Advisers Who Will Alienate the GOP

The Washington Post reports that the White House is turning to outside advisers for counsel on how to sell Syria policy:

The group included men and women steeped in politics as well as communications and national security: former senior advisers David Axelrod and David Plouffe; Robert Gibbs, who served as White House press secretary; former White House communications director Anita Dunn; Stephanie Cutter , who served as deputy campaign manager for Obama’s 2012 campaign; Tommy Vietor, former National Security Council spokesman; and Jon Favreau, who was the president’s speechwriter. Vietor and Favreau now have a joint communications firm.

A White House official who asked not to be identified, because the meeting was private, wrote in an e-mail that the session was not unusual. “We hold regular sessions with folks like this all the time,” the official wrote.

This report will fuel Republican suspicions about the president's motives.  Says Rush Limbaugh:

The Washington Post has an article this morning about how Obama has turned to his "brain trust" for selling his attack on Syria, and the brain trust includes David Axelrod, David Plouffe, Robert Gibbs, Anita Dunn, Stephanie Cutter, Tommy Vietor and some former speechwriter -- and these people are nothing but cutthroat campaign people.  So the way that we're going to sell military intervention in Syria is to beat up the Republicans and force them to vote "yes" with Obama on this. 

In Search of Enemies

David Plouffe carries on the Democratic search for enemies. From yesterday's "Meet the Press" transcript:

MR. GREGORY: Joining us now with a view from the other side we turn to the man who is in charge of getting Barack Obama elected president, his 2008 campaign manager and author of the newly-updated paperback version of his book, "The Audacity to Win: How Obama Won and How We Can Beat the Party of Limbaugh, Beck, and Palin."

...

MR. GREGORY: Finally, a quote from your book, handicapping the Republican field, this is what you write in the new part of "Audacity to Win." "This is the Republican Party of 2010, and I think it will be the Republican Party for a long time. It is hard to see how a Republican gets the presidential nomination without winning the plurality of the Palin-Limbaugh-Beck base of the Republican Party. Without a drastic change in orientation, they will probably nominate someone a good bit out of the mainstream." Who do you have in mind? Who do you think is the most formidable Republican likely to challenge President Obama?

MR. PLOUFFE: Oh, I have no idea. I mean, this time four years ago there was very few of us talking about Barack Obama running for president, including me. So I think some of the people that we think are going to run may not run. There'll be other people who'll run. We'll see. I wish I could just sit back with a tub of popcorn and, and enjoy it because I think it's going to be quite an adventure.

MR. GREGORY: But who is the leader of the Republican Party, would you say?

MR. PLOUFFE: I think the--I think right now--and this is a problem for them long term--I do think that Rush Limbaugh, Glenn Beck, Sarah Palin, they are the leaders of the party. And you see whenever--I was struck by--Senator Coburn from Oklahoma, I think, was at a town hall meeting and said, "I don't agree with anything the Democrats are doing, and I don't agree with Speaker Pelosi, but she's a nice person," and got attacked for that. There, there is an intolerance in that party and an extremism that I think is where the real energy is. And so I think, as you see in '11 and '12, as that presidential primary, those are the people that are going to come out to vote. So I think that's where the real energy is, and I think particularly in, in elections where more people vote, in presidential elections where you have a lot more younger people, minorities, independent voters who skew a little bit more moderate, that's going to be a big problem. So we'll just have to wait and see.

But let's get this--through this election first, and then we'll be right on to the next one.

Limbaugh and Palin have high negatives. Beck has less visibility. In a April 2010 CBS poll, 64 percent were either undecided or did not know enough about him to have an opinion. The rest were evenly split.

Grim Outlook for Democrats

Democrats are trying to wear their game face, as Dan Balz reports in The Washington Post:

"I think the prospect of a Republican takeover -- while not likely, but plausible -- will be very much part of the dynamic in October, and I think that will help us with turnout and some of this enthusiasm gap," said David Plouffe, who was Obama's campaign manager two years ago and is helping to oversee Democratic efforts this fall. Still, he put all Democrats on notice, saying: "We'd better act as a party as if the House and the Senate and every major governor's race is at stake and in danger, because they could be."

Plouffe and other Democratic strategists say Obama will play an important role in making the case that the Republican Party is one of obstruction and indifference. But they think the outcome in November will depend as much on the skill of candidates in mobilizing potential supporters who are now disinclined to vote.

