MoveOn.org Endorses Barack Obama Through Email Poll

The on-line left wing organization MoveOn.org conducted a poll of its subscribers by email and the results compelled them to endorse Barack Obama. The emails were sent on January 31st and referenced a previous survey of 200,000 of its 2.3 million members who overwhelmingly expressed a desire for an endorsement process. According to the email, the bowing out of John Edwards seems to have spurred MoveOn to act on an endorsement.

MoveOn.org had been randomly selecting members over the past year and asking them which candidate they supported. They claim that their members were divided among the many candidates to choose from and they were waiting for a candidate to take a bold progressive stand on the issues.

The voting for the candidate of choice lasted until 11 am Eastern time February 1st. The voters had to be a member since Wednesday January 30th and be at least 18 years of age by November 4th, 2008. MoveOn said they would only make an endorsement if a candidate received 2/3 of the votes cast. They also said they were taking extra security measures to protect the integrity of the vote by randomly sampling members that voted via verification telephone calls after the voting.

For voters that needed more information on the candidates, MoveOn recommended the CNN debate on Thursday.

The MoveOn email that confirmed the voters choice claimed hundreds of thousands ballots cast and said that Obama received 70% of the votes. They also mentioned that they didn't agree with all of Obama's positions and regardless of who wins the nomination they will support that candidates run for the White House. It will be interesting to see if the part of the email mentioning their disagreements with Obama will be included in the endorsement statement that is given to the media.

Will this edge Obama's platform further to the left? Having not strongly clarified many of his positions, while often revisiting his, 'together we can' and 'stand for change' theme, he may be vulnerable to a push a bit further to the left with this endorsement.

The end of the Obama endorsement email mentions a message from Barack Obama that came in just as they were ready to send the email to its members. Interestingly they don't mention if they had already informed Obama about the results. His message to MoveOn congratulated them for their principled opposition to the Iraq war and mentioned what America can do when a grassroots organization like MoveOn brings people together for change. He finished the message by saying that he was looking forward to working with their members in the weeks and months ahead.