Esquire Profiles Plouffe: 'The Man Who Made Obama'

When you have been to the moon, you can't come back to Earth and stand in line at Starbucks. You can't order a coffee, and pay for it, and drink it beside someone wearing Sarah Palin glasses and a cruise visor. The regression to mediocrity is stunning and sapping. You would die inside.

After de-mooning, Buzz Aldrin got depressed and divorced. He drank and he returned to the Air Force. But the Air Force doesn't fly to the moon; it's glad to clear the clouds.

Read the whole story here.

Comments

[some-realtalk]

Nobody made Barack Obama --- Barack Obama was working with struggling communities, and their inhabitants as a community organizer, he was working as a civil rights lawyers, and as a constitutional law professor, and working in the Illinois Senate for 8 years, and working in the US Senate for 3 years, all before he met Plouffe, or anyone else, who claims they "made him".
The fact is, without Barack Obama wanting to make a positive change in his country, and without Barack Obama listening, and speaking to Americans, and getting them to listen to him, and to his message, and to appreciate his intelligence, none of this would have been possible, no matter what Plouffe or anyone else did.

[moonchild71]

Amen..... Thank you!!

[CalDodger]

I would love to see Plouffe go head to head with Rove on a campaign someday. My money's on Plouffe.

[Georgia1992]

I would like to know how come Dr. Dean wasn't the top candidate for the position of HHS instead of the tax dodger. I don't understand the Prez's strategy.

[SpoxLogic]

"The man who made Obama" is a misnomer. You can't make someone into something they are not. (I point to Sen McCain as an example). Better to say "the man who marketed Obama." Plouffe was able to see the fine points of Obama and create a package in which those fine attributes would shine.

In fact, for all what Ploffe did, if he didn't have such a fine candidate, it wouldn't have succeeded. I take that back - it might have still succeeded, but it would've been a heck of lot harder.

[NCYvonne]

Plouffe didn't *market* Obama. That job fell to his strategist, Axelrod.

[kellygrrrl]

Thanks David!!!!!!!

[onwuakor]

100% right he did a good job.
i gave the barackobama.com $25
and i am proud of it.

[YouDisgustMe]

pls....jus­t.....stop­. david plouffe didn't "make" obama.

[NCYvonne]

What? You mean Howard Dean isn't responsible for Obama being in the WH? Surely just by saying "50 State Strategy" Dean gave Obama the victory.

So what if Plouffe knew where every delegate was in every state? So what if Plouffe was behind the fundraising? So what if Plouffe put together the campaign offices and the volunteers? So what if Plouffe painstakingly developed the Iowa strategy and duplicated it in every caucus state?

Dean said "50 State Strategy" and that alone made Obama president! {total snark!}

[ceasespin]

There is no evidence that Plouffe made Obama - Plouffe had a job to do as an employee of Obama Campaign. Rather, Obama made Plouffe, because if Obama didn't like Plouffe's performance he would have been fired etc.

[NCYvonne]

You don't know WHAT you're talking about. Plouffe wasn't just an "employee." Obama worked on him for a long time to get him as campaign manager. Plouffe devised the primary strategy that got the nomination for Obama. Plouffe devised the fundraising strategy.