Moe Lane

Via AoSHQ, via Jim Geraghty: Barack Obama demonstrating the same humility and self-awareness that served his party so well in 2010.

When David Plouffe, his campaign manager, first interviewed for a job with [Barack Obama] in 2006, the senator gave him a warning: “I think I could probably do every job on the campaign better than the people I’ll hire to do it,” he said.

This must burn Plouffe’s soul like acid every time that he hears this vignette repeated. Because he knows and I know that without David Plouffe Barack Obama would be a two-term Senator right now – and probably running for President again, which is admittedly something that Obama would preferring to be doing anyway.  Because, apparently, running for re-election is hard: when you’ve been President for a while and want the job for a while longer then wicked people expect you to explain your past behavior, instead of giving you a new and exciting job higher up the ladder…

Plouffe took some time away from his current job – which is to say, rewriting the Democratic party’s rules so as to eliminate any chance of a successful primary challenge to the President in 2012 – to graciously define the Republican party’s November victory conditions for it. Apparently, according to Davy if we’re not “winning back the House, winning back the Senate and winning every major governor’s race” on Election Day then we’ve failed.  Which is an entertaining little argument, and quite clever (for a Democratic strategist), for two reasons.  The first is that it’s essentially unfalsifiable: all a Democrat has to do is declare that a particular governor’s race is ‘major’ and hey presto! – the GOP has failed.

The second reason that this is almost-clever is that while most people can see through that trap, not as many might challenge the underlying assumption that there can be a quantifiable definition of ‘victory’ at all.  Which is blatantly untrue: you see, you can win any number of seats and still not impose your political will on the civic landscape (something that the antiwar movement learned in 2007*).  Put another way: to quote SM Stirling, you win battles not by killing the enemy, but by breaking their hearts and making them run.

Which we are already doing to the Democrats in Congress. That is what victory looks like.

Davy.

Moe Lane (crosspost) (more…)

Or, Why Barack Obama Will Win the 2012 Democratic Nomination.

A good number of people – on both sides of the spectrum – are allowing themselves to speculate on the previously-unthinkable scenario that possibly, just possibly, the President might be successfully challenged in the primaries in 2012.  This is America, right?  People come out of nowhere to win elections all the time.  Why, look at President Obama!  He did precisely that in 2008.

Yes.  That’s why he’s redesigned the system to keep it from happening in 2012. (more…)

Two thoughts on this Mark MacKimmon article on the return of Plouffe:

1. It is wonderful to see that the fine old geek tradition of casually discounting the intelligence and judgment of the American people continues unabated in the online community*.
2. Nowhere does it state in the article just how it is that having David Plouffe back on Barack Obama’s team is going to help the Democrats keep seats in November.  That’s probably because it won’t.

Via Hot Air Headlines… and I’m sure that I had more reasons for saving the original draft from this morning than are readily apparent.  Ach, well.

Moe Lane

*Calling it wonderful is sarcasm, which is another fine old geek tradition.

Oh, this should be fun:

Plouffe stepping up role as adviser to White House

David Plouffe, the man who managed President Barack Obama’s campaign, will be taking on an expanded role as an outside adviser to the White House, according to sources familiar with the plan, a move that comes just days after a stunning defeat for Democrats in a Massachusetts Senate special election.

And why is it fun? Because as the Fix kind of notes, Plouffe’s relevant career can be summed up by two iterations of ‘OfA:’

• Obama for America.  A group dedicated to electing Barack Obama President.  Accomplishments: the nomination and election of a single-term Senator with no executive experience President of the United States, in the face of both primary and general election opposition.
• Organizing for America.  A group dedicated to championing and popularizing the legislative and executive achievements of the Democratic party.  Accomplishments: two words, one of which is ‘jack.’

So… the White House is bringing in a guy that’s good at running a group that makes one other guy look good, and who is involved with a group that is noticeably bad at making a political party look good.  And who has wasted no time whatsoever in telling members of said political party to simply intensify what they’re doing, now.

I repeat: oh, this should be fun.

Moe Lane

Crossposted to RedState.