Obama to Outline Deficit Reduction Plan April 13

Updated April 12: Obama will speak April 13 at George Washington U at 1:30 pm eastern time. There will be a live stream here.  It will be a speech that no one likes because democrats don't want to cut anything and republicans want to cut everything.

Updated April 12: See the 2011 budget details here.
On Meet the Press, David Plouffe announced Obama would outline a plan to reduce the deficit. The plan will look at Medicare and Medicaid, but Obama's plan won't be as brutal as Paul Ryan's extreme budget proposal, which mostly casts "job creators" as the gods of the United States who need to be worshipped. Don't get me wrong. It's critical this nation reduces its debt, otherwise it will go bust. However, fairness must ensue. We have to make sure corporations and the wealthiest are paying their fair share.

President Barack Obama and the U.S. Congress are shifting from short-term budget concerns to debates over the nation's long-term economic future, and everything — from Medicare and Medicaid cuts to tax hikes for the wealthy — is on the table. AP

In a sleight of hand, Ryan's budget repeals the healthcare act but assumes all of the savings of the healthcare act. From the New Yorker:

SUROWIECKI: But one of the things that’s hypocritical, or complicated about Ryan’s budget is that Ryan’s budget will repeal the Affordable Care Act—so it will repeal ObamaCare, basically. Which means that, you know, if you have a preëxisting condition, you’re not going to be able to get insurance, beginning in 2014, as you will under current law. But, at the same time as he repeals ObamaCare, he keeps in place, or he assumes in place, the cost reductions that the Affordable Care Act was essentially going to enact. So in effect, he’s kind of assuming that he gets all the cost reductions that the Affordable Care Act was going to create via these mechanisms that Ryan talked about, but he basically wants to repeal the Affordable Care Act. There’s a lot of this kind of slight of hand, but I think you’re right Dorothy, that the narrative, this kind of very clear-headed, “we’re making the tough choices” narrative, is probably politically beneficial.

The debt ceiling absolutely has to be raised because that's what kind of mess we're in, but that doesn't mean we will be relieved of a political battle. Both sides will have to fluff their feathers and pretend, and the GOP is still trying to impress the tea party.

Plouffe and Ryan on Meet the Press April 10

Obama will lay out his plan to cut the debt and deficit next week. One thing stood out during the roundtable -- the perception that democrats could care less about the deficit and debt. Chuck Todd certainly felt that. If that's true, republicans will lead on the solution and we will be stuck with the whole job-creators-are-gods ideology.
Full video:

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Plouffe on Meet the Press Sept. 5 Video

Erin Burnett is spot on. The stimulus worked but the recession is the recession. It's the greatest downturn in the economy since the Great Depression. It's going to be a slow recovery. Therefore, Obama isn't going to win re-election on jobs.

We're not going to have the economy we used to. Home equity lines of credit are gone. People are saving and paying down debt. Structurally, our economy is transitioning from one that depends on consumers buying stuff on credit into another.

David Plouffe also is spot on. He's got great instincts.

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Plouffe Vs. Rove on This Week

David Plouffe (sorry, earlier I wrote Axe. I've been distracted!) vs. Karl Rove on This Week:
Part 1
Part 2

Plouffe: Pass the Healthcare Bill Now

David Plouffe wrote an op-ed for the Washington Post:

Pass a meaningful health insurance reform package without delay. Americans' health and our nation's long-term fiscal health depend on it. I know that the short-term politics are bad. It's a good plan that's become a demonized caricature. But politically speaking, if we do not pass it, the GOP will continue attacking the plan as if we did anyway, and voters will have no ability to measure its upside. If we do pass it, dozens of protections and benefits take effect this year. Parents won't have to worry their children will be denied coverage just because they have a preexisting condition. Workers won't have to worry that their coverage will be dropped because they get sick. Seniors will feel relief from prescription costs. Only if the plan becomes law will the American people see that all the scary things Sarah Palin and others have predicted -- such as the so-called death panels -- were baseless. We own the bill and the health-care votes. We need to get some of the upside. (P.S.: Health care is a jobs creator.) WaPo

The democrats are mulling over health care:

Sen. Charles Schumer (D-N.Y.), a member of the leadership team, said deciding on the process should not take long. “That doesn't mean we're going to sit here and twiddle our thumbs for weeks and weeks and weeks, but it'll take a few days to figure out what the best solution is,” he said. The Hill.

