President Barack Obama's push to get his budget passed has come to resemble elements of the two-year-long presidential campaign. Supporters of Mr. Obama's presidential campaign have been receiving a barrage of e-mail urging them to call their Congressional representatives to voice support of Mr. Obama's economic recovery plans. MoveOn.org, the influential liberal advocacy group, has been urging its members to send scripted e-mail messages to their friends about Mr. Obama's "ambitious, amazing and unapologetically progressive" budget. The Democratic National Committee has been putting up advertising on Web sites rebutting Republican criticism of the budget. And Obama's advisers have been coordinating with interest groups to rally support for his agenda. Last week, Obama's campaign manager, David Plouffe, e-mailed millions of Obama's campaign supporters, similar to the e-mail that sought support during the presidential campaign. Obama's advisers have made no secret of their plan to use the huge campaign apparatus assembled over two years, along with the millions of names and e-mail addresses acquired, to mobilize his supporters during his presidency. The idea is centered on the premise that the traditional ways of communicating with voters and motivating them are giving way to new channels such as Facebook built around social networking.
