[Infowarrior] - OT: The Audacity of Audaciousness

[Richard Forno]

Umm....."change we can believe in?"   Where?   "More transparency?"    
Same question.  --rf


The Audacity of Audaciousness

By Dana Milbank
Friday, February 13, 2009; A03

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/02/12/AR2009021203435_pf.html

It takes a certain amount of nerve to have an event at the National  
Press Club and then ban the press from covering it.

It takes another level of chutzpah entirely to admit members of the  
general public to your event at the National Press Club, recruit a  
news organization as the co-sponsor and then tell the press they can't  
cover it.

But that's exactly what former Obama campaign manager David Plouffe  
and Georgetown University did yesterday.

Plouffe was listed as the keynote speaker at the luncheon yesterday  
for "Transition 2009," sponsored by Georgetown University and  
Politico. The public was invited to the event -- students free of  
charge and everybody else for a fee. But at the last minute,  
Georgetown announced that Plouffe's speech would be "closed press,"  
even though the speech was being given in the National Press Club  
ballroom, described on a plaque at the door as "the sanctum sanctorum  
of American journalists."

National Press Club President Donna Leinwand fired off an e-mail to  
Plouffe and his agents stating her "strong opposition" to the press  
banishment from its own club. "If Mr. Plouffe wants to keep secrets,"  
she said, "Mr. Plouffe should stay at home."

Politico editor John Harris called it "a surprise to me and an unhappy  
one." Harris pulled out as moderator of the speech and said his  
publication was disassociating itself from the luncheon.

Un-sponsoring part of the two-day event, however, was rather tricky.  
The Politico emblem was still emblazoned on signs outside the ballroom  
and on the lanyards and name tags for attendees.

This sort of mess has become a trademark of the former Obama campaign  
manager. Plouffe still keeps his Obama ties -- over the weekend he  
sent out an e-mail in his name to millions from barackobama.com titled  
"Urgent message from President Obama" -- yet he is also profiting from  
them. He is reported to have received as much as $2 million for his  
forthcoming book, "The Audacity to Win," and he can't give his  
material away in public speeches.

Plouffe's Audacity to Cash Out caused some embarrassment for him over  
the weekend, when he flew to Azerbaijan to give a speech to a group  
tied to that country's repressive leader. The title of that speech,  
"The Power of Democracy," took on an ironic meaning when journalists  
were ordered to leave the auditorium before it began.

Banishing the press from the National Press Club was not as easy.

Georgetown spokeswoman Rachel Pugh said the speech was "closed at the  
request of the speaker" before agreeing to let reporters in as long as  
they did not report on anything they heard there.

But Plouffe, confronted at a reception before the speech, blamed  
Georgetown. "The conversation in there, at the university's request,  
is off the record," he said. "It's not my choice."

Oh? The question was put to Rob Manuel, dean of Georgetown's School of  
Continuing Studies. "We are honoring his decision to be off the  
record," he said.

To circumvent the off-the-record rules, a Washington Post reporter put  
on a sandwich board with the messages "unPLOUFFEable" and "what the  
Plouffe?" and then handed out notebooks and pens to regular citizens  
who, because they were not reporters, were free to report on the  
speech. They provided a full account of his nearly 90-minute talk.

On Sarah Palin: "She was our best fundraiser and organizer in the fall."

On the primary victory over Hillary Clinton: "Really by February 17,  
mathematically, the night of the Wisconsin primary, it's over. We had  
to endure 3 1/2 months of pure hell before we secured the nomination."

On the New Hampshire primary: "Our sense was if we won Iowa that would  
be enough to shoot us past her. . . . We should have found a way to  
remove the pressure to win."

On the Texas primary: "The biggest mistake I made in this campaign."

On Internet organizing: "We had hundreds of thousands of people who  
signed up to be rapid responders. So when John McCain's attacking us  
on Bill Ayers, and other silly issues, those people were sending out  
the facts."

The crucial moment of the general election: "McCain's suspension of  
his campaign . . . From that point on, people saw McCain as more  
unsteady and erratic."

McCain's "celebrity" ad: "We just sat back and said he's doing huge  
damage to himself with independent women voters. When you coupled  
Palin to it, it was explosive and really destructive."

Interesting stuff, sure, but nothing newsworthy and nothing out of  
school. So why did Plouffe have the press removed from the press club?

After the speech, Plouffe again blamed Georgetown. "They wanted to  
have a candid exchange," he said.

Nearby, a Georgetown event staffer tried to prevent the questioning of  
Plouffe. "Seriously, this is going to be a scene," she warned. "I  
really do recommend that you not do this."

Plouffe was whisked away, and the press club was again open to the  
press.

For a video version of this column and more excerpts of Plouffe's  
speech, go to http://blog.washingtonpost.com/roughsketch.