June 16 (Bloomberg) -- When Barack Obama lost the March 4 Ohio and Texas primaries, party strategists and political pundits predicted trouble for his bid for the Democratic nomination.

The setbacks were expected, fitting in to a long-range plan David Plouffe, the Illinois senator's campaign manager, devised the previous summer that was going to lead his candidate all the way to the nomination, even with a few bumps.

``David is just very organized, very smart, he always has a plan and then he executes a plan in a methodical way,'' said former House Majority Leader Richard Gephardt, for whom Plouffe served as deputy chief of staff from 1997 to 1998.

Plan A for Plouffe was to knock out rival Hillary Clinton in the first contests of Iowa and New Hampshire. Plan B was to win convincingly on Feb. 5, when Democrats held 23 voting contests; and Plan C was to secure a significant delegate lead with wins from the 11 primaries and caucuses between Feb. 9 and 19. Obama would then just need to maintain and build on that margin until the end of the nominating process. Plan C carried the day for Obama, who clinched the nomination this month.

Money, Organization

Throughout most of the primary process, Obama's campaign was superior to Clinton's both in money and organization. Obama began February, the primary month with the most delegates at stake, with a $10 million cash advantage over Clinton, who replaced her campaign manager that month. Plouffe, 41, kept a focus on building and running a $250 million enterprise with a staff of 700. He implemented his winning strategy without the drama, leaks, or infighting that typically plague campaigns.

Plouffe, pronounced ``Pluff,'' who declined to be interviewed, runs the Chicago-based consulting firm AKP&D Message and Media with David Axelrod, the campaign's chief strategist. While Axelrod has been the public face of the campaign and shapes Obama's message, Plouffe manages the mechanics of the race.

Early in the primary season, Plouffe hired a delegate expert, Jeffrey Berman. As it turned out, the battle between Obama, 46, and Clinton, 60, came down to a race for delegates. Berman crafted a spreadsheet, obtained by Bloomberg News, that mapped out the primary calendar state by state and congressional district by congressional district, and projected wins, losses and delegate counts for each contest.

Plouffe's Strategy

Plouffe's expertise ensured that early grassroots enthusiasm for Obama translated into votes and became a vital fundraising source, said Berman, a veteran of six presidential campaigns.

``You need that level of professional management to truly bring it together,'' Berman said.

His colleagues said Plouffe's methodical and quiet nature disguises the intensity he has brought to his 20-year career as field organizer, fundraiser, media strategist and campaign manager.

After serving as Gephardt's deputy chief of staff, he became executive director of the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee from 1999 to 2000. He was also a top strategist to Gephardt in his 2004 presidential bid.

One of his first political jobs was in Iowa with Senator Tom Harkin's 1990 campaign, which gave Plouffe an appreciation of the state's central role in the presidential nominating process, said Steve Elmendorf, who hired Plouffe to work for Gephardt in 1997 and supported Clinton in this year's primaries.

`Win Iowa'

``Strategically, the most important thing they did was make the decision to win Iowa,'' Elmendorf said.

Axelrod said Plouffe is familiar with congressional districts across the country from his experience at the DCCC, which works to elect Democrats to the U.S. House of Representatives.

This allowed him to anticipate the importance on the delegate strategy that ultimately secured the nomination for Obama.

``He understood the country and the process in a way that was very, very acute,'' Axelrod said.

Staffers said Plouffe often walks around the Chicago headquarters typing on his blackberry with one hand, while talking on the phone with the other.

Fiercely competitive, Plouffe once defied a doctor's order to rest his knee and ran in a marathon only to end up on crutches. He gets by on little sleep and takes conference calls from his bathroom in the early hours so as not to wake up his wife and son.

Iowa Beginnings

Studying political science at the University of Delaware, Plouffe planned to spend the summer between his junior and senior years working as a tennis instructor when Harkin's campaign asked him to come to Iowa. He never completed his degree -- something he's reminded of by his former professors each time he returns to his alma mater to lecture.

On June 3, the night Obama clinched the nomination, Axelrod and other senior advisers were in Minnesota with the candidate. Plouffe, meanwhile, was at a Chicago bar with campaign staff, a Budweiser in hand. When he entered the room, staffers chanted his name and the shy campaign manager was forced to give a speech.

He reminded them of the task at hand. While praising them for their work and dedication, he counted down the days until the November election.

Four hundred miles away, Obama, who had asked Plouffe to come to St. Paul, reserved his longest thank yous for two people: his grandmother and Plouffe.

``Thank you to our campaign manager David Plouffe, who never gets any credit and has built the best political organization in the country,'' Obama said.

To contact the reporter on this story: Julianna Goldman in Washington at jgoldman6@bloomberg.net

Last Updated: June 16, 2008 09:14 EDT