Osama Bin Laden

FLASHBACK 2008: McCain, Clinton Slam Obama For Saying He'd Go Get Bin Laden In Pakistan (VIDEO)

Jillian Rayfield | May 3, 2011, 5:55PM

Remember back during the 2008 election when John McCain -- and Hillary Clinton -- pummeled Barack Obama for saying he would go into Pakistan to get Osama bin Laden if the Pakistani government wouldn't?

We do...

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Barack Obama

Obama On Re-Elect: Lasting Change Doesn't Come 'Quickly Or Easily'

Susan Crabtree | April 4, 2011, 10:14AM

President Obama launched his reelection campaign in an unusually low-key fashion Monday -- with the simple posting of a video featuring level-headed endorsements from a cross-section of Americans, a far-cry from the adulation and soaring rhetoric that catapulted the junior senator from Illinois into the Oval Office three years ago.

Although understated, the video, titled "It Begins With Us," signals Obama's formal shift into campaign mode and marks the official beginning of a fundraising blitz Obama and his team hopes will dwarf his staggering record in 2008.

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Fox News

Fox News Editor Pushed Emphasis On Obama 'Socialism' Ahead Of 2008 Election

Brian Beutler | February 1, 2011, 2:20PM

In late 2008, one of Fox News' top editors escalated his efforts to have the network portray then-Senator Barack Obama as a socialist and an anti-white racist during the waning days of the presidential election.

On October 27, 2008, then news-editor Bill Sammon emailed colleagues with references in Obama's first book Dreams From My Father to socialism, Marxism and Obama's past relationship with a white woman.

That email, obtained by Media Matters, was subject-lined "fyi: Obama's references to socialism, liberalism, Marxism and Marxists in his autobiography, 'Dreams from My Father.' Plus a couple of his many self-described 'racial obsessions'..."

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Pres '12

PPP Poll: Early Look At 2012 Finds Obama Faring Well In North Carolina

Marc Kilstein | November 24, 2010, 8:31AM

President Barack Obama

In 2008, President Obama became the first Democratic presidential nominee to win North Carolina since the mid-1970s. And according to a newly released PPP survey, he's well-positioned once again in this historically red state.

The early survey shows Obama faring well against Sarah Palin and Newt Gingrich, while hanging close with Mitt Romney and Mike Huckabee. The survey finds:

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Polling bias

Pew Study Finds Republican Bias In Landline-Only Polls

Marc Kilstein | November 23, 2010, 8:18AM

For years, people have contended that a right-leaning bias exists in public opinion polls that fail to consider cell phone users. This argument has some new backing-- a Pew Research Center report released Monday suggests that polls based on landline-only samples do, in fact, suffer from a Republican bias.

The report, which confirms findings from a mid-October study, suggests that support for Republican candidates is significantly higher when a survey's sample is composed only of landline telephone respondents, rather than both landline and cell phone users ("dual frame samples"). Pew calculates a bias among likely voters in 2010 that is about twice as large as the statistical skew evident in 2008 landline-only election surveys.

In the October study, Pew looked at four 2010 election polls and found that in three of them, "estimates from the landline samples alone produced slightly more support for Republican candidates and less support for Democratic candidates, resulting in differences of four to six points in the margin." In the latest study, it was determined that Republicans were favored in landline-only likely voter surveys by an average of 5.1 percentage points more than they were in polls with dual frame samples. In the 2008 presidential election, Barack Obama's lead over John McCain was on average 2.4 percentage points smaller in landline samples.

For a single-poll example of this trend, Pew's final pre-election poll found Republicans leading the congressional generic ballot question 51%-39% for the landline-only sample, whereas the lead narrowed to 48%-42% when cell phone interviews were also considered. Currently, the analysis notes, House Republicans lead by a seven-point margin.

