Obama Central: Peace, Harmony and Deep Secrecy

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Obama's Campaign Headquarters

The Post's Anne E. Kornblut reports on what it's like to work at Barack Obama's busy Chicago campaign headquarters.

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Pfeiffer took exception to the comparison to the 2000 Bush campaign, which was located in Austin and was driven by Karl Rove, Karen Hughes and Joe Allbaugh. Those three Bush devotees devised their own game plan, kept iron discipline and largely rejected advice from Washington. Still, Pfeiffer made no apologies for his own airtight shop.

"I don't know that we'd get T-shirts made that say it, but we take pride in not leaking, we take pride in not being a typical campaign," Pfeiffer said. The difference between the Obama discipline and the kind that Bush loyalists displayed in 2000, he said, is that "when all the layers got peeled back, they were actually leaking" and did not really get along -- Rove and Hughes, most notably, ended their terms in Washington barely on speaking terms. When it came to discipline, Pfeiffer said, "they were just being tactical about it."

While that approach appears to have served Obama well, it grates on some members of the party, particularly those in Congress, who were not with him from the outset.

Some Democrats on Capitol Hill have complained that he is not inclusive enough. They gripe that he is running his own campaign in some states, rather than the traditional coordinated effort; that he is not focusing on working-class white voters as he had promised at the end of the primaries; and that he has taken sides in some House primaries.

To quell dissent, David Plouffe, Obama's campaign manager, went to Capitol Hill last month to give lawmakers a political briefing. Obama also met with House members last week. But several Democratic officials reported a persistent undercurrent of tension, which they attributed in part to the cloistered atmosphere of the Chicago team.

"There is a feeling now that 'we're going to win this thing,' and people are starting to talk about who is going to be what a few months from now," said one Democratic adviser, who is working closely with the Obama campaign but is not on staff. "The small-team atmosphere has changed, and that has caused some frictions on the inside."

Turmoil has been a trademark of Democratic politics over the past few election cycles. Kerry's senior management went through repeated upheavals and devolved into backbiting; four years earlier, Al Gore faced a similar melodrama. Even the Bill Clinton campaigns of 1992 and 1996 had their share of divisions, as huge personalities jockeyed for attention and the candidate's ear.

The Obama campaign has been marked by an opposite trend. Plouffe is understated to the point of sometimes being difficult to hear when he speaks. In the early days of the race, the central figures were cut from similar cloth: Robert Gibbs, a former Kerry aide who went to work for Obama in the Senate; Pfeiffer; Burton, another Kerry graduate with experience at the Democratic Congressional Committee; Pete Rouse, who was an aide to then-Sen. Thomas A. Daschle (D-S.D.); Paul Tewes; and Steve Hildebrand. All were low-key staffers with the focus that comes with working for losing candidates.

Some who have interacted with the campaign expressed astonishment at how smoothly it functions compared with other campaigns. "I'm amazed at the difference," said New Mexico Gov. Bill Richardson (D), adding that he had never seen such a level of organization in any presidential campaign, including his own.

Instead of asking someone to appear someplace "across the country" with less than 24 hours' notice, Richardson said the Obama campaign asks as much as a week in advance, providing transportation and help.

Behind the scenes is a quiet, mostly open office that is increasingly flush with advisers from all over the Democratic map.

"Based on the way we're all sitting, you can't tell where everybody fits in the hierarchy, and that's a good thing," said Josh Earnest, an Obama veteran who said he no longer recognizes everyone he encounters in the hallways. Earnest sits in a mixed section of new and old faces, including Tommy Vietor, a former Obama aide in Iowa, and Burton, whose "wall of front pages" from each day's newspapers -- compiled by two young aides who arrive at 3 a.m. to go through the clips -- is a key design element of their area.

A youthful atmosphere persists throughout the office: jeans are de rigueur, all the way up through the top ranks. Laptops sit on most desks. Happy hour happens at Houlihan's downstairs. Athletic jerseys given to Obama are pinned to one wall.

When Obama stopped in for a meeting a few days earlier, he first stopped to talk to the interns, reinforcing an egalitarian environment. There is no "war room" -- a feature that caught on in campaigns after it was so successful for Clinton in 1992, but that evolved into something of a gimmick. Almost all employees have been required to move to Chicago. There is almost no conference space. When a reporter visited last week, media adviser Erik Smith was conducting business on his cellphone in a corner. And even campaign manager Plouffe and Axelrod were seen conferring in the middle of a hallway.

Minutes later, Plouffe deferred to Pfeiffer when a reporter sought to stop him in the hallway for a few on-the-record quotes.

"Later? Please?" Pfeiffer pleaded apologetically, successfully deterring the interview.

Plouffe grinned. "This is why we're effective," he said.