Oh Joy, The Reelect Campaign is Underway

Politico reports with just over a year in office and little to show for it but a divided nation and plummeting polls, the reelection campaign for Barack Obama is quietly underway.  Not so quiet, mind you, that it doesn't merit a headline in the news but I digress.  As usual Democrats familiar with the discussions are leaking like a rusty valve:

President Barack Obama’s top advisers are quietly laying the groundwork for the 2012 reelection campaign, which is likely to be run out of Chicago and managed by White House deputy chief of staff Jim Messina, according to Democrats familiar with the discussions.

The planning for now consists entirely of private conversations, with Obama aides at all levels indulging occasionally in closed-door 2012 discussions while focusing ferociously on the midterm elections and health care reform, the Democratic sources said. “The gathering storm is the 2010 elections,” one top official said.

But the sources said Obama has given every sign of planning to run again and wants the next campaign to resemble the highly successful 2008 effort.

Of course he wants the campaign to resemble the highly successful 2008 effort, unfortunately for him, he now has a record.  The cast of characters assembled to transform the failing Obama presidency into Hope and Change 2.0 is what we might expect.  The Chicago group including Valerie Jarrett, Robert Gibbs and will be joined by David Plouffe and Anita Dunn, famous for her Mao quotes.  Consistent with what we've come to expect from the Chicago team, operatives are already busy at work drafting nasty narratives about potential GOP candidates.

Themes for the campaign have not been chosen nor does it appear a decision has been made where to base the campaign. The anonymous leaker, ironically advises us not to expect a radical surprise:

The themes for Obama’s campaign are not yet chosen, but a top adviser said not to expect a radical surprise: “He knows who he is."

I think most of America has already gotten the radical surprise. Obama may know who is he is, sadly for him so do we.

H/T: Memeorandum
For More:
Pundit and Pundette and Jules Crittenden who also links this Sense of Events post, "Is Obama a Lame Duck Already?"