2008

2012

CAMPAIGN SLOGANS

“CHANGE WE NEED”
“CHANGE WE CAN BELIEVE IN”
“YES WE CAN”
 

SUGGESTIONS: “I WOULDN’T GET YOUR HOPES UP” (McSweeney’s)
“SERIOUSLY, NOTHING LIKE JIMMY CARTER” (Mighty Righty blog)

CAMPAIGN HEADQUARTERS

233 N. MICHIGAN AVE.
33,000 square feet, 11th floor, subleased from Accenture

THE PRUDENTIAL BUILDING
50,000 square feet, sixth floor, views of Millennium Park and Grant Park, site of Obama’s victory party in 2008

CAMPAIGN INNER CIRCLE

DAVID AXELROD, Chief Political Strategist
Obama’s political alter ego and media guru struck a chord with the optimistic messages of hope and change.
 

DAVID PLOUFFE, Campaign Manager
The former Axelrod partner quarterbacked the ’08 playbook, then wrote a 400-page book about it; now advising from the White House.

STEVE HILDEBRAND, Deputy Campaign Manager
Engineered Obama’s historic win in the Iowa caucuses; took a pass this time
 

ANITA DUNN, Director of Communications, Policy, and Research
Joined early on and became a key strategist; was briefly in the White House; sitting out the reelection
 

ROBERT GIBBS, Press Secretary
Obama’s mouthpiece and bad cop is now a campaign consultant.
 

PENNY PRITZKER, National Finance Chair
Led Obama’s record-breaking fundraising efforts; still opens her checkbook but isn’t overseeing the whole effort

DAVID AXELROD, Chief Political Strategist
Can he sell a president whose approval rating barely tops 40 percent? More on Axelrod here.
 

JIM MESSINA, Campaign Manager
Plouffe’s No. 2 in ’08 is now No. 1. The respected problem fixer has one big problem: the economic doldrums that can foil reelections.
 

JULIANNA SMOOT and JEN O’MALLEY DILLON,
Deputy Campaign Managers
Smoot, the ’08 campaign finance director turned White House social secretary is back in an elevated role. Dillon oversaw post-’08 grassroots organization and is now trying to reenergize its more than 13 million members
 

STEPHANIE CUTTER, Director of Communications, Policy, and Research
Michelle’s chief of staff in campaign ’08, named chief spokesperson of the transition; now lured over from the White House for extra press help
 

BEN LaBOLT, Press Secretary
One of Gibbs’s understudies in ’08, went on to handle press for Rahm’s mayoral race; now the top talker
 

MATTHEW BARZUN, National Finance Chair
Left his post as ambassador to Sweden for what could likely be the first billion-dollar campaign

COOLEST CAMPAIGN COLLECTIBLES

Shepard Fairey’s “Hope” poster
(free for those lucky enough to snag one at Obama rallies)

Juicy Couture’s “Dude, Where’s the Hope?” T-shirt, $60

Campaign button of Bo, the
First Dog, two for $5

“Made in the USA” mug with an image of Obama’s birth certificate, $20