The 'Obama Way': Seven steps to success

Howard Fineman • E-mail

NEW YORK - I was sitting in David Plouffe’s spartan office at Barack Obama’s campaign headquarters in Chicago.

This horserace has been an interesting one, but that’s not what I wanted to talk about. Instead, I asked the campaign manager about decision-making.

A lot of the campaign's choices have been better than good.

Cautious politically and bold organizationally, the decisions made amount to the best planned, executed and essentially mistake-free political effort I’ve ever covered.

So, I paid close attention when Plouffe told me there was an “Obama Way.”

It sounded vaguely mystical, but if there is one thing we need to know to help assess an Obama presidency, this could be it.

Having said that, you have to be cautious about seeing a White House foreshadowed in a candidate’s campaign.

Take for example George W. Bush. Some characteristics of his presidency — loyalty, insularity and reliance on a small core of advisors — could be noted in his 2000 effort. But unlike his presidency, that campaign proved adaptable to changing circumstances and more attuned to realities on the ground. The differences proved catastrophic.

Obama’s campaign has been so distinctive, disciplined and cutting edge that it’s nearly impossible not to look at it for clues as to what his White House would be like.

Businessmen and politicians will reverently study the campaign for years to come as a model of innovative branding and an example for digital sales strategies.

Politically, Obama’s ability to finesse tough issues — to anticipate criticism and play off of it — is a model of tactical skill. In terms of public character, his vaunted coolness is state-of-the-art.

Video Obama manager: It's been a wild ride Nov. 4: Obama campaign manager David Plouffe acknowledges all of the support, both in money and in volunteers, that have led his candidate to Election Day. Morning Joe

Altogether, this strategy is seven-pronged — and it's a veritable play book for political success:

Be decisive: This is what Plouffe meant by the “Obama Way.” “Everybody speaks his or her mind,” he told me, “and then Barack makes the decision. After that, there is absolutely no second-guessing or looking back.”

The trick is to stick with it. Outside the campaign there was considerable hand-wringing a few months ago about the wisdom of pursuing an “expanded map” Electoral College strategy. Obama didn’t budge.

“It’s better to have one strategy and stick to it,” Plouffe told me, “than to try ten in pursuit of the perfect answer. The point is that there is no perfect answer.”

Have a tight circle: Obama has a very small circle, although it’s not the circle of one (Karl Rove) that Bush had.

Obama’s core group consists of four people besides the candidate himself: the “two Davids,” Plouffe and David Axelrod, the reporter-turned-consultant and the keeper of the Obama message and the mythology; Valerie B. Jarrett, a Chicago lawyer, fundraiser, and former city hall official; and Obama’s wife, Michelle.

Jae C. Hong / AP file Sen. Barack Obama and Valerie Jarrett

“It’s the two Davids and those two women,” said a top party official. The result is an ability to keep a secret. The choice of Sen. Joe Biden for Obama's running mate, for example, wasn’t leaked to the press.

Stick with the plan: Obama's game plan was devised by that inner circle, plus maybe a ring or two beyond it, and has been in place since the moment Obama announced his candidacy in 2007. It’s remained mostly intact.

The plan was carefully back-timed with the general election in mind. Except for his commitment to a specific timetable for withdrawal of American combat forces from Iraq, the overall platform has remained substantively centrist in tone and content.

I’ve never seen another campaign so willing and able to stick to the script.

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