TWO DAVIDS VS. TWO GOLIATHS

The banners have all come down, the streets are all swept free of the confetti, and the last party has been thrown. Now comes the time to analyze the election, the blame and the credit. To be sure, a lot of the credit for the big win on the Democrat side has to go to Barack Obama and a lot of the blame for the loss has to go to John McCain. That's just the way it is, the buck stops at the top. The McCain campaign leaders (not to be confused with the RNC) have thrown Alaskan Governor Sarah Palin to the wolves. This is to be expected, they certainly don't want to take the blame themselves, after all, they're all hoping to work on another campaign in the future and that's not likely to happen if they blame themselves. Governor Palin is doing the right thing. She's defending herself while pointing out that these attacks aren't coming from McCain or the RNC. Her future, from my point of view, has to be bright, I can't picture the RNC throwing away anyone with that much star power and name recognition. On the Democrat side, everyone wants in on the credit, as can be expected. But who was really the brains behind the impossible? From everything I've seen and read, it was two relatively unknowns that brought down the the twin Goliaths of McCain and Clinton; David Plouffe and David Axlerod.

So, who are the two Davids? Let's take David Plouffe first.

David Plouffe began his political career when he went to work for Senator Tom Harkin's 1990 re-election campaign. He later worked as a state field director for Harkin's unsuccessful 1992 Presidential campaign. He then successfully managed Congressman John Olver's first re-election bid in Western Massachusetts. In 1994 Plouffe managed Delaware Attorney General Charles M. Oberly's unsuccessful campaign against Senator William V. Roth Jr.. He then worked as campaign director for the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee in 1995. In 1996, Plouffe managed Bob Torricelli's successful campaign to fill Bill Bradley's seat in the United States Senate.From 1997 to 1998 Plouffe served as Democratic leader Richard Gephardt's Deputy Chief of Staff. From 1999-2000 he worked as executive director of the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee, and then in 2003 he met David Axelrod and began working on Barack Obama's successful 2004 U.S. Senate Campaign and finally on Barack's Presidential bid. From the very start of Obama's campaign, Mr. Plouffe made one thing abundantly clear. There would be no drama. As Barack's campaign manager, David was the "details man", in charge of the Obama strategy to win. With every state thought out in his head and every move calculated, David Plouffe believed the only possible problem would come from either his staff acting out badly or his candidate coming across as an "angry black man". On that, he was completely correct. White America had seen it's share of passionate black presidential candidates from Rev. Jesse Jackson to Rev. Al Sharpton and they had demonstrated one thing beyond any doubt. While all were popular among black people, white people would not vote for them. Without the white vote, Mr. Plouffe concluded, Barack could not win. This theory of "no drama" was applied not just to Barack Obama, but also to his wife, his spokesmen, his supporters, campaign workers and anyone else that could be tied to Obama. David Plouffe was directly responsible for the discipline that the Obama campaign showed.

David Axelrod was Barack's Senior Political Advisor, but he could better be described as Barack's "Right Hand Man". David began his political career at age 13 handing out campaign buttons for Robert F. Kennedy. He pursued his passion for politics by attending the University of Chicago where he majored in political science. Like his counterpart, David Plouffe, he didn't graduate and went to work at the Chicago Tribune and became the City Hall Bureau Chief and a political columnist. Unhappy as just a writer, (I can relate), in 1984 he joined the campaign of US Senator Paul Simon as communications director and within weeks he was promoted to co-campaign manager. He then formed his own consulting firm, Axelrod and Associates, and was hired by Harold Washington, Chicago's first black mayor.This established his experience in working with black politicians and he later went to work on similar mayoral campaigns of blacks, including Dennis Archer in Detroit, Michael R. White in Cleveland, Anthony A. Williams in Washington, D.C., Lee P. Brown in Houston, and John F. Street in Philadelphia as well as Chicago mayor Richard M. Daley. David met Barack Obama in 1992 through a mutual friend and the two became so close that Obama consulted Axelrod before he delivered his famed 2002 anti-war speech and asked him to read drafts of his book, The Audacity of Hope. Axelrod is credited with coming up with the Caucus Strategy and post Super Tuesday Strategy that helped defeat Hillary Clinton in the primaries. I think it's fair to say that without David Axelrod, we would be looking at a Clinton or McCain Presidency.

As we assess the 2008 historic election of Barack Obama, let's all remember that Barack is not just the product of the streets of Chicago, not just the product of a caring Grandmother or the support of black people. Barack Obama is where he is today by virtue of his gift of communication and the efforts of two Davids who helped him slay two Goliaths that no one, not even me, thought he had a chance against. H.C.