David Plouffe is something of a legend in political circles, having masterminded first-term Sen. Barack Obama's come-from-nowhere victory against Hillary Clinton in the 2008 Democratic primaries, followed by a smashing victory in the general election against John McCain. He would later serve as Obama's senior advisor during the 2012 campaign.
He’s even credited with warning Joe Biden off the 2016 race — maybe as a favor to Hillary — to spare him the embarrassment of finishing third in Iowa.
That David Plouffe enjoyed so much success putting and keeping America's first Red Diaper Baby president in office is no reason to celebrate his skills. But I'd also be remiss if I tried to deny them.
That's why I found myself in complete disagreement with Fox News's Joe Concha, responding to the latest revelations about Plouffe, Biden, and Kamala Harris.
"Trying to defeat Donald Trump in just 107 days was a 'f***ing nightmare,' admits Harris campaign adviser David Plouffe," in a new report (no link, alas) shared by Steve Guest on X this morning. Plouffe blamed Biden for clinging to power too long, leaving Harris too little time to mount an effective campaign: "He totally f***ed us."
But Concha argued that Plouffe "helped run a patently horrible campaign, and of course to save his own skin, passes the buck." He rattled off a brutal list of missteps, including skipping the Al Smith dinner, ignoring Joe Rogan, tapping Tim Walz, and cozying up to Liz Cheney.
When Concha puts it like that, Plouffe looks pretty bad, doesn't he?
The thing is, Concha is entirely correct that Plouffe's decisions on Al Smith, Rogan, Walz, and Cheney all led to disaster. What Concha misses is that, as bad as those choices were, the alternatives were worse.
Rogan and the Al Smith dinner fall into the same category: the only thing worse than ducking an appearance that might call on Harris to look informed and presidential… is actually making one. Rogan isn't a "Gotcha!" interviewer, but within 30 minutes of his three-hour podcast, he'd have had Harris reduced to clucking like a chicken.
Cheney was a tougher call. With Trump bleeding Democrats of working-class men and gaining ground with black and Hispanic voters, Harris needed some kind of crossover credibility. Cheney may have seemed like a longshot play for disaffected Republicans — but Trump’s base never liked her, and independents barely noticed.
I saved Walz for last because he's the funniest example of Plouffe's dilemma.
Harris needed a white male for "balance," preferably someone with executive experience and the ability to deliver a swing state. That left her with Walz or Pennsylvania Gov. Josh Shapiro. Shapiro would have been the better choice — popular, sharp, and governor of a crucial swing state. But Harris couldn’t afford to alienate the “River to the Sea” crowd, and that made Shapiro's Jewishness a political liability.
So it had to be Walz.
I'll never quit laughing at Gov. Jazz Hands getting the veep nod because he could bring "masculinity" to the ticket.
Plouffe didn't have too little time; he had Kamala Harris.
At every step of Harris's ill-fated campaign, Plouffe made the best decision he could with the materials provided to him. But imagine Michelangelo having to create David out of Play-Doh...
...or if Da Vinci had only crayons to create the Mona Lisa...
...or if the French had to build the Notre-Dame out of Lincoln Logs.
It's almost enough to make you feel sorry for Plouffe, if only he hadn't put his considerable skills in the service of lefty causes.
But we'll always have this moment of schadenfreude together.
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