Plouffe also says republicans shouldn't be lecturing on spending. I'm convinced that Americans could care less who drove up the nation's debt. They simply don't want to see the deficit any higher, which is why healthcare scares the wits out of them. But if anyone doubts what will happen if GOP is back in power, consider John Boehner's reaction to the recent SCOTUS decision on giving corporations people power:

"I think the Supreme Court decisions today are a big win for the First Amendment and a step in the right direction," said House Republican leader John Boehner of Ohio. In his view, the Constitution's protection of free speech extends to campaign contributions. No organization — business, union, whatever — should be limited by the government, Boehner said. NPR

Plouffe:

Don't accept any lectures on spending. The GOP took us from a $236 billion surplus when President Bush took office to a $1.3 trillion deficit, with unpaid-for tax cuts for the wealthy, two wars and the Medicare prescription drug program. Republicans' fiscal irresponsibility has never been matched in our country's history. We have potent talking points on health care, honest budgeting and cuts in previously sacrosanct programs. Republicans will try to win disingenuously by running as outsiders. We must make them own their record of disastrous economic policies, exploding deficits, and a failure to even attempt to solve our health care and energy challenges.

During the campaign, who will be whispering in Republican ears? Watching GOP leaders talking about health care the past few days, it was easy to imagine lobbyists and big health insurance executives leaning over their shoulders, urging death to health insurance reform. When it comes to cracking down on the banks and passing tough financial regulatory reform, GOP leaders will be dancing to the tune of Wall Street lobbyists and opposing tougher oversight, as if the financial crisis never happened. We need to lay it out plainly: If you put the GOP back in charge, lobbyists and huge corporate special interests will be back in the driver's seat. Workers and families will get run over, just like they did in the past decade.

CBS' Mark Knoller says Obama will be seeking Plouffe's advice more often, but not as an official paid government employee:

In the wake of the GOP Senate win in Mass., Pres. Obama will be looking to his former campaign mgr David Ploufe for more political advice.

Plouffe: Brown Will Have Tough Time With McConnell

There's a huge difference between making promises during a campaign and the real world of governing. The gap between those two things is huge. I think that's what the Obama administration is up against. The average voter doesn't understand that gap, what it takes to move Congress.
David Plouffe says Scott Brown is going to run up against that.
Brown, who says he wants to work across party lines, will have a tough time with Mitch McConnell, Plouffe said. Indeed. The republican strategy hasn't been to solve problems. The GOP is bent on killing healthcare in order to kill Obama's agenda altogether. Brown seems like he's willing to work on healthcare. He says he wants individual states coming up with their own healthcare reforms. But Brown could quickly get gobbled up by the GOP.

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Obama Staffers Fire Back at Rush Limbaugh The Entertainer

David Axelrod says it best. Limbaugh is an entertainer.

David Plouffe Talks Palin and Fox on Meet the Press Video

David Plouffe thought John McCain's choice of Sarah Palin was bizarre, as did the rest of us. Plouffe said he couldn't figure out the reasoning behind the choice but said we should doubly thank McCain for picking Sarah Palin because the republicans are becoming irrelevant. They are losing moderates and becoming the party of Becks and Limbaughs.
Live chat with Plouffe on Nov. 3. Sign up here.

