but the facts are: obama is significantly ahead in delegates, he has won twice as many states, and the superdelegate flow hasn't stopped. it seems to me, obama's strategy of every state matters has worked brilliantly, yet he is still widely underestimated. he's proving that you can take the high road and still win.
politico: But on the whole, the rival Democratic campaigns are a study in contrasts.
Clinton tapped the ranks of Sen. Charles Schumer, a hard-driving New York Democrat, for a press shop that can be as aggressive and unforgiving as the one favored by their former boss. Obama drew from the slightly more sedate worlds of Kerry, former Sen. Tom Daschle (D-S.D.) and former Rep. Richard Gephardt (D-Mo.).
Strategist Mark Penn, a veteran of the toughest White House battles of the 1990s, was deeply unpopular and a divisive presence within the Clinton campaign. Obama strategist David Axelrod is the anti-Penn. In the midst of Penn’s demotion earlier this month, one Obama aide in Chicago remarked to his colleagues about the low-key and well-liked Axelrod: “Do you know how lucky we are that he is our Mark Penn?”
Unlike Clinton’s team, the Obama campaign did not start with pre-existing rivalries. Axelrod and campaign manager David Plouffe were business partners, while Plouffe and Robert Gibbs, the communications director, share season tickets to the Washington Nationals. The staff, many of whom left family and lives behind to work in Chicago, have only each other to rely on in a place far from home.
“We would go to a basketball or baseball game together if we weren’t doing this right now,” Gibbs said. “We are all both friends and colleagues, and I think that is important. We feel we are a cohesive type of unit, not a group of individuals.”
Jim Margolis, Obama’s media consultant, said he had planned to take a pass on the presidential race in 2008. His first candidate, former Virginia Gov. Mark Warner, dropped out, and he had a rocky experience on Kerry’s 2004 campaign. But he ended up on the same plane one day with Axelrod and began to reconsider.
“You gotta come spend a little more time with Barack,” Axelrod told him.
“You know what these things are like,” Margolis said.
“There are no assholes,” Axelrod responded. “There are going to be no assholes on this campaign.”
While the Clinton campaign toggled between strategies and messages, Obama aides crafted an approach months ago that remains their guiding document to this day: run on change, win Iowa and then embark on a national campaign aimed at maximizing their delegate count.
