Time for Team Obama to save the candidate

The man is frugal. He tells employees and volunteers that if they take public transport to work he’ll reimburse their fair; but if they take a cab they’re on their own.

The team gets the message. So no one is tempted to throw Obama’s money away. It’s largely the reason that while Hillary Clinton went several million dollars in the hole, Obama still had tons of cash in the bank.

Plouffe, 41, the man said to be more unflappable than his famously unflappable candidate, has employed the same level of discipline in running everything else at headquarters.

He was the mastermind behind a winning strategy that looked well past Super Tuesday’s contests on February 5 and placed value on large and small states, according the Chicago Tribune.

Those who know the man say he is just smart and scrappy and doesn’t bring a huge amount of ego to the table. Lean and about 5 feet 10 inches tall, Plouffe can seem almost shy compared to more loud campaign personalities.

But he can swear like a sailor, says The Tribune, and his near-broadcast-quality voice exudes confidence on the many conference calls he holds with reporters and donors.

This race is “exactly where we thought it would be,” he told The Post. It will remain close nationally and the outcome will be decided by a handful of battleground states that have determined election outcomes for over a decade, he said.

Which is why Plouffe has tossed out the window his initial 50-state campaign strategy and pulled back the candidate to focus on the battle ground states: Michigan, Pennsylvania, Ohio, Florida and Indiana.

The other two players to look at in the Obama high command are Robert Gibbs and Valerie Jarrett. Gibbs, 37, is Obama’s advocate-in-chief with the media, and therefore the voters.

The communications chief is in charge of shaping his message, responding to the 24/7 news cycle, charming the press and fighting back when he disagrees with its reporting -- which has won him the label of “the enforcer,” according to The Wall Street Journal.

“Robert is the guy I want in the foxhole with me during incoming fire,” Obama told The Journal. “If I’m wrong, he challenges me. He’s not intimidated by me.” Gibbs saw Obama through his 2004 senatorial race.

And, Jarrett, 52, is a family friend who says what no one else in the campaign doesn’t --- or can’t. There is only one more thing the Obama Team is banking on: Outorganising McCain.

The writer is a lecturer at the USIU, Nairobi.