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David Plouffe on Meet the Press Nov. 1

Update Nov. 1: Watch video of Plouffe on MTP here

Plouffe's new book. I'll always have fond memories of the 2008 campaign. It was my foray into politics, government and history. Plouffe hand-delivered a copy of his new book to Obama aboard Air Force One:

This Sunday on “Meet the Press,” David Gregory will interview Obama campaign David Plouffe regarding his new book, “The Audacity to Win: The Inside Story and Lessons of Barack Obama’s Historic Victory.” Time magazine has some excerpts from Plouffe’s book. On weighing Hillary as Obama’s VP: “Barack continued to be intrigued by Hillary. ‘I still think Hillary has a lot of what I am looking for in a VP,’ he said to us ‘... I think Bill may be too big a complication. If I picked her, my concern is that there would be more than two of us in the relationship.’ Neither Ax nor I were fans of the Hillary option.” And on Palin: “I also thought it was a downright bizarre, ill-considered and deeply puzzling choice ... [Obama] said, “... when voters step back and analyze how he made this decision, I think he’s going to be in big trouble. You just can’t wing something like this — it’s too important.” First Read

GOP Going the Way of the Dinosaur Says Republican

Former McCain campaign manager Steve Schmidt, next to Obama's David Plouffe.

More from Plouffe, whose first question is: what happened in New Hampshire? Plouffe, by the way, is working on a book.

David Plouffe Talks About Obama's Inauguration and Other Stuff

It's David Plouffe Saying Thanks and Here's Mitch Stewart

Plouffe introduces Mitch Stewart as executive director of Organizing for America.

Obama talks about Organizing for America here.

How Will Robert Gibbs Approach Pressing?

Big story in the Sunday NYT on Obama's press secretary Robert Gibbs, who will report to Rahm Emanuel and have walk in privileges at the White House. Politico has excerpts:

Obama insiders tend to shudder at any parallels to George W. Bush, but many reporters and rivals have noted the 'Bush-like' tendencies the Obama campaign demonstrated in its ability to control information. The comparison is generally meant as a compliment (albeit a grudging one) by members of the press and expressed enviously by veterans of other campaigns. [Campaign manager David] Plouffe himself admitted to me that the Obama campaign subscribed to the 'Bush model' of communications discipline. Asked if Obama himself spoke of the 'Bush model,' Plouffe told me he did. 'We talked a lot about the Bush model, which is that there are a few people who really know everything,' Plouffe told me in early December. That helps ensure an airtight bubble of knowledge.

Like the Bush model, the Obama model also clearly allowed for combat with the press, sometimes extending to punishment, which was usually doled out by Gibbs. In the course of the campaign, especially at the end, a smattering of reporters claimed that they were left off the Obama plane in retribution for negative reports they had filed or for the perceived sins of their news outlets (i.e. endorsing John McCain). Campaign officials denied ever taking such actions ¬ usually citing 'space reasons.'
I asked Gibbs if any journalists had been kept off the Obama plane for reasons other than space. 'No,' he said at first, but then added, 'on occasion yes.' It was rare, he added. 'I mean, were there occasions? Sure.'

Politico has some funnies on How to Sell a Newspaper:

HOW TO SELL NEWSPAPERS I – The Chicago Sun-Times runs (another) 'FREE! OBAMA COLLECTORS PRINT.'

HOW TO SELL NEWSPAPERS II – The Chicago Tribune has a full-page ad today for N'Digo, 'A Magapaper for the Urbane' published by a Chicago-based scholarship foundation: 'Coming to your Sunday Chicago Tribune (in select zip codes) – 'Barack Obama: Day One Stories of America's 44th President,' A special N'Digo Profiles 48-page Commemorative Issue Dedicated to the nation's 44th president.'

Plouffe Says Change Is Coming

House party!

David Plouffe Writing a Book

NEW YORK (AP) — Barack Obama's campaign manager, David Plouffe, is writing a book about the historic election victory and has retained Washington attorney Robert Barnett, Obama's literary representative, to shop the proposal to publishers.
The book has been tentatively titled, "The Audacity To Win," a reference to Obama's million-selling "The Audacity of Hope." Having helped manage one of the most sophisticated and highly praised campaigns ever, Plouffe plans not only an inside look at the Obama run but also advice for how to manage a large organization.
"Hopefully, there will be some lessons on how to put together a three-quarters of a billion dollar operation," Plouffe said Wednesday, adding that the book would be high on tactics, and low on gossip, with an inevitable critique of the rival campaigns.
"I don't have a huge interest in scoring points, but there was a difference in strategy and approach," he said of the organization of Republican John McCain.

