Michael Rentiers

Almost as good as the Oprah Book Club.

Last week I picked up David Plouffe’s book “The Audacity to Win.” Plouffe was Barack Obama’s Campaign Manager during the 2008 Presidential election and his book is a very interesting behind the scenes look at the campaign machine that carried Obama to a historic victory.  If you are even remotely interested in politics, this book is great.  If you are like me, a political junkie, this book is outstanding!

Let’s face it; if you have ever worked on a campaign in a staff position, or to a lesser extent as a dedicated volunteer, the mechanics of a campaign are enthralling and addictive.  I believe the most common way of putting it is that a campaign is like smoking crack.  You hate it and want to walk away, but in the end you just can’t get enough.  Regardless of your politics, I highly recommend you pick this up.  I have not finished it, but Plouffe does a great job giving a straight look at the strategy and execution of the campaign, without a lot of the political messaging.

My buddy, Wes Donehue, wrote a critique on his Blog a couple of weeks ago about how you could not reproduce the Obama for America campaign.  He was absolutely correct.  It was a perfect storm type combination of mood of the electorate, unique candidate and revolutionary use of new media and the Internet that brought about the success of the campaign.  Wes also correctly points out that while the campaign cannot be recreated, it can be learned from.  That’s why this book is a great read.  The Obama for America campaign smashed the old way of conducting politics and rewrote the new way of not only communicating your message but also recruiting and motivating supporters through grassroots based strategies and online activism.

I’ve worked on a number of campaigns over the last 9 years.  I still work in politics and I do run advocacy campaigns, but every election year I miss it like crazy.  If you love working 7 days a week for no money, then you’ll love a campaign.  For folks on the outside looking in, the glamour they envision simply does not exist.  It is stressful, thankless, unforgiving and seemingly unending.  Most, if not all of your personal life must fall by the wayside.  However,  I wouldn’t trade one day of being a part of a campaign for anything in the world.

Here is one snippet from the book on that point:

All political campaigns consume lives-presidential campaigns especially so.  The normal things in life-movies, sports, books, time with family and friends-fall away almost entirely.  People who sign up for presidential campaigns  should know that they are putting their personal lives on hold.  If they don’t know, they will learn so painfully, and quickly enough…What was abnormal became normal.

Despite all that it is something so unique and special that every election year I think I should give up a good job and good salary just to get back into it.  Maybe one day.  However, until that time books like Plouffe’ “Audacity to Win” will have to satisfy my campaign shakes.