Receiving daily emails from David Plouffe, Campaign Manager for Barack Obama, I often wondered who the hell he was. I couldn't even pronounce his name and I never heard a peep about him in the media. It was always David Axelrod or Bill Burton, but never David Plouffe.
Well, the Chicago Tribune just ran a nice piece on David Plouffe and how central he was to Obama's primary victory.
Think about the things that led to Obama's victory:
- No drama. How rare did we hear of internal rumblings in the Obama campaign. Almost never did we hear them, in fact, even during low moments like last October or Reverend Wright. Thank David Plouffe for this. Obama demanded no drama and Plouffe kept the ship in order. Look at ANY other campaign and you can see how difficult it is keep a lid on things.
- Keep the money coming in. It was Plouffe who managed the historic fundraising apparatus over the internet.
- Spend wisely. Saving money wherever possible, Plouffe allowed Obama to spend however much he needed when he traveled.
- Keep message discipline. Though this was more Axelrod's function, Plouffe was clearly a key player in keeping the campaign team on message.
- Morale control. Like Obama, David Plouffe never got too high or too low. What an emotionally exhausting event this campaign must have been. But Plouffe insisted nobody lose focus.
- Caucuses. It was Plouffe more than anybody else who figured out that winning the caucus states would give Obama the victory. Plouffe knew the process inside and out, and set the organizational teams out to place like North Dakota and Idaho.
- Numbers. Plouffe "released" the famous memo that predicted so many post-Super Tuesday results. He was Poblano-like in his accuracy for much of the season.
- Organization. Atop the massive grassroots Obama organization stood David Plouffe. He didn't manage the organization so much as facilitate it.
I just thought this utterly impressive person deserved some serious kudos here. He will be even more critical in the general election. When you get an email from David Plouffe, know that you are hearing from a remarkable person.