Deep Ties: Obama Ran Daschle's Campaign

Tom Daschle is no ordinary appointment. Not just because of his experience, or relationships, or prestige. The connection between Daschle and Obama is deep, and Daschle's influence in Obama's campaign is more significant than most realize. That's because Obama, to a point, was actually running Daschle's campaign.

The sophistication and brutal efficiency of the Obama team is, in some ways, a historical accident. In general, politicians who have served at the national level for a mere two years cannot amass the top-level staff talent to run a serious campaign. And that should have been all the truer in a year when a candidate with the last name "Clinton" was running as the prohibitive favorite. If you can't get the Clinton folks on your team, then there are fairly few pools of political operatives with the seasoning to run at the national level.

But Obama entered office at a unique moment. Tom Daschle, then the Senate minority leader, had just lost his seat in an upset to John Thune. Dick Gephardt, the House minority leader, had retired after losing in the presidential primary. And the Democrats had been wiped out in the 2004 elections. Obama enters office at the very moment that the staffs of both legislative leaders lose their jobs. Which is how he ends up hiring Pete Rouse.

Read the whole story here.

Comments

[Bitsko]

"Too a point"? Doesn't that negate what your headline says?

[JoeBridgeman]

The headline should be the other way around: Daschle helped to run O's campaign. Everyone knows O consulted with Daschle before he decided to run, and it was Daschle who advised him to run because "you may not have another chance and the longer you stay in the Senate the more difficult it will be to run because you will have amass a long record." When O ran for prez, Daschle helped advising him and rounding up supporters for him.

Daschle also functioned as a mentor for O when he first came to the senate in 2004. Hence O hired Peter Rouse, Daschle's old chief of staff, who was also known as the 101st senator.

[MooseShady]

How could Obama ran Daschle's campaign in '04 (which Daschle lost) while Obama was running for the Senate and won. That does not make any sense of it at all.

[HC4BO]

Who keeps coming up with these stories ... ?

Is Obama some campaign freak going around running every bodies' campaigns ...

This is the same falsehoods people like Rahm were peddling about them running Blago's '02 campaign until he got smacked down for overstating facts ...

Stick with facts ... An endorsement of a candidate does NOT equal a Total control over the candidates campaign ..

[apoyo]

If it was Daschle's campaign then why did Daschle loose his seat?

What is the point of this article?

Other than pointing out the fact that Obama knows how to hire the best of the best.

[basschakra]

and???

[Doofus]

It's all over at...

http://www.prospect.org/csnc/blogs/ezraklein_archive?month=12&year=2008&base_name=the_daschleobama_connection

[XME]

Is this the entire article? There no link to the original, and it does't end like this is the whole thing!

[courageunderfire]

It is like the person writing went to lunch and just forgot to finish it.

[apoyo]

LOL

[AmHope]

Nice.
LOL

[courageunderfire]

Ok, it is now several hours later and finally the put the " Read the whole story here" at the bottom, so there is more to the story than when I first read it....
or perhaps the writer just now finished it after lunch, heheheh!

[JoelHorn]

Too good not to comment - Daschle bitten by my wife"s family"s 3-legged dog

When Tom Daschle was in Congress, he lived down the street from my wife"s parents, who had a very nice 3-legged dog named Jemmy Button. As far as my father-in-law can remember the only person Jemmy ever bit was Tom Daschle. According to my father-in-law, Tom was very understanding, very decent in fact, and took the whole thing in stride. By the way, excellent choice for HHS.

Joel Horn

[finance17]

It is a mistake to appoint Daschle as both HHS Secy and Health Czar. I was under the impression that Obama wants a wide range of ideas. Howard Dean MD should have one of the posts as former DNC Chair and having served as Gov. of VT and management experience much needed in this VERY important job.

[heal57]

How about Dean for Surgeon General? Vermon't got the healthiest people in the US according to surveys.

[heal57]

...or even better, Howard Dean for head of FDA, and get rid of those cronies in there now. You can be sure Howard Dean won't be 'in bed' with the drug companies. That's what we need!

[jigisup]

Right place...Right time...Right Man for the job! Go Obama!!!

[InjunTrouble]

This headline is weird - shoudn't it say Daschle's people ran Obama's campaign?

[JDJase]

That's what I was thinking. And the story doesn't really explain much, if anything. Is it not complete? Or is it just the beginning of the story and HuffPo just forgot to put the link to the rest?

[1murillo]

I agree that the headline should be switched for clarity. Also, the article is poor because it could have mentioned Daschle and Rouse in the beginning. Daschle and Rouse are very important to Obama (he'd say the same), the article is only half developed.

Nobody successful, politics or elsewhere, works completely with rookies.

'Change,' or 'wide range of ideas,' will never fit our individual definitions of those terms. We have a new president building his staff; everyone nominated will never satisfy everyone in the country.