Obama Campaign and Yard Signs
I’ve seen a lot of questions come through this site about Obama yard signs. I haven’t been involved in answering or fulfilling those requests, but I’m guessing that most people aren’t finding it easy to get one. I do believe some Dems had some printed themselves recently (e.g. as fundraiser giveaways), but getting official campaign signs is difficult. Certainly this is partially due to the fact that we live in a state that will go Obama’s way, so the campaign is putting little effort here (other than mining the deep support here and using it to canvass in neighboring states, call voters, etc.). But it also brings up the question of whether yard signs are worth the fairly large effort required to print, distribute, and maintain them.
There’s a post up at , titled , that gets right at the heart of this question. Are campaign signs worth it? A lot of people have heard the conventional wisdom that yard signs don’t vote, so don’t work too hard on them. Yet when an opponent’s signs start blanketing the neighborhood panic can set in with the other campaign: will the average person presume that there’s no support for the opposing side in town? Or will it lead people to question their intended support?
I don’t think it makes much difference in a presidential race. Maybe it’s because I’ve lived in Illinois forever, and the fact that in my voting life I don’t think Illinois was ever a swing state, so there’s never much in the way of presidential campaign items around here. But people tend to know who they’re voting for, and if they don’t, they’re unlikely to choose their presidential vote based on yard signs.
However, I do think they possibly make more difference on local issues. I’ve personally been responsible for yard signs on more than one campaign. Especially when it’s a race or an issue that is not well known, then signs can help people figure out who they should vote for because they’ll see a particular side of the issue supported in the yards of their friends.
But on a national campaign? I can see where the Obama campaign is coming from. Sure, they’re loaded and why can’t they just crank them out? But the distribution and management of yard signs is a big job and takes a lot of person hours. And they clearly want those hours devoted to something more productive.
What do you think?
By the way, if you want a sign, you can always buy one from the , although no guarantees on when it will arrive.
I went to the farmer’s market at Lincoln Square yesterday to get an Obama yard sign, and I was astonished that the Dems were charging 6 bucks a sign. I always figure I am doing something for the Party and the candidate when I post a sign, so why do I have to pay for a sign? And why so much? I can understand a couple of bucks, and a *request* for a donation, but the guy who was handing out the signs was pretty aggressive in pitching them–saying to passersby “Want an Obama sign?” People would say “Sure,” and he’d say “That’ll be 6 dollars.”
I see the offical signs at the Obama Store are $8. How much did it cost the Champaign Democrats to have their signs made? They call the money a donation; I call it a profit.
My dad always complained that, until Clinton came along, his vote never counted because Ford won Illinois. So, it’s been 32 years, but we were a swing state once upon a time.