While Americans are undeniably growing more reliant on cell phones, there are still those who have access to both a landline and cell phone ("dual users"). The report suggests that dual users who are reached by cell phone differ demographically and attitudinally from dual users reached on their landlines. As such, another bias emerges-- those reached by cell phone, who "are younger, more likely to be black or Hispanic, less likely to be college graduates, less conservative and more Democratic," gave the GOP a five-point advantage in the congressional generic ballot question, whereas Republicans led by 12-points among dual users reached by landline. Pollsters are thus faced with yet another bias to counter, as polling for the 2012 elections is already well underway.

For Pew's complete report, click here.

Exit polls

Exit Polls Give Insight Into 2010's Big Shift Right

Marc Kilstein | November 19, 2010, 8:40AM

A woman voting

With November's elections behind us, exit polls can now help explain how exactly things played out at the polls. The American Enterprise Institute For Public Policy Research released their analysis of this year's House exit polls, and within it, a picture emerges of this election season's altered, right-leaning electorate.

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2010 elections

New Obama TV Ad Aims At '08 Voters: 'We Cannot Sit This One Out' (VIDEO)

Christina Bellantoni | October 14, 2010, 5:30AM

President Barack Obama

President Obama stars in a new national television ad to boost get-out-the-vote efforts, a 30-second commercial that the Democratic National Committee hopes lays out the stakes for the midterm elections next month.

"If the other side does win, they will spend the next two years fighting for the very same policies that led to this recession in the first place," Obama says in the ad.

TPM obtained a copy of the ad which you can watch below. It's aimed to run along with Obama's planned town hall forum on BET, MTV and CMT tonight.

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2010 elections

NYT Mag Interview: Here Comes Obama 2.0

Evan McMorris-Santoro | October 13, 2010, 6:28PM

President Obama on the way to George Mason University

The New York Times Magazine is up with this weekend's massive interview with President Obama by the paper's Peter Baker. The story in a nutshell? Obama is ready to reboot after a tough first two years in office.

From the story:

While proud of his record, Obama has already begun thinking about what went wrong -- and what he needs to do to change course for the next two years. He has spent what one aide called "a lot of time talking about Obama 2.0" with his new interim chief of staff, Pete Rouse, and his deputy chief of staff, Jim Messina. During our hour together, Obama told me he had no regrets about the broad direction of his presidency. But he did identify what he called "tactical lessons." He let himself look too much like "the same old tax-and-spend liberal Democrat." He realized too late that "there's no such thing as shovel-ready projects" when it comes to public works. Perhaps he should not have proposed tax breaks as part of his stimulus and instead "let the Republicans insist on the tax cuts" so it could be seen as a bipartisan compromise.

Here are some highlights from the transcript of Baker's long interview with the President.

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2012 elections

Obama-Clinton Dream Ticket? Not. Happening. (VIDEO)

Christina Bellantoni | October 6, 2010, 2:38PM

Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton at a rally in Unity, NH in June 2008.

Would Hillary Clinton somehow run with President Obama to take Vice President Joe Biden's place in 2012? It's the latest -- but utterly nonsense -- idea generating cable chatter to rival the "dream ticket" rumors from 2008.

Obama allies have been shouting "No!" as loud as they can, but given the long, rocky Clinton-Obama history, the train has left the station and there's no turning back.

Clinton said today at the Fortune "Most Powerful Women" summit that she has "absolutely no interest and no reason for doing anything other than just dismissing these stories and moving on."

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2010 elections

Obama Aims To Rekindle Youth Starpower For Midterms

Christina Bellantoni | September 28, 2010, 6:00AM

July 26, 2007

In 2008, Barack Obama somehow proved wrong the skeptics who swore up and down that young people can't be motivated to vote in large numbers. His campaign aggressively targeted college campuses, enticed 17-year-olds who'd be just old enough to participate and asked school-age children to convince their parents he was the best candidate.

And Obama needs them now more than ever.

Cue this week's big education push, which Democrats say aims to respark energy and voting enthusiasm among young people.

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Christine O'Donnell

O'Donnell In 2008: Obama Is 'Anti-American' (VIDEO)

Jillian Rayfield | September 15, 2010, 3:17PM

Christine O'Donnell, candidate for U.S. Senate (R-DE)

Christine O'Donnell, Republican nominee for senate in Delaware and anti-masturbation crusader, thought Barack Obama was anti-American before it was cool to think Barack Obama is anti-American.

