Campaign Inc.: How Leadership and Organization Propelled Barack Obama to the White House

Preface

ix preface | Preface everything I know about the physics of winning and success I learned from the campaign trail. There is always a winner and a loser. The campaign world, just like the business world, is highly competitive. And because political campaigns are launched from scratch every election cycle, they provide the ultimate entrepreneurial showcase. We tend to think about the political campaign as this big blob—a marketing machine that spits out the ads we see on TV, the canvassers we get at our doors, the endless stream of phone calls, and the emails that barrage our inboxes. But if you pull back the curtain, what you will discover is a complex, dynamic environment filled with motivated and fiercely passionate people executing a vast array of tasks. It is a highly charged environment with a million things going on at once. This plays out in full view for the world to examine in real time. There is always a camera on the candidate, and the organization’s financial books are open to the public in the form of regular election filings that are required by law. Here you can find every dollar, every donor, and every dime spent. All of this combines to create a sensitive dynamic inside the campaign—and it’s all too human. It is in this hothouse environment under the scorching glare of the media spotlight that leadership is on full display for everyone to see. It’s like a leadership reality show. Imagine coming to work every day to a place where everything your boss says, every decision you make, and every action your organization takes is constantly scrutinized. You are always one misstep away from sparking a media firestorm. You are the buzz of the Internet on Friday, the newspaper headlines on Saturday, the talk of the morning political shows on Sunday, and the water cooler chatter on Monday. And you are the conversation at America’s dinner table every night. x | preface When you understand the campaign in this context, it becomes quite awesome. What you have, then, is a laboratory that is rich with examples of why winners win and why losers lose. It is the perfect observatory for understanding the characteristics that separate the successful from the aspiring. Some people learn the timeless principles of leadership in the boardroom. Others get them in the workplace. And still more from the classroom or on the battlefield. Mine have been born from the campaign trail, where the edge goes to those who have a clear command of the principles that drive personal and organizational success. I have seen how the precepts I write about in this book offer a noticeable edge for entrepreneurs, innovators, and executives across sectors. Why I Wrote This Book I realize the release of this book six years after the historic election of 2008 may seem somewhat oddly timed. Admittedly, it would probably have fit better with the crop of other published accounts that rolled off the presses during the ensuing eighteen months. In my defense, when I was first approached to write a book about my experience helping to build and manage our campaign, I chose instead to accept the invitation to serve in the Obama administration. My choice was between two passions; always a good thing, but never easy to deliberate over. While my enthusiasm for the idea of writing this book never diminished, interest around me had certainly waned by the time I was finally ready to take up the matter two and a half years later. Even the same publishing representatives that had initially contacted me were understandably cool to the idea they had pitched me a few years earlier. I went ahead and wrote the manuscript anyway. My motivation was twofold. First, I didn’t want to forget the incredible experience I’d had; nor did I want to lose the rich lessons I’d gleaned from our campaign journey. Second, this was an election for the ages, one that will be talked about a century from now. I wanted to offer my two boys a firsthand account of what it was really like to work in this historic and groundbreaking effort. I missed out on many of their earliest days in this world, first to help birth a president and then to support him during xi preface | his formative years in the White House. I thought this was the best...