Obama's Team on 60 Minutes

Watch CBS Videos Online

Obama's Team On Morning News Shows Nov. 9

A good Sunday lineup:

NYT: Representative Rahm Emanuel, the incoming chief of staff, is booked on ABC’s “This Week” and CBS’s “Face the Nation.” His fellow Clinton White House alumnus, John Podesta (now co-chairman of the transition) is on CNN’s “Late Edition” and “Fox News Sunday.” Mr. Podesta’s transition team counterpart, Valerie Jarrett, is on NBC’s “Meet the Press.”

....
Senator Mel Martinez, the Florida Republican, joins Representative James Clyburn, Democrat of South Carolina, and the historian Doris Kearns Goodwin on “Meet the Press.”

Also, David Axelrod, David Plouffe and Robert Gibbs will be on 60 Minutes on Sunday.
Obama roasts Rahm in 2005

Obama Aides on 60 Minutes Nov. 9

See the video here.
Obama's aides talk about the campaign this Sunday on 60 Minutes

Swamp: "Not getting obsessed about Barack Obama's race was one of the secrets'' of a campaign that will deliver the first African American president to the White House, aides tell CBS's Steve Kroft. The president-elect's four top campaign aides, political advisors David Axelrod and Anita Dunn, Campaign Manager David Plouffe and Press Secretary Robert Gibbs, spoke with Kroft on election night for 60 Minutes this weekend.

Answering Kroft's question about whether race was a part of planning the campaign, Plouffe replies, "No, honestly, you had to take a leap of faith in the beginning that the people will get by race. And I think the number of meetings we had about race was zero.''

What Next for David Plouffe? Baby

Update 12-4: Plouffe is writing a book on campaigning.

People are wondering what Obama's campaign manager, the no-drama David Plouffe, might do next.

The Fix: What will he do post-election then?

Plouffe said he has "no set plans yet" but that he will not be going into the White House -- choosing rather to help the president-elect from the outside in "any way I can."

In the near term, Plouffe will have his hands full as his wife -- former California Gov. Gray Davis adviser Olivia Morgan -- gave birth to a baby girl yesterday, the couple's second child.

Obama Won't Share the Wealth

Other democrats want a piece of Obama's donations.
Obama camp says no way. The money is needed on the ground level, which trickles up to the rest of the candidates. Hmmm. Just like Obama's tax plan -- let the middle class create more wealth by letting them keep more of their money.

MSNBC:
Sen. Barack Obama is lapping Sen. John McCain in the polls and, according to federal finance reports, the Democratic candidate is rolling in dough. Even so, he has no plans to share his hoard with other Democrats eager to maximize the party's majorities in Congress.
....
On a visit to Obama headquarters here, I asked Plouffe if he would be willing to spread the cash around, especially since Obama set a record last month by raising an astounding $150 million.

Plouffe said no. The Obama campaign has “all we can handle,” he said. Rather than funnel cash directly to Senate and House candidates — which Plouffe said would be legal — the campaign argues that its ground-level organizing work in the states on behalf of all Democrats is worth millions, and more than makes up for any cash donations the campaign might make.

Plouffe cited North Carolina as an example.

“We have done extensive registration and turn out work, and that is paying off for everyone,” he said. In the Tar Heel state, he said, the grassroots work has helped Democrat Kay Hagan pull ahead of Sen. Liddy Dole.

“That wouldn’t be happened without our effort there,” Plouffe said.

Given the state of the race, might think that the atmosphere would be giddy in Obama headquarters on Michigan Ave. in downtown Chicago.

No way.