David Plouffe visited campus a few days ago, and the GW Hatchet just wrote a great article on the event:
Political strategist and chief campaign manager for President Barack Obama's 2008 presidential campaign David Plouffe spoke at the Elliott School Tuesday night, discussing how the Democrats could lose in Massachusetts, health care reform, and his new book, "The Audacity to Win: The Inside Story and Lessons of Barack Obama's Historic Victory."
On October 15-16, The Graduate School of Political Management will be sponsoring a conference being held in San Paulo, Brazil entitled "O Efeito Obama" (The Obama Effect). The conference will feature key advisers from the Obama Campaign as well as top politicos from Brazil. I recently sat down with Bernardo Villela, one of the organizers of O Efeito Obama, to discuss the conference. Here's my interview:
Recently, Colin Delany, founder and chief editor of Epolitics.com, released an e-book "Learning from Obama: Lessons for Online Communicators in 2009 and Beyond."
Delany discusses how integral the use of the internet is to communicate and ultimately capture victory in a campaign. With the ability to carefully target voters and volunteers, the Obama campaign was able to propel forward by using the internet. It aided in facilitating conversations with American voters and providing them with access previously reserved for campaign staffers. The importance of internet and technology is discussed throughout the ebook and it can be found at the following link:
Organizing for America, (a continuation of the grassroots efforts of those who volunteered for the Obama campaign, and now help push President Obama's agenda) have set forth in local communities around the country on a "Listening Tour." The idea behind this tour is to get into communities and find out what the best ways are to organize, and ultimately push the President's agenda.
Yesterday (Aug. 11, 2009) I had the pleasure of attending one of these meetings in Richmond, VA. I wanted to see what it was all about, and how the communities are engaging OFA. What I found was a gathering of a large, diverse, and motivated group ready to take action. The overall theme of the evening was how to help push through health care reform, more specifically, the need for a public option. Thorough the meeting, people discussed what has worked, what hasn't, and what the next steps will be.
In an effort to boost graduation rates and improve the overall quality of K-12 education, Obama is taking a courageous jump forward for education. Status quo is no longer an option for education according to Obama. His strong commitment to bringing change to America is clear. As events enfold, it will be interesting to see what kind of fundamental change can be accomplished by the Obama adminstration.
Van Jones, the founder of Green For All and the current Special Advisor for Green Jobs, Enterprise and Innovation at the White House Council on Environmental Quality, came to speak to the 80 Million Strong For Young American Jobs Summit this morning.
Among many topics, he spent a few minutes talking about the difference between governing and campaigning. As a member of the Obama team, his comments were uniquely insightful. Here is what he said:
When he announced the formation of Organizing For America, President Obama commented that his viewers, the American people, "built the largest grassroots movement in history." In Iowa he proclaimed "you have done what the cynics said we couldn't do." In Grant Park on November 4th: "I will never forget who this victory truly belongs to--it belongs to you." He made it very clear that his campaign was not his, but the American people's. He created an image of an operation in which he was the mouthpiece of millions.
But this image of a "people led" movement was just that, an image. The truth about the Obama campaign, as far as I can see, it was the most effective "top-down" organization that presidential politics has ever seen. The message was tightly controlled, events were well staged and most moves were part of a grand and well executed strategy. Town halls were not used to hear people as much as to get them to vote and volunteer. Large rallies were not debates about issues, they were about supporting a candidate.
