Obama’s targeted reelection launch

President Obama entered his 2012 reelection race via a two-minute web video released to supporters this morning, a video that provides a telling window into how – and where – the campaign will focus in the coming months.

The video features five average people advocating for Obama and, as importantly, his style of politics.

Let’s look at the people first.

The first three voices come from three swing states: “Ed”, a white man from North Carolina, “Gladys”, a Hispanic woman from Nevada and “Katherine”, a white woman from Colorado.

The other two – “Mike” and “Alice” – are, respectively, a college-aged white male and a middle-aged African-American woman.

That, in a nutshell, is the Obama electoral coalition (or the one his team hopes to create in 2012): base voters in the Hispanic and black community, energized younger people and the classic swing voter in the new south (North Carolina) and west (Colorado).

And, it’s not surprising. It’s an attempt to replicate Obama’s electoral success in 2008 when he won every swing state but Missouri and put places like Indiana, North Carolina and Virginia, which hadn’t voted for a Democrat in decades, in his camp.

What’s more telling is what each of the five people say in the video, as it provides a glimpse into how a candidate who ran on changing Washington will position himself running four years later as the incumbent.

“I don’t agree with Obama on everything,” says Ed. “But I respect him and I trust him.”

That idea will be at the core of the Obama reelection message. Put simply: ‘You may not agree with me on everything but you know I always have your best interests at heart.’

It’s a message aimed directly at independent voters who resist what they view as overly partisan governance and tend to be attracted by politicians who think they are doing what’s right no matter the political consequences.

That’s the group Obama must win back – independents went for Republican candidates by 19 points in 2010 – to claim a second term. And, judging from his announcement video, that’s the group he is talking to first and foremost in this campaign.

David Brock super PAC staffs up: Rodell Mollineau, a former communications aide to Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.), has signed on as president of American Bridge 21st Century, a so-called super PAC with ties to liberal operative David Brock that aims to play a major role in the 2012 elections.

Mollineau, who spent the last four years overseeing the Senate Democratic Communications Center, will be joined by Bradley Beychok, who will serve as the group’s campaign director. Beychok managed Louisiana Rep. Charlie Melancon’s (D) unsuccessful 2010 Senate campaign.

The goal of American Bridge is to build an outside infrastructure to rival that of American Crossroads, the very successful conservative-aligned group that spent tens of millions of dollars on the 2010 election. Like Crossroads, the new group has both a super PAC, which can accept unlimited contributions and spend on direct advocacy for or against candidates, and a 501(c)(4) non-profit.

Brock, a former Republican, has become a force on the left — first by starting the media watchdog Media Matters for America and now with the Super PAC.

It’s not clear whether American Bridge will grow into the dominant outside organization among liberals, though. Two former White House aides, Bill Burton and Sean Sweeney, are expected to start an outside vehicle of their own that would almost certainly compete with American Bridge for donations.

Lewis gets in NM-01 race: With Democratic Rep. Martin Heinrich running for Senate in New Mexico, the race to take his 1st district House seat is on.

After Democratic state Sen. Eric Griego announced Friday (before Heinrich even made his Senate run official) that he’s forming an exploratory committee, Albuquerque City Councilman Dan Lewis on Sunday became the first Republican in the race. Lewis was a pastor and a businessman before winning his city council seat two years ago.

New Mexico’s 1st is a swing district that Democrats took in 2008 for the first time since its creation 40 years earlier. But it has drifted towards Democrats in recent years, including going 60 percent for President Obama in 2008, so Democrats should have the early edge.

Hahn falls shy of party endorsement: A majority of California Democratic Party delegates backed Los Angeles City Councilwoman Janice Hahn for the 36th congressional district special election on Saturday. But she fell just shy of the 60 percent she needed to get the party’s official endorsement in the race to replace ex-Rep. Jane Harman (D).

Hahn took 57 percent of the delegates’ votes, while California Secretary of State Debra Bowen got 39 percent.

Under California’s new “top two” election rules, which are being tested for the first time in this election, the two candidates with the most votes in an open primary advance to the general election, regardless of party affiliation. Democrats already had a system for endorsing candidates by local delegates’ vote at a pre-primary summit.

In a statement, Hahn called the vote “a game-changer in this campaign, and it sends a strong message that I am the choice for Democrats in California’s 36th congressional district.” Bowen argued in her own statement that the results show the party was “clearly divided.”

Harpootlian to run for S.C. Dem chair: Former South Carolina Democratic Party Chairman Dick Harpootlian will attempt to reclaim his old post.

The very quotable and often politically incorrect Harpootlian earned 15 minutes of fame in early 2008 for accusing Hillary Clinton of using reprehensible tactics that he compared to something infamous GOP strategist Lee Atwater would use. Bill Clinton responded with an impromptu five-minute rant when asked about the quote.

Harpootlian will face two other candidates at the state party convention on April 30.

