Iowa versus the American Revolution

It is cool being in DC exactly two years after Barack Obama won the Iowa caucus. I've been reading David Plouffe's book about the campaign and it strikes me what long odds the campaign faced. The notion that a first term Senator named Barack Hussein Obama could beat Hillary Clinton was regarded by many as laughable. The two things that stood out to me about why Obama won the nomination:

1. The unbelievable grassroots movement that was galvanized by online tools such as MYBO.com and Facebook.

2. The discipline, intelligence and cohesion of the Obama campaign team. A stark contrast to the people surrounding Hillary's campaign- she was a really good candidate (especially after Iowa) but the campaign structure was a disaster and really let her down.



After checking out the Smithsonian American History Museum, I wondered which was more unlikely- Barack Obama becoming the President or a ragtag group of soldiers defeating the mighty British Empire?

Politically astute Dems? It's like the West Wing has come to life!

For all you Toby Ziegler and Josh Lyman fans, President Obama's nomination of Utah Republican Jon Huntsman to become the new Ambassador to China is an inspired choice. By all accounts, Huntsman is extremely qualified- fluent in Mandarin, former Ambassador to Singapore, former deputy US trade rep, etc. But he's also the guy that former Obama campaign manager David Plouffe singled out as being the most worrisome potential GOP nominee in 2012. Huntsman becoming the Ambassador to China pretty much rules him out from making a bid in 2012. Two birds, one stone. Nice change from past Democratic operations that resulted in lots of stones, no birds, many bloody foreheads.