Long before the Democratic presidential primary in 2008, O'Donnell said on Fox News that Republicans would rather run against Obama in the general election because "he's soooo liberal. He's anti-American."

h/t MediaMatters.

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2012 elections

President's Right Hand Man: Obama 'Not Concerned With His Reelection'

Christina Bellantoni | August 18, 2010, 8:59AM

David Plouffe

In a new chapter for the paperback edition of his look back at the 2008 campaign, Barack Obama's campaign manager David Plouffe argues the president isn't looking toward 2012.

"I can tell you that the president is not concerned with his reelection. He is focused on leading the country forward," Plouffe writes in the forthcoming paperback version of his 2009 book "The Audacity to Win."

If any political observers weren't already snickering at those two lines, Plouffe adds: "We have no reelection campaign in the wings. We'll build it when the time is appropriate."

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MN-SEN

Right Wing Howls: Felons Put Franken Over The Top! (Nope)

Eric Kleefeld | July 15, 2010, 2:09PM

Minnesota Governor Tim Pawlenty (R), Senator Al Franken (D-MN) and former Senator Norm Coleman (R-MN)

The right-wing media has been going ape over a study from Minnesota Majority, a conservative group in the Land of 10,000 Lakes, claiming that hundreds of felons illegally voted in the disputed 2008 Senate race that ultimately saw comedian and Democratic activist Al Franken defeat incumbent Republican Sen. Norm Coleman by a mere 312 votes out of 2.9 million. But is there any validity to it? Nope.

Fox News -- an outlet that has a long-running bad relationship with Franken -- claims: "The final recount vote in the race, determined six months after Election Day, showed Franken beat Coleman by 312 votes -- fewer votes than the number of felons whose illegal ballots were counted, according to Minnesota Majority's newly released study, which matched publicly available conviction lists with voting records."

But were there really so many illegal ballots? And did they all go for Al Franken? As TPM's in-house expert on that roller-coaster of an election, recount and litigation, allow me to walk you through all the problems with this new claim -- plus the small kernel of truth that lies within.

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CA-GOV

Meg Whitman Copies 'Obama Playbook' In Pursuit Of Her California Dreams

Christina Bellantoni | July 8, 2010, 6:08AM

It was only a matter of time before Republican candidates took a hard look at Barack Obama's 2008 campaign strategy and decided to make it their own. A few have dabbled in Obama-like Web sites, campaign texting and classifying t-shirts as contributions, but it's billionaire Meg Whitman who is trying to copy piece after piece of the 2008 campaign and make the Obama Playbook her own.

Whitman, a former eBay executive, is pulling out all the fancy "change" messages -- and campaign tactics -- as she battles Attorney General Jerry Brown (D) for the governor's mansion. Whether this strategy can work in a state that's stayed solid blue for presidential elections -- but which has twice elected Republican Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger -- is a very open question. But the race is all tied up, according to a new poll out yesterday.

The Democratic take on Whitman being a 2010 version of Barack Obama? "In her dreams," they say. And of course, much of Obama's success had to do with the candidate's own popularity and appeal. Obama was a young, African-American senator who represented generational change and used technology to mass finance much of his campaign. Whitman is a middle-aged former tech CEO who's already self-financed her campaign to the tune of almost $100 million. But plenty of the building blocks and strategies of the Obama '08 effort can be copied. And Whitman seems to be trying to duplicate pretty much all of them.

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2010 elections

Dem '10 Strategy: Get First-Time '08 Voters To Make It A Second Time

Christina Bellantoni | April 28, 2010, 5:42PM

DNC Chairman Tim Kaine

Democratic National Committee Chariman Tim Kaine today outlined a new strategy aimed at keeping his party's large Congressional majority in this fall's midterm elections, and it's mainly geared around preserving the young, diverse voting coalition that helped elected President Obama in 2008.