Fixbits:

Rep. Michele Bachmann (R-Minn.) has hired Wes Enos, who was former Arkansas governor Mike Huckabee’s 2008 Iowa political director. Enos will advise Bachmann’s PAC, though the hiring is geared toward when Bachmann launches her presidential campaign.

Huckabee won a straw poll in South Carolina this weekend.

Former senator John Sununu goes after Sarah Palin and Donald Trump in the Boston Globe: “For the record, I do not view Palin or Trump as a threat to the republic. But like the framers, I have always felt ill at ease with officeholders or candidates who are too enamored with the idea of holding a particular office.”

Former Minnesota governor Tim Pawlenty goes all Charlie Sheen on us.

Must-reads:

“Marco Rubio carefully reclaims spotlight” — Alex Leary, St. Petersburg Times

“Cuomo stands out among peers for low profile” — Nicholas Confessore, New York Times

“Jon Huntsman, the rock ‘ n’ roll years” — Ben Smith and Kasie Hunt, Politico

“Romney campaign shuns the limelight” — Matt Viser, Boston Globe

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Pick Obama’s new campaign slogan

President Obama has launched his 2012 campaign and with it a new slogan: “It begins with us.” (Supporters of former Massachusetts governor Mitt Romney are already claiming the president stole the phrase.)

It probably won’t become identified with the Obama brand the way “Change you can believe in” or “Yes, we can” was but it’s still young in slogan years.

Think you can do better? Post your slogan on Twitter with the hashtag #obamaslogan and we’ll highlight the best ideas.

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What President Obama’s immigration speech tells us about 2012

President Obama has a delicate dance to do on immigration reform. Mark Wilson/Pool via Bloomberg President Obama’s speech Tuesday in Texas was cast as an attempt at restarting the conversation about comprehensive immigration reform but will almost certainly land with a dull thud in a Congress wary of taking on an issue so fraught with political pitfalls.

Obama, of course, knows that. And so, his speech today is rightly understood — and analyzed — as a political document rather than a policy one.

So, what does the speech tell us about how immigration fits into Obama’s broader political strategy in 2012?

Viewing it through that political lens, the speech is — on its face -- trying to serve two very different constituencies.

On the one hand are Hispanics, the fastest growing demographic group in the country and one that has voted heavily for Democrats in recent elections. (Obama carried the Latino vote with 67 percent in 2008, Democrats won the group with 60 percent in 2010.)

Hispanics, broadly, support the idea of a comprehensive immigration reform that includes a path to citizenship for the 11 million (or so) people in the country illegally.

Obama made a bow to this sentiment early in the address; “We define ourselves as a nation of immigrants — a nation that welcomes those willing to embrace America’s precepts,” he said.

The other constituency at which Obama’s speech was aimed is independent/swing voters who tend to view the idea of comprehensive immigration reform more skeptically.

Obama touted a series of border enforcement successes under his watch — the construction of a border fence, the seizure of 31 percent more drugs etc. — as evidence that he had listened to (and answered) critics who said that securing the border was a sine qua non for comprehensive immigration reform.

“The presence of so many illegal immigrants make a mockery of all those who are trying to immigrate legally,” he added.

It’s a delicate political dance. Obama has to make clear to Hispanics that he shares their vision of the American dream while simultaneously sending a message to swing voters that the rule of law matters and that he has put policies in place that are actually making the border more secure.

His strategy to do just that — at least judging from his speech in Texas — is two-pronged: a straight-forward economic appeal and a broader (and oft-repeated) message about the need for Washington to take on big problems.

Several times in his speech in El Paso, the president sought to cast the need for immigration reform in economic terms.

“Immigration reform is an economic imperative,” he said at one point; At another, he argued that “one way to strengthen the middle class is to reform our immigration system, so that there is no longer a massive underground economy that exploits a cheap source of labor while depressing wages for everyone else.”

Obama and his political team know that the economy is, by far, the most important issue for most voters heading into 2012. Immigration, well, isn’t. But, by twinning the two — rhetorically at least — Obama is seeking to make clear that immigration should matter to anyone worried about the future of the country’s economy, giving it a relevance beyond what it currently has in many peoples’ minds.

Then there is Obama’s less specific appeal to the widespread belief — across voters of all demographic groups — that Washington is playing politics at the expense of the public.

“We’ve seen good faith efforts — from leaders of both parties — fall prey to the usual political games,” he said. Later, Obama said that “we have to put the politics aside”, adding: “Washington is behind the country on this.”

That idea is indicative of Obama’s larger messaging as he heads into his 2012 reelection campaign — that Washington is resistant to doing big things but that he has demonstrated an ability to make the gears of political power work for average people.

It’s a complicated approach to a complicated issue. But it’s one with significant political implications as the President seeks to re-build — and grow — the coalition that helped elect him in 2008.

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