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| Barack Obama reassembles 2008 campaign team to fight mid-terms |
| 2010-01-25 |
| President Barack Obama is reassembling his 2008 campaign team to overhaul his "message" and ease Democratic fears that the party could suffer disastrous losses in November's mid-term elections. David Plouffe, the 2008 campaign manager who opted not to take a White House job is being asked to oversee Senate, House of Representatives and gubernatorial elections in an attempt to rekindle some of the magic that swept Mr Obama to power. Mr Plouffe, a tightly wound, taciturn operative who is credited with masterminding the grassroots organising network that allowed Mr Obama to overcome Hillary Clinton in the Democratic primaries, will work from the Democratic National Committee. He was was reported at the weekend to have been summoned to the Oval Office last week to speak to President Obama hours before the polls closed in Massachusetts, where the Republican candidate Scott Brown inflicted a devastating blow on Democrats by seizing the Senate seat occupied by a Kennedy since 1952. That defeat ended the filibuster-proof Democratic super-majority in the Senate, dashing Mr Obama's hopes of achieving an historic health care reform bill. Mr Obama will deliver his first State of the Union address on Wednesday - an event that was originally postponed so that he could trumpet the signing of a health care bill that is now moribund. David Axelrod, a senior White House adviser and Mr Obama's chief campaign strategist in 2008, insisted to Politico that there would be "no reinventing" of Mr Obama despite the fact that "Washington loves a shakeup or human sacrifice". He reiterated Mr Obama's contention that the voter anger that gave Mr Brown his shock win was the same phenomenon that led to Mr Obama's triumph in 2008 - a claim that Republicans have derided. "We're governing through difficult times," he said. "There's a sense of impatience and frustration about the state of the economy, but also about the nature of how Washington works. That was true in 2008, and it's true now. The president is as determined to deal with those things now as he was then." He added: "The same forces that we saw at play in Massachusetts were the ones that propelled [Mr Obama] to office. There's no reinventing any message here. It's a reaffirmation of a message. And that is our goal to advocate fiercely for the middle class and for people all across this country who've been struggling in this economy and long before the recession." He conceded that the White House had blundered in underestimating Mr Brown. "Everybody would acknowledge that we kind of took Massachusetts for granted and we shouldn't have," Axelrod said. "It just reminded us that we've got to be at the top of our game." White House aides believe the State of the Union will give Mr Obama a chance to change the narrative after the most catastrophic week of his presidency. They believe he needs to tackle the issues of contempt for Washington and dismay at job losses. In Ohio on Friday, Mr Obama, who had the day before assailed Wall Street with a slew of measures designed to cut down the power of big banks, tested a new populist message, stating 20 times that he would fight for ordinary Americans. |
| Posted by:Besoeker |
| #5 Yup, ain't gonna work this time Obama. The voters are onto you. You can't just slip into campaign mode and have everything be peachy keen. Had you not been so arrogant and listened to George Bush, you might have learned just how hard governing really is. Instead you demonize him at every turn and blame him for everything. |
| Posted by: JohnQC 2010-01-25 12:22 |
| #4 Don't think the same message will work. People have had a chance to live under Obumble and company and see what they have planned - and most don't like it. Fool me once - shame on you Fool me twice - shame on me |
| Posted by: CrazyFool 2010-01-25 12:06 |
| #3 Maybe you should reexamine your message and check for bugs in the coding. |
| Posted by: Alaska Paul 2010-01-25 10:51 |
| #2 Now, if only they could get McCain to run for every seat in Congress... |
| Posted by: Nimble Spemble 2010-01-25 09:46 |
| #1 I assume this means we'll have more fainting women. |
| Posted by: BrerRabbit 2010-01-25 09:39 |