In Novemeber of 2009, roughly one year after President Barack Obama stunned the world with his miraculous climb to the White House, I had a lengthy discussion with one of President Obama’s key presidential campaign strategists, David Plouffe. David Plouffe was the architect behind Obama’s entire presidential campaign. Plouffe, along with his then-partner David Axelrod, mapped out and handcrafted President Obama’s entire journey from his initial bid for the Democratic nomination, through the nail-biting primary race that left Hillary Clinton eating dust, to Obama’s battle against John McCain and the formidable Sarah Palin.

In President Obama’s victory speech, he cited David Plouffe with incredible gratitude, stating, “And to my campaign manager, David Plouffe, the unsung hero of this campaign, who built the best — the best political campaign, I think, in the history of the United States of America.”

But was it all just fluff and clever public relations strategy, or did America vote for the right candidate for President back in 2008? With David Plouffe now out of the picture, who will save Obama in the 2012 race against the blood hungry conservative movement?

Here are some interesting excerpts from my interview with President Barack Obama’s presidential campaign strategist, David Plouffe. They shed some interesting light on the approach of that 2007/2008 campaign:

PR.com: When it came to the Iowa caucuses and the work you put in with staff and volunteers on the ground, was that a big gamble for you, or was that a no-brainer as far as you, David Axelrod and Barack Obama were concerned?

David Plouffe: We thought the only way to win was to win Iowa. In that way it wasn’t a gamble. It was a necessity. The gamble was betting that a number of people who have never attended caucuses before would turn out. And that played well. I write in the book that, that was what our strategy was predicated on. I think a lot of commentators in politics didn’t think it was possible, certainly to the degree we were able to do it. We were counting on people who had never been at a caucus before. We put our fate in their hands. That was a gamble and that certainly was something that defied convention.

PR.com: It can really be used for any business or organization, but I like where you said, and I’m paraphrasing a little, “How do you compete with a more established brand without taking their customers? You create new ones.”

David Plouffe: That’s exactly what we had to do, and by the way, Barack Obama wanted to appeal to people who had sort of checked out of politics or hadn’t been involved. But the truth was this was a necessity for us. We had to do this because we would not have been able to win Iowa with the people who would have normally turned out. And that became exactly what we did. And that’s what we did several times, in the general election as well. We were not going to compete with Coke-a-Cola, you know? We had to essentially commit people to try… well, I’ll leave the analogies alone (laughs)… but we had to get people who drink sports drinks or juices. We weren’t going to win the cola war.

PR.com: What were the other campaigns’ reasons for not putting as much work into Iowa, specifically Hillary Clinton?
David Plouffe: Well I think she ended up spending as much, or more than we did and she appeared a lot, but we started organizing earlier because nobody knew who Barack Obama was, really, so we had to. We thought that Iowa was our make or break state. John Edwards spent even more time there than we did. I think Hillary Clinton perhaps got started there a little bit late. We organized every community in Iowa because we thought that to win we really were going to have to gain and build support in every corner of the state, and from unlikely sources. For instance, we organized every high school in Iowa. That had never been done before with the caucuses

For an inside look into the strategies and intimate stories behind President Obama’s presidential campaign and journey to the White House from the man who took that journey with him, READ MY ENTIRE INTERVIEW WITH POLITICAL STRATEGIST DAVID PLOUFFE

I said in my last blog post about political public relations that I would give feedback on my experience interviewing David Plouffe, the mastermind campaign manager who led President Barack Obama to victory last year.

One thing that certainly gives me an advantage as a publicist and marketing consultant that most of my colleagues do not have is my direct access to some of the most famous, brilliant, and innovative minds of our time. I don’t take this opportunity lightly or ever take it for granted. I am grateful for this every day!

That being said, President Barack Obama’s campaign manager David Plouffe was one of those meetings of the minds that left a huge impression on me, mainly because he was one of the greatest teachers of grassroots marketing and public relations that one could ever hope to learn from. As I read his book, The Audacity to Win, in preparation for our interview together I couldn’t help but soak up the invaluable playbook by which David Plouffe and his partner David Axelrod ran Barack Obama’s Presidential campaign. Some of the things that jumped off the page the most were the following strategies:

1. Rather than simply competing with your competition for existing customers or clients, create new customers in areas where your competition may not have looked. I use this tactic to my clients’ advantage when I work now.

2. Don’t be above canvasing at the most grassroots level. If it’s good enough for our President, it should be good enough for your company or organization. This could include making phone calls, door to door, newsletters, flyers, attending conferences, visiting private clubs or schools… anywhere you can reach people in their own familiar environment to get your message across one person at a time. The catch: You better have a solid and concise message. Practice and polish before you hit the “field.”

3. Be above anything petty. Don’t get “down in the muck,” as President Obama would always say to David Plouffe during his campaign. Forget negative message public relations strategies or retaliation. Stay a cut above by displaying integrity. Announce what sets you apart in a positive way rather than cutting down your competition. Don’t retaliate against your competition with a counter negative attack. That is so 20th century, no? Be more evolved. Instead, clarify why they are incorrect and go on to communicate your authentic message.

To read my interview with David Plouffe – http://www.pr.com/article/1137

To visit Allison Dawn Public Relations and read more about how I work with my own clients click – www.allisondawnpr.com