He said the DNC will try to get those 15 million new, first-time voters from 2008 to show up in an election that does not attract as much interest by having Democratic grassroots operatives make "hand-to-hand" communication with them. He said if the DNC speaks frequently to these voters (1.3 million in Texas, 400,000 in Ohio and 750,000 in Colorado) and remind them that their vote for Democrats is integral to Obama's success that will make the difference. He said they are above all else loyal to Obama.

"We know who they are," Kaine (D-VA) said on a call today for reporters and bloggers. "If we are able to significantly increase by 8 to 10 percent, it can have a sizable affect."

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Financial Reform

In Reform Speech Today, Obama Will Talk About 'Failure Of Responsibility'

Christina Bellantoni | April 22, 2010, 6:00AM

President Barack Obama With Jon Favreau and Ben Rhodes

President Obama today in New York will call for five "key proposals" that must be included in strong financial reform legislation, the White House said. Obama will say taxpayers must be protected if a large financial institutions fails and will call for "new transparency" to the system of financial markets and consumer financial protections.

The White House said he will say any legislation must include the "Volcker Rule," which sets limits on the size of banks and the risks that banking institutions can take and he also will say the measure must give investors and pension holders a bigger role in saying who manages the companies via "say on pay" reforms.

TPMDC obtained a brief excerpt of the remarks Obama has planned for this morning's speech at Cooper Union, which comes as the Senate nears a bipartisan deal on a measure our sources say could net 75 votes when all is said and done. Read them after the jump.

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Financial Reform

Flashback to 2008: DNC Uses McCain's 'Fundamentals' Comment To Hammer Republicans On Financial Reform

Christina Bellantoni | April 20, 2010, 6:00AM

As Democrats prepare for a financial reform battle with Republicans, the Democratic National Committee this morning is going up on national cable television with an ad reminding voters about the 2008 election. The new 30-second spot stars none other than Sen. John McCain and a flashback to his "fundamentals" of the economy "are strong" line that Democrats played on an endless loop in the final weeks of the campaign.

"For years Republicans stood by while Wall Street ran wild," the narrator says in the ad, obtained early by TPMDC.

Before replaying the the McCain line from September 2008, the narrator reminds voters of when the economy collapsed at the close of the campaign. That was a major factor in Barack Obama's surge in the polls and eventual electoral victory. The spot goes after Senate Republicans who appear to be united against the bill backed by Obama and Democratic leadership, saying they are "working with Wall Street lobbyists to block reform" that would prevent the need for future bailouts.

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Veepstakes

McCain's Veep Vetter Gives To Pawlenty, Not Palin

Rachel Slajda | April 16, 2010, 9:53AM

Sen. John McCain (R-AZ) and Sarah Palin

The man in charge of vetting possible running mates for Sen. John McCain's 2008 presidential campaign has given money to only one of those considered -- and it's not Sarah Palin.

A.B. Culvahouse, who interviewed Mitt Romney, Tim Pawlenty and Palin, has only given to Pawlenty's PAC, CNN reports, donating $500 in March.

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Health Care

Like 2008 All Over Again: Obama Sells Health Care At Campaign Rally

Christina Bellantoni | March 19, 2010, 1:01PM

President Barack Obama

Pop quiz! When did Barack Obama say these things to an arena full of people?

"In just a few days a century-long struggle will culminate in a historic vote."

"We are two days away from changing America."

Hard to tell what's from the 2008 presidential campaign and what's from today's health care rally, isn't it? Obama this morning said the House health care reform vote Sunday is "historic" and cited the fight of presidents past to get health care done.

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Health Care

2008 Redux: McCain v. Obama At Health Care Summit (VIDEO)

Christina Bellantoni | February 25, 2010, 12:37PM

President Obama and Sen. John McCain (R-AZ).

Sen. John McCain attacked President Obama and Congressional Democrats at the health care summit for what he said was "unsavory" dealmaking, prompting a reminder from Obama that the 2008 campaign is over.

McCain, facing a tough primary challenge from the right, used Republican talking points about "special deals" which are no longer in the bill and cited the 2,400-page document that passed the Senate.

