Scene: The Oval Office. Election night. Most of the President’s senior campaign staff are present. Barack Obama, Valerie Jarrett and Jim Messina are gathered around the desk, poring over a map. Messina: “Our early-voter efforts haven’t quite performed as we’d hoped in Ohio and Virginia. Romney’s troops have fought harder than we expected and have been focusing their efforts on less-likely supporters while holding their most enthusiastic voters in reserve
One Term to Serve, the 2012 Revival
October 21, 2012
One Term to Serve: Home to Roost [McGehee]
Scene: The Oval Office. Barack Obama, TOTUS and Carney are present. Barack: “So what should I say if Schieffer brings up this thing about talks with Iran?” TOTUS: “Don’t say anything. Just let the Secret Service snipers take care of it.” Carney: (to TOTUS) “Are you out of your mind?” (to Barack) “You just say the report was inaccurate, and then you accuse Romney of planning to take us into
October 11, 2012
One Term to Serve: Last Call at the VP Debate [McGehee]
Scene: The 2012 Vice Presidential Debate in Danville, Kentucky. It’s nearly over, and the moderator calls for closing arguments. Martha Raddatz: “Each candidate will now have two minutes for closing statements, and we’ll begin with Congressman Ryan.” Paul Ryan: “Thank you, Martha. Mr. Vice President, when you and President Obama took office, he appointed you to be in charge of deficit reduction. In the ensuing four years the national debt
October 10, 2012
One Term to Serve: IT’S ALIVE!!! [McGehee]
Scene: The Oval Office. Carney, TOTUS, Axelrod and a makeup artist are present. Axelrod: “You know, guys, I really don’t think this is the October Surprise I had in mind.” Carney: “With the Vice President hiding somewhere on the White House grounds and the debate with Ryan coming up tomorrow, we need to do something. Now hold still.” Makeup Artist: “You know, if Mr. Axelrod doesn’t let me shave off
October 4, 2012
One Term to Serve: After the Debate [McGehee]
Scene: The Oval Office. Biden, Carney and TOTUS are present. Carney: “WHERE THE HELL WERE YOU LAST NIGHT!!!???” TOTUS: “They wouldn’t let me in. It’s discrimination, pure and simple. Just because I’m a communications device they think they can exclude me from events like this.” Biden: “Not like that bar around the corner, right? Boy, we had a great time there, didn’t we?” Carney: “The President needed you, you dysfunctional
September 29, 2012
One Term to Serve: Resurrected and Reimagined [McGehee]
A while back on my own site I wrote a few posts called “One Term to Serve,” a look inside the Obama White House. Here I offer a revival of that series, reimagined for the last few weeks of the 2012 campaign.