The main three political parties in the UK are seeing a haemoragging of membership rolls over a long term period, despite occasional peaks and troughs. People are generally getting less inclined to turn up to local Party meetings and deliver leaflets.

So should we just manage this decline? Rely more on TV soundbites and stagemanaged local photo opps?

Barack Obama is showing us a different way - yes he is!

Obama has successfully involved local campaigners in all states in his campaign so they've been motivated to do all the grunt work without edicts from campaign HQ. That's why Obama was able to get local infrastructures in place so quickly during the later primaries when Clinton's more clunky, centralised structures were running out of gas for races they didn't think they'd have to fight.

But so many of these tactics were learnt in '04 by Howard Dean/Joe Trippi and the legacy of Howard Dean isn't just case studies about the netroots but it is Dean's appointment as DNC Chairman. Dean's philosophy has been about remembering the little people. Giving them a little budget and a little control over their own destiny. But more importantly he has funded Democratic offices in every town, city and state. Even the unwinnable, crusty Republican strongholds of Utah and Wyoming.

This holistic strategy, as opposed to micro-targeting swing states, has led to flowers growing through the concrete all over America, all creating a fertile resource for Obama in terms of canvassing, fundraising, arguing his case in the bus queue and at the water cooler. And it will carry on growing stronger long after this race has been run.