Obama Army's New Mission: Pass the Budget

Four months after propelling Barack Obama to victory, his millions-strong army of volunteers is being asked to help out again, writes Jeff Zeleny in the New York Times. Anyone who contributed $5 or more to the campaign has been enlisted to support Obama's effort to pass his 2010 budget, which faces an uphill battle in Congress. But it's unclear whether the volunteers who stumped in 2008 will join this new, less glamorous effort.

This weekend Obama supporters are being urged to go door-to-door to convince doubters of his plan's merit, a move some former campaign staffers dismissed as a PR stunt. And Democrats on Capitol Hill, who don't unanimously back the Obama budget, wonder if having supporters complain to Congress members contradicts the president's avowals of bipartisanship. "There will be some trial and error," admits Obama campaign manager David Plouffe.
(More budget stories.)