The Obama Machine: The View from a Battleground State

As the presidential election heads into its final two weeks, those of us here in Northern Virginia are bearing witness to an awesome phenomenon: the Obama political machine.

Back during the Democratic primary season, there was a lot of hullabaloo about the Clinton machine, "formidable" and "unbeatable." The nomination was Hillary's for the taking, or so the conventional wisdom said. Well, the conventional wisdom was wrong. At the end of the day, Barack Obama won the Democratic nomination for president.

But questions remained about Obama's candidacy. Could he compete in traditionally Republican states? Could he win the white working class vote? Could an African-American win the presidency? The answer to these questions, as Obama has proven, is yes. And the perfect example of why can be found right here in the northern portion of the Commonwealth of Virginia.

Since Virginia, which has not voted for a Democrat for president since Lyndon Johnson in 1964, became a battleground state, the Obama campaign has shown quite vividly that it too is national-level political force to be reckoned with. And to be honest, the Clinton political machine has nothing on the Obama machine.

Earlier this year, Barack Obama and John McCain both pledged to subject their campaigns to the public financing system. Doing so would mean that each candidate would be limited to just over $80 million for the entire general election campaign. When the time came, though, to make good on that pledge, Barack Obama reversed course. Realizing that he had an amazing ability to raise money, he decided that breaking his word in order to be more competitive was more important than honoring the pledge he had made with Senator McCain.

The result of this decision? Fundraising that is shattering all records, with the Obama campaign reporting a staggering $150 million in contributions in September alone. Meanwhile, McCain is forced to live within his budget of $84 million, the price he has paid for keeping his campaign's pledge.

Obama's money advantage is on clear display in Northern Virginia. He has three times as many field offices as John McCain, an my personal unscientific count of television ads over the weekend gave Obama an edge over McCain of about 4 to 1. That makes sense since most television reports I've seen say Obama is spending about 4 times as much as McCain in Virginia.

The Obama presence is not limiting itself to field offices and television ads, either. Local radio stations are flooded with Obama ads, and his telephone and door-to-door- operations ensure that I will be bombarded with calls and personal visits until the election is over. Never mind the McCain - Palin sign in my front yard.

The Obama political machine is indeed a sight to behold. And I believe in giving credit where credit is due. Senator Obama certainly has proven beyond a doubt that he is a political force to be reckoned with. But that recognition is not without cost. To position himself to win the presidency, Senator Obama sacrificed what I consider to be a non-negotiable core value: his integrity.

Unfortunately, the lesson to be learned here is not at all a positive one. The lesson is simply this: in these United States it is apparently okay for a presidential candidate to break his word to the American people. There is no other conclusion that can be drawn, for Senator Obama has demonstrated that not only is society willing to forgive him for sacrificing his integrity, but it is also willing to reward him. That is not the lesson I hoped my children would learn from his historic candidacy.