He called on Obama to "start over," and said voters "want us to sit down together and do what's best for all Americans."

"They want us to go back to the beginning," McCain said.

Obama reminded McCain (R-AZ) that "We're not campaigning anymore. The election is over."

"I'm reminded of that every day," McCain retorted.

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Joe Lieberman

Lieberman Would Have Shown Dem Prez Candidates The Love In '08 Campaign - But No One Asked

Christina Bellantoni | February 16, 2010, 8:55AM

Sen. John McCain (R-AZ), Sen. Joe Lieberman (I-CT), and Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-SC)

Sen. Joe Lieberman nearly became the first person in history to be the vice presidential nominee for two different parties, but it turns out one reason he so fully embraced Republican Sen. John McCain during the presidential campaign is that none of his fellow Democrats asked for his help.

In 2007, Lieberman (I-CT) was reviled by Democrats who supported him being booted from his caucus thanks in part to the Iraq war. It should not have been much of a surprise that Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton weren't racing for an endorsement.

But it was to Lieberman, according to an account described in the book "Game Change" and confirmed to me by Lieberman's office.

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WWE

'The Barack Is Cookin' A Troops Tribute For The WWE

Christina Bellantoni | December 16, 2009, 9:59AM

President Obama will appear on a World Wrestling Entertainment special this weekend to pay tribute to troops serving abroad, the wrestling network announced.

Obama, no stranger to WWE, has recorded a holiday message for the Saturday 9 p.m. "Tribute to the Troops," which will detail wrestling stars who have performed for troops at bases in the Middle East.

Gen. David Petraeus also will be on the program, which airs on NBC.

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Health Care

McCain v. Obama, Part II - Health Care Plan Wasn't So Bad

Christina Bellantoni | December 10, 2009, 12:46PM

President Obama and Sen. John McCain (R-AZ).

With Sen. John McCain back in the spotlight leading the Republican opposition to health care, the biggest fight he and Barack Obama had last year over the issue has evaporated.

In 2008, McCain proposed taxing employer- based health care benefits, an idea Obama derided as dangerous.

The proposal shaping up in the health care bill (follow our updates here) isn't exactly what McCain proposed, but it turns out Obama wasn't as opposed to it as it seemed in 2008.

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2008 campaign

Battle Of The Books As Obama Hand Plouffe Challenges Fans To Outsell Former Rival Sarah Palin

Christina Bellantoni | December 7, 2009, 11:54AM

Former Obama campaign manager David Plouffe is challenging his fans and political readers to a literary duel with "our old friend Sarah Palin."

In a new Web video, Plouffe announces a one-day-only attempt for his book on the 2008 campaign to out-sell Palin's "Going Rogue," which, he notes, has sold over a million copies.

"It's selling about like a distortions and mistruths would at a tea party rally," Plouffe says in campaign-style Web video you can watch after the jump.

"We thought it might be fun, a fun little exercise, on one day to see if we can use some of our old organizing techniques and spread the world to see if we might be able to beat her for just one day," Plouffe said. The challenge is for Tuesday at noon.

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Ambassadorships

Obama Names Top Campaign Bundler To Ambassador Spot

Christina Bellantoni | November 30, 2009, 6:45PM

President Barack Obama

President Obama tonight named another top donor to a plum diplomatic post.

In an evening release with several other nominations, Obama said he would appoint attorney Allan Katz to be ambassador to Portugal. Like all ambassadorships, it is subject to senate confirmation.

Katz, a former City Commissioner from Tallahassee, Florida, pulled together more than $500,000 in donations to the Obama campaign as one of the Democrat's top "bundlers."

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2008 campaign

Top 10 Things You Didn't Know Before Reading Plouffe's 'Audacity To Win'

Christina Bellantoni | November 27, 2009, 11:56AM

David Plouffe

TPMDC is thankful today for political books that aren't boring or retread, and David Plouffe's "The Audacity to Win" fits into that category.

Plouffe ran the Obama campaign in 2008 and still does work for the DNC's campaign arm Organizing for America. He dishes in his book on some of the campaign's best-kept secrets.

