David Plouffe To Replace Axelrod As White House Adviser

Top White House adviser David Axelrod said Sunday that he expects former Obama campaign manager David Plouffe to replace him when he retires, as he announced that same day, in "late winter, early spring."

"I think he will come, which is huge," Axelrod told the National Journal in an e-mail, "but his portfolio will be slightly different."

National Journal breaks down the Plouffe-Axelrod intersection:

Plouffe served as campaign manager for Obama's 2008 run and has widely been expected to join the administration. He has spent much of the last two years in Chicago running AKPD, the political consulting group founded by Axelrod.

During Obama's acceptance speech in 2008, the future president acknowledged Plouffe's integral role on the campaign, calling him "an unsung hero" who built the "best political campaign, I think, in the history of the United States of America."

The ongoing administrative shakeup appears to have followed the predicted contingency plan so far, though there is likely to be even more turnover in the upcoming months which will bring a wave of new faces into the Obama ranks.

Axelrod announced over the weekend on "Fox News Sunday" that he'd be departing the White House in order to return to his hometown of Chicago to resume other work.

Comments

[nogimmicks]

11:14 AM on 11/26/2010

The main question is weather with Plouffe the WH will be able to take on the financial crooks in power who keep drilling bigger and bigger holes in the sinking ship, or will just help them with the drilling.

[Coppelia1189]

07:36 PM on 11/23/2010

Administration needs to evaluate Communications Team from top to bottom, and I'd hire an outside PR firm to do it. They'll get flak from the right, but who cares. We're talking competence right now. And, for heaven's sake, please do not move Gibbs over to head the DNC. He's hopeless. Disorganized and mediocre at best. He'll be no better over there. As press secretary, he was a nightmare. Now, onto Jarrett, to figure out just what she does and why she earns a high 5-figure salary to do it. Is Jarrett just an apple polisher or does she actually DO anything? Obama needs brutal, and I mean brutal, analysis and feedback. He's been allowed to get away with hero worship from Axelrod and crew.

[Coppelia1189]

07:30 PM on 11/23/2010

This is an improvement, but still not ideal. Axelrod was a disaster in this job. Pouffle will be better, but what Obama really needs is someone who knows the beltway. Axelrod and Pouffle are outside people who should be working solely on his 2012 campaign. Obama desperately needs 2 or 3 operational people who can get things done in Washington and run his communication strategy, which right now is very, very bad.

[LibertarianJon]

02:32 PM on 11/23/2010

Peace out David... not going to miss that flapping moustache!

[logic63]

12:04 AM on 11/24/2010

what are you in jr high?

[nsgo123]

08:47 AM on 11/23/2010

Great move. Time for a good shake up in the Administration.

[colinmincy]

08:20 AM on 11/23/2010

Obama needs to put down the bi-partisan brew and start swinging the bat. The cushion is gone....the game is on...and there is a lot of work to be done. I can't for the life of me answer why middle and struggling folks are aboard a Republican bandwagon that is funded, led, and motivated for big business by big business. Tax cuts for the rich....they don't have a pot to piss in but they're for it! It's time to grab hold of the progressive agenda and run it down the field for as far and long as you can go Barack.

[logic63]

12:09 AM on 11/24/2010

they have been indoctrinated to think that it's unpatriotic to be a liberal, the church tells them it's unchristian to be a liberal and they are told (I've heard this myself) that it's better to do without as long as they elect the honorable man and fail to mention that most of them aren't honorable plus they are told that their reward will come after they die so they live in poverty because that is supposed to mean the meek shall find streets paved with gold in the next life

[tcnsrq]

08:17 AM on 11/23/2010

Obama needs a shakeup of epic proportions. Asleep at the wheel is to put it mildly.

[KeithClark]

06:36 AM on 11/23/2010

David Plouffe, are you serious David Plouffe isn't even HALF the adviser of what Axelrod is!!!

