Obama the complicator

by YankeeJim | January 21, 2011 at 06:12 am

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Escaping the Washington DC bubble is the reason given for locating the Obama re-election HQ in Chicago, his hometown. I can see that. It provides a visible way to connect with voters outside the shroud of the Capital. Yet, once you have won the office, isn’t that where you want to be?

It seems odd to me that Obama would want to create a logistics nightmare such as this will do. Yet, Obama has probably thought this through and believes he can manage the complications.

“Obama to run presidential reelection effort out of Chicago

By Anne E. Kornblut

Washington Post Staff Writer
Thursday, January 20, 2011; 11:58 PM

President Obama will run his reelection effort out of Chicago, senior officials said Thursday, a move that will split his top political advisers between his home town and Washington.

White House officials, who had telegraphed the move for months, said they wanted to get out of the nation's capital to escape the Washington bubble and be more in touch with voters. Some who worked on Obama's 2008 campaign, also based in Chicago, said there is a deep desire to recapture the in-the-foxhole vibe of that effort.

The move will also allow senior adviser David Axelrod to work closely with the campaign after returning home. For other aides, it will serve as a loyalty test to see who will join them.

Still, no successful incumbent in modern history has placed his headquarters so far from Washington, let alone in another time zone.

The decision was made over the objections of some White House officials, who argued that moving to Chicago would add another logistical hurdle to the already cumbersome process of running a presidential campaign. Senior adviser David Plouffe, who ran the 2008 campaign, has recently moved into the White House, where he will be charged with coordinating all of the White House's political activity.”