"Obama Moves to Centralize Control over Party Strategy"

[amborin]

"President Obama is reconstituting the team that helped him win the White House to counter Republican challenges in the midterm elections and recalibrate after political setbacks that have narrowed his legislative ambitions.

Mr. Obama has asked his former campaign manager, David Plouffe, to oversee House, Senate and governor’s races to stave off a hemorrhage of seats in the fall. The president ordered a review of the Democratic political operation — from the White House to party committees — after last week’s Republican victory in the Massachusetts Senate race, aides said."

snip

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/01/24/us/politics/24union.html

the comments following this article are worth a read:

http://community.nytimes.com/comments/www.nytimes.com/2010/01/24/us/politics/24union.html?sort=recommended

[ProSense]

1. This is great news. n/t

[Countdown_3_2_1]

2. That 2nd link is an eye opener. nt

[paulk]

4. one of the better posts...

mtdarkhorseSeattleJanuary 23rd, 20103:57 pm

"I wonder if it will work, re-forming the old team. I'll tell you one thing: many of us who donated large to and worked for Obama are not interested in any more pretty words. We're interested in him behaving as his campaign rhetoric led us to believe he would, instead of the exact opposite. As for those who voted for him but weren't fervent supporters - well, I think further pretty words will just make them more angry than they are.

Here's a suggestion: try replacing some advisors, like Rahm the corporatist Emanuel, Geithner, and Summers. Replace with some people we can trust to care about ordinary Americans. Just that would go a long way in helping people "hope" again."

[amborin]

6. i'm sure many people ditto that, i sure do n/t

[amborin]

5. better than the article, imho; shows people have woken up n/t

[Juche]

3. I hope they do what actually needs to be done

Namely, encourage democrats to act like democrats and stand up for their principals.

I'm prepared to give Obama and the dems another chance, but I hope they don't drop the ball again.




At least they seem to have a general idea on why people turned against them:




While presidents typically experience rough patches, this one is particularly challenging for Mr. Obama. Liberals have grown disenchanted with what they see as his unwillingness to fight harder for their causes; independents have been turned off by his failure, in their view, to change the way Washington works; and Republicans have become implacably hostile.

The long and messy legislative fight over health care is a leading example of how Mr. Obama has failed to connect with voters, advisers say, because he appeared to do whatever it would take to get a bill rather than explain how people could benefit.

“The process often overwhelmed the substance,” said Dan Pfeiffer, the White House communications director. “We need to find ways to try to rise above the maneuvering.”





That is a good sign.

[AndyA]

7. Howard Dean needs to be in charge again. Tim Kaine is a loser.

I agree with the comment about dumping Emanual, Summers, Geithner, etc., for some fresh blood.

[cascadiance]

8. +1

[flyarm]

9. not good at all and it will alienate more people than solidify the party!

move the DNC back to Washington..and knock off Obama branding our democratic party..this is not the way to bring the party together..

and then this:

White House adviser Plouffe fails to mention most of Obama's pre-existing conditions promise right after NYT & CBS report it may be dropped

http://www.americablog.com/2010/01/white-house-adviser-plouffe-fails-to.html

A day after former Obama campaign manager David Plouffe is elevated to a more senior adviser status at the White House and the DNC, Plouffe pens an op ed in the Washington Post in which he seems to suggest that much of President Obama's promise to ban pre-existing conditions is now being jettisoned. Plouffe wrote in the op ed, which was certainly cleared with the White House, if not written by them:

Parents won't have to worry their children will be denied coverage just because they have a preexisting condition.
Their children? The original promise - even the bad Senate bill - protects everyone, of any age, from being denied coverage because of pre-existing conditions. Now it's just children?

And before anyone argues that Plouffe was simply using children as an example - that the legislation could still cover everyone - look at what else happened in the last two days. CBS News reported that the pre-existing conditions promise was now looking unlikely. But even worse, the NYT talked to folks on the Hill and health policy experts, and they were told the compromise package might just protect kids under the age of 19 from being denied for pre-existing conditions. No one else.

It would sure be one hell of a coincidence if Plouffe, on behalf of the White House, is now talking about kids being protected from pre-existing conditions when the growing chatter in town is that only kids may now be protected from pre-existing conditions - that the rest of us are about to get tossed under the Martha Coakley bus.

[emsimon33]

10. It wasn't his "team" along. Without Dean & the 50-state strategy, he would have lost

What Obama needs is less hubris and the reinstatement of Dean and the 50-state strateg.

But, Obama's puppet masters are really afraid of the true grassroots Democratic organization that Dean developed.

[Peregrine Took]

11. THis move will wreck the entire local party infastructure and take them

10 years to re-build just as what happened under another selfish Democrat, Bill CLinton.

[golfguru]

14. All elections are local...only exception presidential elelction.

Plouffe is no expert on every house and senate race.
Best strategy is to de-centralize. Let local dems handle strategy
as they see fit.

I dread another debacle in the making.

[Clio the Leo]

12. Thank you Mr. President for doing what I assumed you were doing all along...

:eyes:

[w4rma]

13. Awesome news!! Note that Rahm's leave it to fate attitude at the end is the *wrong* attitude, tho.

Also, is the 50-state strategy returning?