Washington — Washington - Think of Barack Obama's political organization as a Maserati, a luxury, high-performance vehicle that lapped the competition this year. The president-elect hasn't indicated precisely what he'll do with his baby, which he's called, perhaps accurately, the best ever built.
One thing he's unlikely to do is put it away in the garage for the next four years. Modern presidents typically shut their campaigns down, bring their political advisers into the government and run their political operations out of the White House and national party headquarters in Washington.
Obama is doing a bit of that. His chief strategist, David Axelrod, was one of his first high-level White House appointments. Another top Obama lieutenant has been in charge at the Democratic National Committee office since the summer, and more will follow.
But the new president may well decide to keep his campaign machine humming, which would be a significant departure. The main question seems to be how far and how fast he'll take it.
Officials won't provide details, but there are growing signs that he intends to employ his campaign organization to keep supporters engaged, help him govern more effectively and, of course, prepare for a 2012 re-election run. Exactly how he'd do that - perhaps by trying to shape public opinion and pressure wavering lawmakers, including Democrats, to support his initiatives - isn't clear yet.
There have been reports that Obama's advisers haven't decided how closely to mesh his campaign with the national party apparatus. One argument for keeping a separate network would be to avoid alienating supporters whose connection is to Obama, rather than to the Democratic Party, and have a strong distaste for partisan politics.
Veteran strategists see considerable merit in keeping Obama's political operation outside the party structure. He could use it to help communicate the merits of his initiatives - for example, a health care overhaul plan - both through his own network and, potentially, by raising money to promote his ideas with television ads, radio, direct mail, the Internet and other avenues of communication.
"I don't think anybody's done anything like this before, certainly nothing as sophisticated as this and nothing as capable of actually having an impact on public opinion," said Bill Carrick, a Democratic consultant in Los Angeles.
