ��is increasing every day. Yesterday's chilling New York Times investigation into illegal voter purges is only the tip of a very cold iceberg.
Obama can't allow himself to be blindsided by this as Al Gore was when he lost the 2000 election in extra innings. His campaign needs to be prepared for an immediate mobilization of all forces � communications, legal, grassroots � at the first sign of trouble. He may need to be on top of this before the polls even close, setting the narrative before McCain can. I won't pretend to know exactly what steps he may need to take, but I do know he'll need to have them planned out in advance. McCain certainly will.
One possible model for him to look to: Hillary Clinton's second-half primary campaign. True, her kitchen-sink tactics were appalling in their own context because she had actually lost, but in support of a candidate who actually won, and was in danger of being denied victory, a similar combination of unashamedly aggressive spin and backroom maneuvering would be appropriate and necessary. Not pretty, perhaps, but better than four years of McCain (or, more likely, two years of McCain and two years of Palin).
Relevant Chris Rock bit begins at 2:35
