Obama’s political strategist David Plouffe to manage Uber campaigns

WASHINGTON: David Plouffe, a political strategist who ran US President Barack Obama’s winning campaign in 2008, has joined Uber, a smartphone carhailing service.

One of the sharpest political operators in the US, Plouffe will head Uber’s policy and strategy worldwide, including India.

Plouffe, who followed Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s election campaign closely, had written about the use of holograms as a tool of the future.

Uber’s largest operation outside the US is India, where its entry has roiled established but technologically lagging rivals such as Meru Cabs and Easy Cabs.

Uber, in fact, has had it tough everywhere it has gone. Thousands of cabbies in Europe blocked roads protesting against Uber this June. And it has had problems in New York as well.

“Uber has been in a campaign but hasn’t been running one,” wrote Uber CEO Travis Kalanick in a blog on Plouffe’s hiring. “We needed someone who understood politics but who also had the strategic horsepower to reinvent how a campaign should be run.”

Plouffe will do that, it is hoped, as he did with another start-up six years ago — “the startup that elected a President”.

Political strategists Plouffe and David Axelrod turned Obama, a little-known senator from Chicago, into a household name, then into a serious Democratic candidate who defeated frontrunner Hillary Clinton, before propelling him into the White House.

“I’ve watched as the taxi cartel has tried to stand in the way of technology and big change,” said Plouffe. “Ultimately, that approach is un-winnable.”