David Plouffe versus The Prince--the Rumble in the Jungle 2010

David Plouffe, the architect of the Obama campaign and the creator of 21st century electioneering, has been called by Obama to coordinate the Democrats' House and Senate races this year. David is the rarity of people in this field--the anti-sleazebag. Compared to Lee Atwater, Mary Matalin, Karl Rove and even Steve Schmidt for the Republicans and James Carville and Mark Penn for the Democrats, David should be canonized. He sticks to his plan and rides it to victory no matter the spin, the media second-guessing and the temptation to sling the mud. One of the great attributes of the Obama campaign was its high-tone and issue-oriented style. For what I knew could have been thrown at McCain and Palin, Plouffe was the model for restraint but he threw great head fakes sucking McCain into the Pennsylvania swamp where he couldn't escape. What's strange is that conservatives always e-mail me complaining that David Axelrod was the mastermind of the campaign. The Republicans have never digested that David exists or how he played the game.

No joke--I believe David Plouffe is one of the great heroes of the global democracy movement. He created our Velvet Revolution. I use his techniques as a model for growing a grass-roots movement in whatever country you live.

But with the Supreme Court decision, he'll be going up against Prince Al Waleed bin Talal bin Abdul Azziz al Saud, the 22nd richest man in the world and the second largest shareholder in Rupert Murdoch's media empire. The Prince has controlling interests in Citicorp, Hewlett-Packard, Disney, Compaq and other American corporations. And it seems he has plenty of opinions about American politics. He has gone on the Charlie Rose show to slam Obama's proposal to tax banks, opposed health care reform and claims that Medicare and Medicaid are "timebombs". He is currently on a PR tour of the U.S.,even appearing on Fox News, where they didn't say he owns the place. Forbes has given a full spread to his lifestyle--the Really, Really, Really Rich and Famous--where they oo'd and aahh'd over his car collection and priceless art. No doubt because he is a big buddy with Steve Forbes.

Forget ratty old American rich guys like Warren Buffett, Bill Gates and Steve Jobs, the new powerbrokers in America will be people like the Prince and next month it will be a suave Chinese billionaire, who will lecture us on the deficit and how we must reduce the social welfare net if we are to be able to compete in the world's economy. Through the American companies where they hold controlling interests, they will pour buckets of money into the next election. Fox News crowd are selling the Supreme Court decision as a populist one saying that conservative groups such as Focus on the Family and Citizens United will have a greater say in politics.The average American will have greater access. Not so Romeo, it will be people like the Prince, who happens to own Fox News.

And it's like the good old days, can Barack Obama defeat the Democratic establishment that had the money and the seasoned veterans like Mark Penn?Yes, We Can! Can America defeat the world's richest people in their campaign to finalize the looting of America? I don't know but at least we have to go down fighting. If we lose, at least we can always remember Barack Obama as the last truly democratically elected President of the United States.

But I bet on David Plouffe once. Why not double down on him? I really believe these are the stakes. And I also believe that the Supreme Court decision, the way it done, the way it ignored the last two decades of law written by real conservatives, was a deliberate attempt to make this nightmare happen.