Book Review: The Audacity to Win

It’s probably rare that someone would write a book review before actually completing the book.  But, I’m halfway through The Audacity to Win by David Plouffe and I’m pretty sure I know how it ends.  The book is subtitled The Inside Story and Lessons of Barack Obama’s Historic Victory and it tells the story of Obama’s tumultuous campaign for the presidency.

Nine days from now will be the anniversary of the day I stood in the freezing cold with one million people on the national mall to witness and celebrate the inauguration of the first African American president.  He was called a savior.  He offered hope, change, a fresh perspective.

For most of us, that feeling is hard to recall.  The last year has been one political battle after another.  Tea parties touted overtly racist imagery and health care townhalls turned into screaming matches.  What happened to the idealism?

The Audacity to Win is like a time warp back to the honeymoon period, when the nation was first getting to know Barack Obama.  It lays out the race in such detail that just reading it, I get caught up all over again.  I just read the passage when Hillary got teary-eyed in New Hampshire.  Like Plouffe, I recall wondering if the emotion was real or politically motivated.  Like Plouffe, I was shocked when Clinton pulled out ahead in New Hampshire when every poll showed Obama would win.

In the wake of a year of governing in prose, Audacity is a refreshing trip back to the poetry of the campaign.  But, it’s also so much more.  Plouffe lays out the strategy of how they did it.  As the campaign manager, Plouffe was key in every important decision.  David Axelrod, Robert Gibbs and Plouffe were the “brain trust” of the campaign.  Fourteen months later, and a year into the Obama presidency, it’s hard to remember how shocking it was that a relatively unknown Senator from Illinois even received the Democratic nomination, much less was elected to the presidency.  But, Plouffe takes you back, way back to the first meetings of Obama considering a run.  He tells you about Michelle Obama’s concern for her family, about the hard life on the campaign trail and his own very personal experience being away from his family when a beloved pet died.  It is the real backstage pass.

The Obamas, Plouffe, Gibbs, and “Axe,” as Axelrod is called, are all leading roles in the book.  But, Plouffe also brings in relatively minor characters.  At one point, he highlights a young organizing chair in Iowa, practically going crazy before the Iowa caucuses.

Mitch, who was overseeing the organizational side of the Iowa campaign, walked in looking for Tewes.  Seeing him, I said into the phone to Barack, “Listen, it’s out of all of our hands now.  It’s in Mitch Stewart’s hands.  If his organization delivers what he says it will, we are going to win.”  I looked up to acknowledge Mitch’s presence in front of me.  “Oh, here he is,” I told Obama.  “Why don’t you say hi.”

When I told Mitch the candidate wanted to say hello, his face turned ash white.  Mitch was already a jumble of nerves, his hair was falling out, and he was sleeping two hours a night.  This about sent him over the edge.  He took the phone from me warily and put it to his ear. “Hello, sir?”  He listened a bit, and then said, “I keep looking over the numbers and I think we’ll get to where we need to be.  Or we’ll die trying.”

A moment later, Mitch hung up and gave me back the phone.  “I think I am going to throw up,” he said.

Plouffe also tells the stories of people he met on the trail, from the first timers to the old hats.  This book, much like the campaign, highlights the diverse and broad coalition assembled by Obama that allowed him to win.

Reading Audacity is also giving me a better sense of our president.  How does he handle his subordinates?  Does he crack under pressure?  How much of the campaign was him and how much was advisers?  I’m reassured by the portrayal Plouffe paints of a calm and thoughtful man in the face of difficult decisions.  But, Obama knew when to crack down.  When his campaign responded to a Clinton-camp criticism with a counter attack while Obama was unreachable on an airplane, he reacted.

But When Obama landed he was furious.

“Can I not get on an airplane anymore without you guys launching cruise missiles?” he asked the three of us [Plouffe, Axelrod, Gibbs] with exasperation over speakerphone.  “I understand your instinct.  But going the Lincoln Bedroom route just gets playing in the muck, where they are more comfortable than we are.  Run this stuff by me from now on, at least until we get in stride in terms of tone.”

From what I can gather from the book, most of the campaign was Obama.  But, he absolutely had the best and the brightest working for him.  Plouffe emphasizes that for them to win, they had to do everything right.  And they did.

Whether you know every facet of the 2008 election or you missed the whole thing, The Audacity to Win is a fascinating read that offers a new, inside perspective of the events that changed history.