We've reported on a few since the book came out - the Obama camp leaked the John Edwards haircut, they pushed for an early state campaign pledge to "box in" Hillary Clinton and Edwards offered to endorse for a spot on the ticket.

But there's so much more.

I covered the entire long campaign, and it was fascinating to read a candid book and peek under the hood at what had been a famously tight-lipped shop.

There are plenty of examples of Plouffe being cheap, and a few mentions of Plouffe and Robert Gibbs in their boxers.

After the jump, TPMDC's Top 10 things that Plouffe reveals in "Audacity to Win."

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Organizing for America

Like An '08 Flashback: OFA Targets Sarah Palin As 'Dangerous'

Christina Bellantoni | November 20, 2009, 10:30AM

Fmr. Gov. Sarah Palin, Sen. John McCain (R-AZ)

Organizing for America, the DNC's campaign arm set up to support President Obama's agenda, has a familiar target today: Sarah Palin.

Mitch Stewart, OFA's director, told supporters in an email just now they need help to raise "$500,000 in the next week to push back against Sarah Palin and her special interest allies."

His argument is that Palin's "lies" about health care are "widely covered by the media, then constantly echoed by right-wing attack groups and others who are trying to defeat reform." He uses her death panels meme as an example.

In his book "The Audacity to Win," Obama campaign manager David Plouffe said he was shocked that Palin was such a good fundraising driver for the team.

He writes that he looked at the online fundraising numbers a few hours after Palin made her big debut at the Republican National Convention going after Obama as his only experience being a community organizer.

"I couldn't believe what I saw," Plouffe wrote.

More from the book:

"We had taken in millions of dollars in the three hours since Palin had started speaking. We hadn't even asked for most of it; we had sent out just a single unplanned fund-raising email highlighting her attacks on community organizers, but it was just starting to hit people's in-boxes as I checked the numbers. So the big response from the last three hours meant people were merely venting via contribution. Her speech might have ginned up their base, but apparently it had sent ours into orbit."

He said he thought, "I hope she keeps this up. Sarah Palin has now become our best fund-raiser."

Sounds like that hasn't changed much.

Stewart's email from today after the jump.

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2008 campaign

Trippi Disputes Plouffe's Claim About Edwards Offer To Trade Endorsement For Joint Ticket

Christina Bellantoni | November 17, 2009, 1:01PM

Fmr. Howard Dean Campaign Manager Joe Trippi

Former John Edwards adviser Joe Trippi is pushing back against David Plouffe's claim that the Edwards camp tried to strike deals on the vice presidency during the 2008 Democratic primary.

As we reported last night, Plouffe charges in his new book "The Audacity to Win" that a "senior Edwards adviser" suggested Edwards would drop out and that he and Obama could team up as a joint ticket.

Trippi told the Washington Post's Greg Sargent he wasn't aware of the pitch. He also suggested Edwards, who was later mired by scandal due to an affair, was more interested in being attorney general than the No. 2 slot.

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Sarah Palin

Sarah Palin Quotes C.S. Lewis And Asks For Cash

Christina Bellantoni | November 17, 2009, 10:16AM

For all her 2012 denials, former Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin is sure sounding like a presidential candidate in her fundraising emails.

Palin (R) asks supporters for up to $5,000 in donations, and anything over $100 gets a free, signed copy of "Going Rogue."

She says Ronald Reagan "showed us the way" and "charted the course for us," and goes on to quote C.S. Lewis:

C. S. Lewis once wrote: "We all want progress, but if you are on the wrong road, progress means doing an about-turn and walking back to the right road." We need to get back on the right road. In order to progress, we must return to our founding principles of limited government, fiscal responsibility, and strong national defense.

Palin says she'll help commonsense candidates "regardless of party" and asks for fundraising help with a peppy message:

"We won't let anyone tell us to sit down and shut up. We're going to stand up, stand together, and fight for what's right!"

Palin's full email after the jump.

