Secrets of the Obama Campaign

In his new memoir, The Audacity to Win, Obama campaign manager David Plouffe dishes about the Jeremiah Wright controversy, Sarah Palin, and Obama's vice-presidential selection process. Evidently, Obama thought "seriously" about picking Hillary Clinton and she made the first two cuts. But Hillary disappeared during round three, probably because David Axelrod and Plouffe thought she presented too many complications. Plouffe also thought McCain's Palin pick was a huge mistake that "completely undermined his core argument against us" and "worse yet" made him look "inherently political." Plouffe recalls Obama saying: “I just don't understand how this ends up working out for McCain. In the long term, I mean. The short term will be good for them… I think we just need to sit back and play our game.”