How They Did It: David Plouffe on Obama's 2008 Victory

In a new memoir, The Audacity to Win , David Plouffe, who managed Barack Obama's 2008 race for the White House, provides a behind-the-scenes glimpse inside the campaign

Callie Shell / Aurora for TIME

Plouffe, far left, with Obama in Denver on Aug. 28, 2008, the day the first-term Senator accepted the Democratic nomination.

In a new memoir, The Audacity to Win, David Plouffe, who managed Barack Obama's 2008 race for the White House, provides a behind-the-scenes glimpse inside the campaign. Here's an excerpt :

Agony. Ecstasy.
The [Rev. Jeremiah] Wright story broke on a Wednesday and exploded across the media landscape the next day. We decided Obama had to take questions about [his former pastor's inflammatory sermons] head-on on Friday, in a series of lengthy national cable interviews.

There was one not-so-minor complication. He was already scheduled to do editorial boards that Friday afternoon with both Chicago...

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