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2008 campaign

Plouffe Shocker: Edwards Camp Offered To Endorse If Obama Would Pick Him As VP

Christina Bellantoni | November 16, 2009, 5:56PM

Fmr. Sen. John Edwards (D-NC), Fmr. Barack Obama campaign manager David Plouffe

In the thick of the Democratic presidential primary, a top operative offered up John Edwards' withdrawal from the race and endorsement - on the condition the person he endorsed would offer him a spot on the ticket.

David Plouffe details the deal that "a senior Edwards" adviser" tried to ink before the South Carolina primary, spilling the beans in his book "The Audacity To Win."

Plouffe, then campaign manager for Barack Obama, was worried after the New Hampshire loss and polls tightening in South Carolina.

He said that the rival Edwards camp was in trouble and wanted to make a move with either Obama or Hillary Clinton while Edwards was "at a point of maximum leverage."

In this portion of the book, Plouffe hedges a bit, saying he's not sure Edwards was aware of the effort's specificity.

But he also has direct quotes, suggesting he documented the conversation.

Read the excerpt after the jump.

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2008 campaign

Campaign Tactics They Could Believe In: Obama '08 Pushed Early State Pledge

Christina Bellantoni | November 12, 2009, 10:39AM

David Plouffe

Remember the mess that was Florida, Michigan and the earliest Iowa caucus in history?

Turns out some of the complications were orchestrated by the Obama campaign.

In his new book "The Audacity to Win" Obama campaign manager David Plouffe confesses they tried to "box in" Clinton after the Democratic National Committee's Rules and Bylaws Committee decided to strip Florida and Michigan of their delegates as punishment for holding primaries earlier than allowed. (In the end, it all worked out, but it caused complete chaos for months as the primary dragged on.)

Plouffe writes:

"Emboldened by the drift of the rules committee, we took it to the next level. I asked Steve Hildebrand to go on a secret diplomatic mission to speak with the four early-state party chairs, encouraging them to ask all the candidates to sign a pledge stating they would not campaign in any states (Florida and Michigan) that had violated the rules and were threatening the approved early states' primacy.

Yes, this was in our self-interest. But it was also in theirs. If these two big states were penalized as severely as possible, and we all committed not to campaign in them, then the role of the early states was protected with no ambiguity."

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2008 campaign

Rubbing It In? OFA's Obama Feed Tweets About Election '08

Christina Bellantoni | November 3, 2009, 7:44PM

President Barack Obama at the George Mason University Patriot Center in Arlington, VA

As Virginia Democrats brace for a potential sweeping loss to Republicans tonight, Organizing for America chooses to reminisce.

The Barack Obama Twitter feed posted for its more than 2.5 million subscribers at 7:06 p.m.:

"Tomorrow will mark a year since our historic victory. Do you have a favorite 2008 Election Day memory? Share your stories via #Nov4"

Tonight the "By the People" documentary about the 2008 campaign is debuting on HBO, so Democrats who don't want to hear bad news can just change the channel and relive the good 'ol days.

As we reported yesterday, OFA is organizing campaign reunions.

Barack Obama

Remember When? White House Staff (And President) Relive Campaign As OFA Plans Reunions

Christina Bellantoni | November 1, 2009, 6:17PM

Organizing for America is putting together campaign "reunions" in honor of the one-year anniversary of Barack Obama's presidential election victory.

Wednesday marks the anniversary of President Barack Obama's historic election, and White House staffers, campaign volunteers and supporters are reliving the moment.

Most prominent in the coming week is Tuesday's HBO debut of the "By the People" documentary, a retelling of the long campaign.

Also happening this week are reunions put together by the volunteers still active in Organizing for America, the next generation of the Obama campaign.

On a sign-up sheet for local reunion events, OFA tells supporters:

"One year ago, President-Elect Obama told us that the election victory was only the beginning of the change we all sought -- and today, through Organizing for America, we're fighting just as hard to make health insurance reform a reality, this year. But while we seek to live up to the President's words, we're planning to gather together to reconnect, celebrate, and remember that moment, last year, when we won a historic victory.

So this week, we're holding reunion events across the country for folks who were involved in the campaign. Can you attend one near you?"

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