Opinion: Now, Barack Obama camp puts out strategy discussion video

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David Plouffe is no household name, which is fine with him.

He is, in fact, Barack Obama’s campaign manager. You won’t see him on the news talk shows. He is, by his own design, a back-room manager.

But with a new e-mailed video for supporters of the Democratic presidential candidate -- and, of course, that always comes with a fundraising appeal -- Plouffe is walking people through the outlines of an Electoral College strategy for an Obama victory in November.

A couple of weeks ago we pointed out the 15-minute PowerPoint demonstration of Rick Davis, John McCain’s campaign manager, on their website. Now, Obama’s crowd has its own version and you can compare the two.

Neither contains trade secrets. Obama’s starts with the states which Sen. John Kerry claimed in 2004, and it adds some -- including some unlikely candidates such as Montana and Alaska. And it looks with some confidence toward Iowa, which gave Obama his launch in the Democratic primaries so long ago last winter. And even Georgia.

The McCain video is slick with moving screens. Obama’s video is filmed without lights or staging at the Chicago desk of the campaign manager to give it that, you know, laptop look.

It also has some Perot-like charts, maps of the perceived path to victory. It’s worth a watch -- you know McCain’s campaign is -- and a listen. It’s viewable at the campaign website.

You can read the whole story on the Obama tape by our colleague Mark Silva over at the Swamp with a link to the website video. There’s a link to the McCain video here.

--Andrew Malcolm