Llego al ecuador de The Audacity to Win, el libro recién publicado de David Plouffe, jefe de campaña de Obama, sobre el proceso electoral de 2008. Quizá lo más interesante y revelador que se escribirá sobre el tema; imposible superar el acceso y lugar estelar desde el que el autor atestiguó el proceso.
El libro es un recorrido cronológico por todos y cada de uno de los episodios de la campaña: de la llamada a la medianoche en la que Obama le pidió se convirtiera en su jefe de campaña a finales de 2006, al caucus de Iowa y la primaria de New Hampshire, pasando por la apuesta inequívoca que hizo la campaña desde el comienzo por construir una organización de base apuntalada en las nuevas tecnologías. Las anécdotas y revelaciones son incontables —y hasta ahora sólo he léido la mitad— y sólo se pueden comprender plenamente leyendo el texto completo.
Dejo constancia aquí de una sola por la que merece la pena leer el libro. Plouffe la cuenta con gracia y con la dosis necesaria de drama que debió de haber tenido la escena en el Reagan National Airport de Washington, DC. Los equipos de la senadora Clinton y Obama se encuentran inesperadamente momentos antes de volar a Iowa a uno de los primeros debates. Una hombre del equipo de la senadora se acerca al avión de Obama y solicita un momento a solas entre los candidatos. Dejo a Plouffe contar el resto:
In a tableau that might seem excessive to many, both candidates had large private planes idling at Washington’s National Airport ready to take them to the debate. Our caravan got there first, and Obama, Axelrod, Gibbs (who had traveled back to D.C. with Obama to do some last-minute rolling debate prep), and our traveling team boarded the plane. Hillary’s motorcade pulled up to her plane a couple of minutes later, and her traveling aide came over to speak to us. Reggie Love went down the steps to see what was up and was told Clinton wanted a moment with Obama.
He reported that back, and a minute later Obama bounded down the steps. The two rivals met on the tarmac between the planes.
I was sitting on a plane at Chicago O‘Hare, about to fly to Iowa to join up with the traveling team when Axelrod called me. He didn’t even say hello. “Barack and Hillary are talking on the tarmac,” he said breathlessly. “Hillary’s arms are waving wildly and it looks heated.”
“Sir?” I looked up to find a flight attendant standing in the aisle next to me. “Sir, we’re taking off. Please turn off your phone.”
Unbelievable. But I did as she said. “I’ll call you with more,” said Ax just before he hung up. And then my plane was taxiing down the runway and we were off. For me it was the longest hour of the whole campaign.
When I landed, they were still in the air, so I stayed on tenterhooks until they got to our greenroom at the debate site. When the traveling party barged in, it was storytelling time. Obama came up to me immediately. “You won’t believe it,” he said.
“I want to hear it all,” I told him. Obama re-created the conversation, with Axelrod and Gibbs piping in and Ax helpfully performing pantomime as appropriate.
The guts of the encounter were this: Hillary began by graciously apologizing for Shaheen’s comments and saying they were not authorized by her or her campaign.
“I appreciate that, Hillary,” Barack replied, “and I don’t believe you encouraged that behavior. But we all have to take responsibility for the tone of the campaign and the signals that we send.”
And with that, Clinton began gesticulating wildly and even shaking a bit (which Axelrod role-played while Obama was recounting the conversation) and said that it was not her campaign that put out the D-Punjab memo, or that was talking about trust and character. Obama gently put his hand on her arm to calm things down and said, “I said we all have responsibility, not just you. Let’s both tell our campaigns to try to be more careful.”
Then it was over, and both candidates headed for their planes. “For the first time, I saw a glimpse of recognition and deep concern in her eyes,” said Obama, bringing the recap to a close. “I think she may finally realize that this could be a battle and that Iowa is a jump ball. I’d still rather be her than us, but we’re in their heads for the first time.”
