New Obama Book: ‘Everyone Knew the Communications Effort Was Struggling’

Revival: The Struggle for Survival Inside the Obama White House, a new book out this week from communications consultant and political analyst Richard Wolffe, puts forth yet another documentation of how the Obama administration’s communications strategy has not been operating as best it could.

Politico quotes the following excerpt from the book:

Everyone knew the communications effort was struggling, including [former Comms. Director Anita] Dunn and her successor, Dan Pfeiffer, who had spent several weeks reviewing their operations. He wrote his critique in a seven-page memo and delivered a forty-five minute version of his conclusions to the team in the Roosevelt Room. Pfeiffer believed the Cabinet was underused in 2009. They had failed to coordinate their message with Democrats in Congress and Democratic pundits on cable and in print. Rapid response and planning were both in trouble. Above all, they needed to be more strategic in using the president’s time. They relied too much on him to deliver the message. Obama agreed. He was out there all by himself.

Wolffe left powerful PR/lobbying shop Public Strategies last December to begin work on the book. At the time, MSNBC received some criticism for still booking him as an analyst on its programs — and even guest hosting Countdown With Keith Olbermann — without disclosing his gig at Public Strategies.

The book hits stores tomorrow.

[Image via Amazon.com]

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