"First we're going to reach out to everybody we know who's already a voter."

◼ "Second, we're going to expand the electorate and make sure we get more people involved in the process..." - TampaBay.com

"And third we're going to make sure that people who are voters and people we are reaching out to to expand the electorate become volunteers."

In 2008, Obama created the largest grass-roots operation Florida had ever seen....It culminated with tens of thousands of volunteers and 600 paid staffers spread across the state mobilizing voters and delivering Florida to Obama by a 236,000-vote margin.

But that was nothing. This time the campaign starts the buildup with a team that has been on the ground for two years and now has 16 months to build a vast network of neighbors talking to neighbors and friends talking to friends about ensuring Obama's re-election. Similar networks are being constructed in other swing states....

The organizing is well under way across the state, though not always visible. About a dozen paid staffers are spread across four campaign offices in Tampa, Orlando, Jacksonville and Tallahassee, and two more are expected to open soon. Last Saturday hundreds of volunteers statewide gathered to hold phone banks, collect commitment cards and go door to door to register voters by mail....

Picture a giant multilevel marketing operation — volunteers recruiting more volunteers to recruit still more — mixed with lots of groovy self-empowerment sentiment and the latest social media innovations. That's pretty much the Obama grass roots model.

Paid operatives act like customer service representatives, helping volunteers set and accomplish specific goals and decide for themselves what works best in their city, neighborhood or street.

"The best ideas come from you," Narechania, the Tampa Bay field director, told volunteers in St. Petersburg. On the wall behind him was a hand-drawn sign: "Respect. Empower. Include. Win!"