This morning's economic news, however, will overwhelm any campaign messaging. From CNBC:

The US economy lost 125,000 jobs in June, more than economists had forecast, as thousands of temporary census jobs ended and private hiring grew less than expected.

And though the unemployment rate unexpectedly fell to 9.5% from 9.7%, the lowest in a year, it was largely due to more people dropping out of the labor force.

The report was the latest sign that the economic recovery may be faltering.

Private hiring rose 83,000 after increasing only 33,000 the prior month, the Labor Department said. But nonfarm payrolls, dropped 125,000—the largest decline since October—as census jobs fell 225,000.

"Overall what this does is it reinforces the market's view that the U.S. recovery is losing steam,'' said Greg Salvaggio, vice president of trading at Tempus Consulting in Washington.

Epic Journey Redux

President Obama wants the 2010 election to look more like 2008. The New York Times reports:

President Obama is reconstituting the team that helped him win the White House to counter Republican challenges in the midterm elections and recalibrate after political setbacks that have narrowed his legislative ambitions.

Mr. Obama has asked his former campaign manager, David Plouffe, to oversee House, Senate and governor’s races to stave off a hemorrhage of seats in the fall. The president ordered a review of the Democratic political operation — from the White House to party committees — after last week’s Republican victory in the Massachusetts Senate race, aides said.

Implicit in the story is a vote of no confidence in DNC chair Tim Kaine.

The Audacity of YouTube

In The Audacity to Win, his memoir of the 2008 campaign, Obama manager David Plouffe has an important insight about new media. Describing Obama's Philadelphia speech on racial issues, Plouffe says:

As was the case throughout the campaign, most people did not watch the speech on TV. It was delivered on a Tuesday morning, when just about everyone was at work. Instead, people watched it online, most of them on YouTube, either as it was happening or at their leisure later that day or in the days to come. Eventually, tens of millions of voters saw the speech through various outlets.

This marked a fundamental change in political coverage and message consumption, and one that will only continue as technology rolls forward: big moments, political or otherwise, will no longer be remembered by people as times when everyone gathered around TVs to watch a speech, press conference or other event. Increasingly, most of us will recall firing up the computer, searching for a video and watching it at home or at the office — or even on our cell phones.

Read more: http://www.time.com/time/politics/article/0,8599,1932963-2,00.html#ixzz0XL32ePPl

Plouffe at Harvard

Obama campaign manager David Plouffe, appeared at Harvard's Institute of Politics on Wednesday. He took questions about Obama's New Hampshire loss during the Democratic primaries, Sarah Palin, and the future of grassroots organizing.

Plouffe Speaks

Obama campaign manager David Plouffe recently spoke at Pomona College in Claremont. From one local news account:

Plouffe. speaking to a more than three-fourths full audience at Bridges Auditorium, said the campaign also challenged conventional political wisdom where "almost every time we did we profited," Plouffe said.

"The belief that somehow if we win Iowa, it would reset the entire campaign and give us the ability to make up 20 to 25 point deficits in less than a month against Sen. (Hillary) Clinton in other states. The belief that states like Idaho, Kansas and Nebraska were an important part of securing the nomination. when all the press
focused on bigger states like California, New Jersey and Massachusetts. Even if it was done quietly, and no one probably appreciated what we were doing, that our effort would pay off."

Another story on the same talk here.

Obama's Manager Writes of Limbaugh

David Plouffe, who ran the brilliant campaign of Barack Obama, is pushing the joining the effort to make Rush Limbaugh the face of the GOP:The 2008 election sent many messages. At the top:

Americans wanted to turn the page on the politics of division and partisan pettiness, and they wanted a government -- and country -- that would put the middle class first. Watching the Republicans operate this past month, it would appear that they missed that unmistakable signal. Instead, Rush Limbaugh has become their leader.

As Jonathan Martin writes in The Politico, the tactic is deliberate and systematic. It is also clever. On the one hand, the focus on Limbaugh fires up Democrats who hate him. On the other hand, it presents Republican pols with a dilemma. Support Limbaugh, and risk attachment to his more radioactive comments. Criticize Limbaugh, and incur the wrath of El Rushbo.

The president is a student of Saul Alinsky, and it is clear that his troops are operating according to Alinsky methods. Consider these excerpts from Rules for Radicals:

• "Pick the target, freeze it, personalize it, and polarize it."
• "The enemy properly goaded and guided in his reaction will be your major strength.”