--- title: 2016: Barack Obama Aide David Plouffe Advised Hillary Clinton description: A longtime top political adviser to President Barack Obama secretly met with Hillary Clinton recently to offer up his advice canonical: https://time.com/3547938/hillary-clinton-2016-barack-obama-david-plouffe/ author: Dan Hirschhorn article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2014-10-30T12:06:37.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-08-19T07:44:54.328Z article:section: Politics og:title: 2016: Barack Obama Aide David Plouffe Advised Hillary Clinton og:description: A longtime top political adviser to President Barack Obama secretly met with Hillary Clinton recently to offer up his advice og:url: https://time.com/3547938/hillary-clinton-2016-barack-obama-david-plouffe/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt675d8b274e49a021/6987636035ba6f56fec04b9d/hillary-clinton.jpg?branch=production&width=3840&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 1200 og:image:height: 675 og:image:alt: Hillary Rodham Clinton og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: 2016: Barack Obama Aide David Plouffe Advised Hillary Clinton twitter:description: A longtime top political adviser to President Barack Obama secretly met with Hillary Clinton recently to offer up his advice twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt675d8b274e49a021/6987636035ba6f56fec04b9d/hillary-clinton.jpg?branch=production&width=3840&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # Obama Political Guru Secretly Advised Hillary Clinton on 2016 by [Dan Hirschhorn](https://time.com/author/dan-hirschhorn/) ## Dan Hirschhorn Oct 30, 2014 12:06 PM UTC  Former U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton delivers the keynote address at the Dreamforce convention Tuesday, Oct. 14, 2014, in San Francisco. Former U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton delivers the keynote address at the Dreamforce convention Tuesday, Oct. 14, 2014, in San Francisco.Ben Margot—AP by [Dan Hirschhorn](https://time.com/author/dan-hirschhorn/) ## Dan Hirschhorn Oct 30, 2014 12:06 PM UTC A longtime top political adviser to President Barack Obama [secretly met with Hillary Clinton](http://www.politico.com/magazine/story/2014/10/how-to-back-hillary-into-a-corner-112175.html) recently to offer up his advice for how to avoid another presidential campaign loss if she runs again in 2016, according to a new report. _Politico_, citing unnamed sources, reports that David Plouffe, the architect of Obama’s 2008 defeat of Clinton, met with the former Secretary of State in September. Clinton is widely expected to run again, and much of Obama’s political brain trust is already backing her. Plouffe reportedly advised Clinton to make better use of advanced data analytics, define a coherent rationale for her candidacy and stick to a defined message throughout a campaign. The report details Republican efforts to develop a strategy to block Clinton from winning the White House in 2016—efforts that have yet to yield a clear answer. “Everybody’s looking for a silver bullet, but in the absence of that we’re finding a lot of lead,” GOP strategist Michael Goldfarb said. [Read more at _Politico_](http://www.politico.com/magazine/story/2014/10/how-to-back-hillary-into-a-corner-112175.html#.VFIpC%5FTF-FE) ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/3547938/hillary-clinton-2016-barack-obama-david-plouffe/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/3547938/hillary-clinton-2016-barack-obama-david-plouffe/"},"headline":"Obama Political Guru Secretly Advised Hillary Clinton on 2016","datePublished":"2014-10-30T12:06:37.000Z","dateModified":"2026-08-19T07:44:54.328Z","description":"Much of the President's team is already backing Clinton for 2016","url":"https://time.com/3547938/hillary-clinton-2016-barack-obama-david-plouffe/","keywords":["2016 Election","Hillary Clinton","2016 Election","Barack Obama"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt675d8b274e49a021/6987636035ba6f56fec04b9d/hillary-clinton.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Dan Hirschhorn","jobTitle":"","url":"https://time.com/author/dan-hirschhorn/"}],"articleSection":"Politics","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt675d8b274e49a021/6987636035ba6f56fec04b9d/hillary-clinton.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675,"headline":"Hillary Rodham Clinton","caption":"Former U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton delivers the keynote address at the Dreamforce convention Tuesday, Oct. 14, 2014, in San Francisco.","creditText":"Ben Margot—AP","representativeOfPage":true}],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/section/politics/","name":"Politics"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"/tag/2016-election/","name":"2016 Election"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":3,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/3547938/hillary-clinton-2016-barack-obama-david-plouffe/","name":"Obama Political Guru Secretly Advised Hillary Clinton on 2016"}}]}] ```