Recently, I read an amazing book about Abe Lincoln -- Team of Rivals. In order to deal with a divided nation, Lincoln chose his cabinet from the best minds available. He ended up with a cabinet composed of mostly his rivals to the presidency. He chose these men for their abilities and experience. Lincoln knew the problems he faced were too much for one person. He knew he needed a team of experts -- all more capable than him in their specialties. Obama should take a similar approach.

Karl Rove and I do not agree on much. Yet, his op-ed in the Wall Street Journal does provide an opportunity for overlap, and an affirmation that all politics is local... and social.

A while back I blogged about the social network strategy of the Huckabee campaign and how it was accomplishing a lot with very little (money). The campaign was using the power of the social tie/link -- friends talking to friends about voting. Good strategy, limited population. Huckabee focused on well-defined clusters, like Christian evangelicals, that tend to be very insular and limited in size. With insular cliques, your strategy may work, but it only goes so far -- influence does not cross the chasm to other groups.

The first U.S. presidential primary of 2008 is over and it was full of surprises. After the first inning, we have an unexpected lead, thanks to Mike Huckabee connecting to intact networks that had a long history together, while Mitt Romney connected to individual voters -- one at a time. We have heard that "all politics are local", now we also find out that "all politics are social".