This morning, the front page of Politico announced an exclusive story. The headline? “W.H. privately plots 2012 campaign run.” This afternoon, CJR staffers Clint Hendler and Greg Marx discussed the story via GChat. Here’s a (lightly) edited transcript.
Clint: OK! So… What did you make of this morning’s SIREN from Politico?
Greg: You mean the big EXCLUSIVE that the president of the United States is “privately plotting” to run for re-election, and to win?
Clint: YES! That’s the one! I, for one, am shocked that he has no plans to pull an LBJ.
Greg: Me too!
Greg: But people are always saying he should be more like LBJ in terms of trying to get Congress to do whatever he wants. (There was just a story like that on the front of the NYT today.) And obviously one way to be like LBJ is not to run for re-election
Clint: Are you and I “privately plotting” to post this chat online RIGHT NOW?
Greg: We are!
Greg: Also, since we are the Columbia Journalism Review and always doing things like scolding journalists who don’t properly attribute their sources and influences, we should acknowledge that we are stealing this idea from The Awl.
Clint: Acknowledged!
Clint: I will give Mike Allen, the author, one bit of credit: The fact that Jim Messina will likely be the campaign manager does strike me as News, of a sort.
Greg: I agree. And also to a lesser extent that Axelrod may move out of DC, and that Plouffe is going to be involved again
Clint: Still, that’s at the level of “likely”—not much really. And also, in Winter 2010, who cares?
Greg: Yes. And also that’s not really what the gigantic headline on the front of Politico said the story was about
Greg: One kind of doubts that “Messina may play role in re-election campaign” would get the gigantic “EXCLUSIVE” banner
Clint: Or the Drudgesque SIREN. No, it did not. It suggested a private plot. I’m thinking of, like, the XYZ affair.
Clint: What I love about the Plouffe revelation is this sentence: Plouffe “will be a central player in the reelect, perhaps as an outside adviser.”
Clint: I guess I get this: Plouffe is too big to not be in this.
Clint: But still, “central” traditionally means, like, near or in the center.
Clint: “Outside” usually means something else, like, outside the center.
Clint: “Perhaps” there’s lots of wiggle room in that description.
Greg: I think you are just being a pedantic hair-splitting media critic now, with your close attention to the meaning of words
Clint: Guilty as charged.
Greg: Personally, my favorite sentence was this one: “But the sources said Obama has given every sign of planning to run again and wants the next campaign to resemble the highly successful 2008 effort.”
Greg: I was glad to see that statement had “sources” — apparently, “Democrats familiar with the discussions” — to back it up.
Clint: Yes: you wouldn’t want to get too far ahead on your skis on the notion that even this aloof/elite president hews to the age-old wisdom of: “if it ain’t broke, don’t fix it.”
Greg: Back to the “who cares” question — I can imagine that there are Politico readers who do care, like rightatthisverymoment, that Jim Messina is likely to manage the 2012 campaign.
Clint: Sure. I mean, they need to start schmoozing him for jobs rightatthisverymoment.
Clint: Never too soon to start Winning the morning.
Greg: Right. But I don’t understand why that factoid and the couple other little nuggets here get gussied up with a big “Exclusive” bow.
Clint: See previous line, re: Win, morning.
Clint: But how many times can the morning be won with such a nothing burger?
Clint: It clearly did not win with you and I.
Greg: No. But someone at Politics Daily did see fit to basically rewrite the Politico story.
Clint: Wah? link?
Greg: http://www.politicsdaily.com/2010/02/24/obama-reelection-effort-already-taking-shape/
Clint: That is so sad.
Greg: Yes. Wouldn’t it have been better to fill the gaping content hole of the Web by making fun of something?
Clint: Touché, touché.
Messina is running the campaign? What, you guys don't remember that Messina is the former CoS to Max Baucus? You recall Max, don't you? Max destroyed Health Care Reform & turned the Democrats into laughing stocks. Obama took his White House lottery winnings & invested them in Max Baucus. IF this is true this is why Obama must not be the nominee in 2012. He'll lose.
#1 Posted by Hadassah Weinreb, CJR on Wed 24 Feb 2010 at 05:23 PM
Come on!!! Obama has been in office 13 months as of last week. LBJ told everyone he would not run again after he found he didn't know how to get out of Vietnam and Bobby Kennedy was breathing down his back. He had been in office as President for 6 years and had 20+ years in Congress. He was worn out mentally and physically. It's a good thing he didn't run and win, he would have given his presidency to his VP--Humphrey who was also dying of cancer. Obama is battling with both the rockheaded Republicans that hope he will lose in every way possible and with wimpy Democrats that can't see past this weekend. If either of you had his job you would have left on or before June of last year just out of frustration. He lets everyone shoot off their mouths to the public, make fun of their competitors to give you and other commentators something to talk about and he is trying bring together a society with people who can't work in groups, think he and" the guys" are planning to kill all white males west of the Appalachians and you argue about whether he will run for office i n 2012. If more of us don't start working together there won't be any more of a united USA than there is a united EU. The states each talk about doing it their way; yet brag at home about all the money they got from the Treasury to help their state. EU bragged about working together until Greece fell apart with sales that are loans to Goldman Sachs and all the other expect Germany only to help--not the other 24. That's togetherness?? Why must Obama do thus all by himself???? If we listen to many representatives, we will all have our own little country run by our own governor with no money, not aid for unemployment, no jobs except within your area--Is any one planning to move to North Dakota to work or to Nebraska with all its corn?? If it becomes its own state, there will be very little left in Nebraska but Life Insurance. The state workers in Lincoln will be unemployed and so will the federal ones in Omaha since NASA would leave. I hope you like to farm or do cross country skiing in 20 degree below winters and wind-swept summers. Come back down to earth and try to see what Obama and others are trying to do for all 320 million of us--white,brown, yellow, red, mixed and male or female. Your high horses are out of style. There must be some other ideas you can discuss for 2010 and worry about 2012 or 2016 LATER!! Since is PERFECTION a quality any of you can show?? Neither can he for some strange reason. Ask Michelle!!
#2 Posted by Patricia Wilson, CJR on Thu 25 Feb 2010 at 03:43 AM