Obama's brain trust:
statesman.com
Democratic candidate's advisers short on drama, just the way he wants it.
By Scott Shepard
WASHINGTON BUREAU
The Austin American-Statesman
Sunday, June 15, 2008
First in an occasional series about Sens. Barack Obama's and John McCain's campaigns and policy advisers.
WASHINGTON — In assembling his campaign team, presumptive Democratic presidential nominee Sen. Barack Obama had one hard and fast rule: no drama queens. And that pretty well reflects the inner circle of Obama advisers, the handful of people he has traveled with or talked with nearly every day of his historic bid for the presidency.
Nearly all of them came together for the first time in Obama's successful campaign for the U.S. Senate in Illinois in 2004. But that contest hardly tested the candidate or his advisers the way the 2008 presidential campaign has. There was no incumbent from either party, and the Republicans, with no viable candidate, nominated a Marylander, former Republican presidential candidate Alan Keyes.
Still, the Obama campaign brain trust is, by most accounts, a top-notch team of Democratic political veterans, one that is well respected even in Republican circles.
"They are the dream team of political advisers: quick, competent and creative," said Frank Luntz, a longtime Republican strategist and pollster. "They are just as talented as their candidate. But unlike (Hillary Clinton's team), they're content to shine the spotlight on their client. Republicans should be jealous."
Ultimately, though, an organization is "really a reflection of the person at the top," said Chris Lehane, a veteran of the Bill Clinton and Al Gore presidential campaigns. "You can extrapolate an awful lot about how someone will govern by looking at the campaign they run, including how the staff works together."
There have been a couple of bumps in the road for Obama's team.
Earlier in the campaign, economic adviser Austan Goolsbee suggested to Canadian officials that Obama's criticism of the North American Free Trade Agreement was merely politics, and foreign policy adviser Samantha Power called Sen. Hillary Clinton a "monster."
Last week, Obama created a stir by naming Jason Furman, who's written approvingly of globalization and Wal-Mart's business model, to be his director of economic policy, and tapping businessman and Democratic insider Jim Johnson, linked to the housing foreclosure crisis, to help with the search for a vice presidential running mate. Johnson stepped aside Wednesday amid controversy generated by his selection.
Other than those noteworthy exceptions, Obama's chief aides largely have stayed in the background as the Illinois senator has sought to become America's first African American president.
Here is a closer look at some of them:
David Axelrod
The Obama campaign's senior political strategist, Axelrod styles himself as a "specialist in urban politics," having worked in mayoral campaigns of prominent African American politicians, including Harold Washington in Chicago, Dennis Archer in Detroit, Michael White in Cleveland, Anthony Williams in Washington, Lee Brown in Houston and John Street in Philadelphia.
A one-time political reporter for the Chicago Tribune, Axelrod joined the presidential campaign of U.S. Sen. Paul Simon of Illinois in 1984. In 2004, he worked for the presidential campaign of former Sen. John Edwards of North Carolina, one of Obama's opponents this year.
In 2006, Axelrod was a consultant to the successful gubernatorial campaigns of Eliot Spitzer in New York and Deval Patrick in Massachusetts, and to the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee, which oversaw the party's 31-seat gain in the House of Representatives.
David Plouffe
Though relatively young — he's 41 — Plouffe has a long history as a consultant in the Democratic Party, his first national experience coming in 1990 with Tom Harkin's successful U.S. Senate campaign in Iowa. He was the chief strategist for then-House Minority Leader Dick Gephardt's presidential campaign in 2000 and worked on Obama's Senate campaign in 2004. He and Axelrod also teamed up in the Patrick campaign in 2006.
In contrast to the gregarious nature of most of Obama's brain trust, Plouffe seems shy. He participates in conference calls with reporters but rarely appears on camera. He is often described as tightly wound, keeping the campaign disciplined. At his victory celebration claiming the Democratic nomination, Obama paid special tribute to Plouffe, calling him "a rare talent."
Robert Gibbs
Not only is Gibbs the chief of communications for the campaign, he is also Obama's constant companion on the campaign trail. And he is one of the handful of advisers who can cut through the clutter of the campaign to get the candidate's attention on pressing matters. He also is quick with a punch line.
A Southerner, Gibbs grew up in Auburn, Ala., and attended college in North Carolina. He worked for the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee, which provides strategic and financial aide to Democratic candidates for the Senate, before becoming press security to Massachusetts Sen. John Kerry's presidential campaign in 2004. Leaving the Kerry campaign in a staff shake-up, Gibbs eventually joined Obama's Senate contest in 2004.
Between the Kerry and Obama campaigns four years ago, Gibbs worked for an independent group that ran an ad against then-Democratic presidential candidate Howard Dean that still draws the ire of some Democrats. The ad featured a Time magazine cover of Osama bin Laden and questioned Dean's national security qualifications.
Valerie Jarrett
A South Sider with deep ties to the University of Chicago, Jarrett is a constant behind-the-scenes presence on the campaign, though an unpaid adviser. She has long, close ties to the Obamas, going back to 1991 when she interviewed Michelle Obama for a job in Mayor Richard Daley's City Hall, and is in constant contact with the Obamas, often telling them what other aides can't — or won't.
She is one of the most powerful women in Chicago, having served as chairwoman of the Chicago Stock Exchange and as city commissioner of planning and development. She was finance chairwoman of Obama's 2004 Senate campaign and subsequently became treasurer of Hopefund, Obama's political action committee.
Penny Pritzker
A member of one of Chicago's wealthiest families, which founded Hyatt Hotels, Pritzker is the national finance chairwoman of Obama's presidential campaign, which has shattered all records in fundraising by White House candidates. Although much of Obama's campaign money came from small donors via the Internet, Pritzker helped offset the extensive network of donors and star power of the Clinton campaign.
Pritzker, a billionaire business mogul in her own right, also served on the finance committee of Obama's Senate campaign in 2004.
Michelle Obama
A Princeton graduate and Harvard-educated lawyer, the candidate's wife repeatedly has made it clear that she is not the political partner that Hillary Clinton is to Bill Clinton. But there is no doubting the influence Michelle Obama has on her husband, acting as an enforcer of sorts from time to time and keeping her husband's ego in check.
Policy advisers
Obama's approach is to seek policy advice from numerous sources. But so far, he has relied mostly on a handful of experts in major policy areas.
Economics: Jason Furman of the Brookings Institution, who has close ties to former Clinton Treasury Secretary Robert Rubin, and Austan Goolsbee, a University of Chicago economist who favors a variety of tax cuts and credits to accomplish reforms in health care, education and housing.
National security: Anthony Lake, a national security adviser in the Clinton White House who opposed the Iraq invasion, and Susan Rice, an adviser on Africa in the Clinton State Department and aide to the Kerry presidential campaign.
Environment: Jason Grumet, head of the Bipartisan Policy Center in Washington who met Obama in 2005 and worked with him on legislation to strengthen federal fuel economy standards for cars.
Health care: David Cutler, a Harvard professor who helped develop the health care plan that Hillary Clinton promoted during the Clinton presidency.
Immigration: Mariano-Florentino Cuéllar, a Stanford University law professor who promotes the importance of bipartisanship in immigration reform.
Legal affairs: Martha Minow, a Harvard professor active in human rights and refugee issues, and Ronald Sullivan, a Yale professor and fellow at the Jamestown Project, which promotes public policies of interest to minorities. |
