Convention Coverage

Obama: Twenty Generals and the Grateful Dead

By Contributing Writer, 8-28-08

Obama in Boise, Feb. 2008 photo by Andrew Kuraitis

From the Idaho Democratic Party blog, with permission.

Thursday morning, the chief of Senator Barack Obama’s staff, Jim Messina, gave the Idaho delegation insights on the candidate and the big night ahead.

You heard it here first: twenty generals will line up for Obama tonight in a show of support for bringing the troops home and shoring up the army.

“Barack writes his speeches himself. This one’s had 4,000 drafts and he was toiling on it last night.”

It’s no accident Obama was in Billings when Michelle spoke Monday. “He’s been there six times and we’ve got a good chance in Montana,” he said. “Barack told us from the first we were going to compete in every state. We believe we’ve got 168 safe electoral votes and 32 leaning our way-Oregon, Washington, Minnesota and New Hampshire. It’s a lot harder for John McCain to make the numbers work. If we win Colorado, it gets very hard for him.”

A graduate of Boise High School, Messina has been running campaigns or congressional staffs since graduating from the University of Montana. He’s on leave as chief of staff for Montana Senator Max Baucus.

“I got a call from Barack asking if he could talk to me. We talked; he offered me the job if I would do two things. First, be completely loyal. No leaks. Second, treat staff like family. If I kicked anyone around I’d have Barack to deal with. “Around the campaign we have this saying ‘No drama in Obama.’ We have no time for intrigue.

“Obama wants a ‘flat’ campaign, meaning everyone gets a voice. We have unleashed independent initiative on a vast scale. This is a campaign of smart young people. One invented the idea of notifying anyone who signed up to find out who the vice presidential nominee would be via cell phone. We got two million new contacts.”

The day after the Republican convention ends, the Obama campaign will publish 300,000 copies of a new book chock full of policy specifics which Messina called “boring” but predicted it would quickly rise to number one on the New York Times bestseller list. “If people worry about what Obama stands for, this 77 page book will have it all.”

Messina was effusive when it came to Hillary Clinton and Joe Biden.

“Hillary Clinton has been amazing. She called us. She was right about how to play things this week. It was there idea that Hillary come to the floor to move the nomination by acclamation. And she’s going to be on the road all the time. We could not ask for more.”

“Joe Biden came to Chicago and said, ‘treat me like staff. Put me to work.’ We said we’ll work you hard for six days and give you a day of rest. Biden said no. ‘Sign me up for seven days a week to the end.’”

Messina revealed that the Grateful Dead will reunite to stage a concert for Obama.


After McCain’s Brittany Spears ad, “our people went crazy contacting our supporters. It was the single best fund raising day we’ve ever had.”

The campaign has a staff of more than 2,500. When Messina arrives at work at 6 a.m. there are already 200 there ahead of him. When he leaves at midnight, two-thirds of the staff is still there.

Early voting at colleges is going to be important. Messina believes national analysts have underestimated the number of new voters the campaign will bring to the polls. At colleges, MP3 downloads and voter drives will help swell the vote.

Twenty million women are unregistered and 60 percent vote Democratic-if they come to the polls. “Women will take over this election,” he said.
The equal pay for equal work issue is huge. We heard it at this convention, but it strikes home not only with women but also with men because so many households need two incomes. Messina was pressed to say Obama would visit Idaho again where he drew 14,000 in Boise in February, pushing him to the largest margin of victory in the nation. He promised only that Obama would visit Idaho after he is elected.

He expects the Republican convention to try to “tear the hide off us, and I think they’ll be good at it. This will be a very close election. Ten percent have not made up their minds,” he said.

Messina’s parents are Jan and Rick Heller of Nampa. They’re taking care of his dog.

(Funny how he doesn’t have time for that!)

Like this story? Get more! Sign up for our free newsletters.