Visit to Barack Obama campaign headquarters (Part 1)

The fam and I were headed down to Garrett’s Popcorn on Michigan Avenue to end our trip on Friday. When we got there we found out that particular location had closed. Around the same time the call came in from Barack Obama’s campaign headquarters that we would be able to walk through the downtown operation.

Fortunately their building was within walking distance, though we did have to make a pit stop on the say. After a brisk walk down the Miracle Mile and a brief stop at the security desk we were on our way up the elevator.

I had hoped to engage the campaign while I was there, but due to time limitations and the fact that my two contacts were both out of the office, we settled for a tour. The Obama folks take up an entire floor of their downtown Chicago office building.

The setup is just like any company office in Corporate America. As a matter of fact, it reminded me of Corporate America in more ways than one… One way that it was different than the average office is that there was very little water cooler talk. There was a sea of short cubicles with a couple hundred people banging away on laptops.

5 ft Obama portrait made of newspaper

What was most impressive -strategically- about the office was the number of people devoted to “new media.” It looked to be 30-40 folks plus some interns who are responsible for You Tube, Facebook, My Space, blogs and the like. Much of what I get from the campaign is directly from this group.