The Inner Circle
By Nicole Belle Monday Nov 10, 2008 4:15pmI have maintained that the Obama presidential campaign will be studied and dissected by political scientists for years to come. It is, quite simply, one of the most impressive implementations, not only of Howard Dean's 50 State Strategy, but of grassroots-level organizing that lifted the entire campaign of a serious longshot candidate right into the White House.
60 Minutes' Steve Kroft sat down with the executive team of campaign manager David Plouffe, chief strategist David Axelrod (who will move to the White House as Senior Advisor), senior aide Robert Gibbs (who will move to the White House as Press Secretary) and communications and research specialist Anita Dunn to discuss the campaign about 24 hours after victory. They touch on the amazing organizing at the local level, the paradigm-shifting strategy to ignore the red state/blue state divide and those moments that threatened to derail the campaign, like the controversy over Rev. Jeremiah Wright.
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Now we can see if the machine will continue to roll back years of accumulated bullshit!
I signed at McCain's site so I would receive his communications. I also received communications from Obama. The difference was incredible. Obama's were very professional and straight to the point. The ones from McCain were not well done at all. Almost every one had either a gramatical error or a misspelled word. Not sure if they were ever proofed but they looked like a high school freshman was writing them. Just shows the difference in the campaigns.
i know that obama now becomes the head of the party...but the dnc is still a very important org...and someone needs to continue invigorating the new voters that came out this year
btw, if you guys can, watch the war room
compare clinton's team to obama's
when you compare, you will see why, if things go well, obama will end up being a much better president
..only for REAL: 'MISSION ACCOMPLISHED'. I think he'll only be a phone call away for Obama, if need be.
Let's see alot of Clinton people and some NBC Jouranlist minis Andrea Mitchell, David Gregory and Tweety. No Fox News reporters and other GOP idiots. There's a new team and new insiders and the old ones will be looking for jobs. I look forward to the criminal cases with some of the Journalist on trial. Andrea might not get off so easy this time as she played a part in the Varlie Plame leak. Bush will need Obama to pardon him from his crimes or he's hosed.
They took on the "unbeatable" Hillary Clinton and won, they took on a war hero and won.
They really didn't make a mistake in about two years. This was an impressive group of people.
that is a fact
as my mom would say...he has a real yidishe kop (jewish mind)
the only thing i didnt get is why wright caught them by surprise...the vids had been up on youtube and elsewhere for months before hannity got on the deal...audio too
and obama had a full "new media" team...that did nothing but scour archives for vids to be used as quick responses....oh and also created brilliant voting and fundraising programs, and got obama commercials placed in home video games
people...this is the first geek president
i wanna see his comic book collection
the Establishment has finally co-opted the counter culture. (hint: This is not a good thing.)
you want to be re-elected.
What do you do?
Whatever it takes.
If he does what's right for the country his re-election is assured.
apple pie and turkey for Thanksgiving
rest assured Americans
I would love to see Robert Gibbs first presser to go like this: 'Yes Dana Perino,fox news'...'Is the president a Marx....' (Gibbs) 'Next'.
opportunity to ask one question. When you have finished your question, the person on your left can ask theirs." Then just ignore the Fux reporters.
and was totally impressed because they said that they all got along and became a family.
That's how it should be with a well-oiled machine. In-fighting and changes in the principals only leads to disjointedness and lack of message; see McCain's campaign.
Only wish it could be the US of A.
is it possible that we are getting the first true christian in the white house in over 100 years?
good gosh omighty
i hope not
is how they gave so much credit to the volunteers. You can say all you want about strategy and vision, but without a few million sleeves rolled up to do the actual work of making the phone calls and ringing the doorbells, this would have been a loss.
I don't watch tv so I get to miss a rare show like this one from 60 Minutes. I just can't abide commercials.
This team was a miracle. The stars must have been aligned or something. We owe them and the millions who gave their time and money to get our man in the White House. Kudos to them all.
i'm not sure if you can say Obama was a long shot for the presidency! A long shot for the democratic candidacy: yeah! but i think history will show that Bush was the worst president ever and that the democrats couldn't lose, no matter who was the presidential candidate. the economy tumbling helped too, not so much a campaign strategy to dissect.
i think history will show, from Obama, how to win a primary. i think history will also show, from mccain, how to lose the presidency.
least five years. Hats off to the members of "the inner circle," and to the thousands of others who weren't on TV. Seemed like a smart, cool people; hope they enjoyed their time.
Pure genius. We will have to wait and see how the future looks. If the presidency is run as well as the campaign it will be fun.
I heard John Gibson (Yes that John Gibson. It was painful.) today and the next 8 years are just going to be fun because his head is going to explode. Hehehehhehheheheheheeeeeee
You know, I've been very cynical about this whole process, & only decided to vote in the final days, more out of protest against the racists & white sumpremicists,... but looking at the optimism & positivity coming from the center of Obama's platform, I have to say I'm impressed. Between that, & seeing things like videos of people bursting into the National Anthem across the country, or spontaneously hugging total strangers & dancing on the 1 train in NYC, how can you not think that things are looking up?
A well-oiled campaign, superb candidate, tight and cohesive team...and Howard Dean's game plan.
No mention of Dean on the 60 minutes piece is disappointing, this victory was vindication for him too - remember when the other Democrats (largely DLC types) dumped on him for using the same strategy?
Thanks chairman - you got this ball rolling and thanks to Obama and his team for executing it so flawlessly.
-EK.
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