[LeanLeftAmerica]

01:24 PM on 11/23/2010

LET'S HOPE SO

[Shaun Hensley]

05:47 AM on 11/23/2010

He must be good, he got Obama elected.

[hearmeloudandclear]

01:12 AM on 11/24/2010

"Shaun..." And you are correct - Plouffe is very, very good. I don't think anyone will be disappointed. And as far as Axelrod - he worked diligently for Obama in the Campaign. And it was already in the plan that Axelrod would leave at around the 2-year mark and go back to Chicago where his wife and daughter reside and to work on Obama's 2012 campaign. That's where Axelrod excels.

[scipio2009]

03:31 AM on 11/23/2010

Plouffe and Gibbs as co-senior advisors, with Bill Burton taking over as Press Secretary. Addition by subtraction, as far as I'm concerned. Axelrod gets to lead the re-elect campaign.

[Chase Price]

01:58 AM on 11/23/2010

Does anyone know what this means ? He ran a campaign. Can he make a difference? Why wasn't he there before in place of Axlerod?

[AthheistInChief]

01:36 AM on 11/23/2010

The absolute best news i've heard all week. This is the best.
David mudda plouffe. Yeah baby....

[Dave4ObamaSinceDay1]

01:09 AM on 11/23/2010

Plouffe is awesome... Great move....

[Chrome Child]

09:07 AM on 11/23/2010

Agreed. I mentioned before, he was the brains behind the cogs in the machine that got him voted in.

[kath1y]

12:33 AM on 11/23/2010

Damn! Axelrod always seemed to me to be a heart guy...progressive from the heart before the brain. I like Obama having people like that around him. Too bad.

[AthheistInChief]

01:38 AM on 11/23/2010

I agree with you. Axelrod seems like a genuinely decent human being. Extremely low key. Liked him a lot. But Plouffe.... oooh boy... he is the man.

[Rich Baska]

02:17 AM on 11/23/2010

Axelrod is still in the game. It's a "new face" delivering the message with a few tweaks on the message, which the new face allows. There's more than just personalities involved. It's the Game Plan. I hear some Republican balloons leaking air right now.

[manyamile]

12:19 AM on 11/23/2010

for all those who are naysaying, whining and complaining.. who would you like to see as WH advisor instead of Plouffe?
names , please! if nothing else, start focusing on possibilities for the future. the biggest mistake dems can make right now is fail to look to the future. we all know the names of blowhard teapartiers and up and coming conservatives. so how about advocating for some of the best brightest progressive, liberal minds, instead of just bitching?
if you don't like Axe or Plouffe, who would be YOUR nominee?

[admiralj]

02:00 AM on 11/23/2010

Here is one. And he could use a job in politics come Jan. Alan Grayson. Just the kind of point man that isn't afraid to get in there and expose the hypocrisy of the right. He actually enjoys bashing them.

[Chase Price]

02:20 AM on 11/23/2010

More than anything, he needs someone strong and smart. Obama seemed to stick to very close or else very conventional personalities like Axlerod, Summers, etc.

FDR surrounded himself with very smart people, not necessarily those whom he knew and certainly not conventional. Plouffe is good, but I want to see smart people too like Krugman, Roubini, and others. If Plouffe is really not just a potted plant and if he is entrusted to truly remake the Obama admin. then that could be interesting. Rahm Emmanuel seems to have been a poor choice. Too much realism can get in the way of progress. Plouffe can make a difference if he is given real power and freedom to help Obama create the America he envisions. So far Obama seems to have almost exclusively been able to only react to emergencies and not to create new realities and new institutions.

Obama CAN turn things around despite his disadvantages, but he will have to truly reach for the stars. The time is ripe for change. Let's hope Plouffe can be the channel through which Obama can finally hear and respond to the needs of the people. I think Plouffe could be the Chief of Staff as well, by the way and should have role in the CoS decisions.

Anyone?