English: As a 29 year old, Bob Shrum worked on Democratic frontrunner Senator Ed Muskie’s 1972 Presidential primary campaign – later being enlisted by the nominee Senator George McGovern. Shrum served as senior advisor to Al Gore during his 2000 Presidential campaign and Senator John Kerry’s 2004 White House effort, and wryly observes that he failed to win the Presidency for any of his candidates in over three decades of trying.

Bob Shrum is also a highly regarded speech-writer, having worked on State of the Union addresses for Bill Clinton and Ted Kennedy’s memorable speeches at the 1980 and 2008 Democratic National Conventions.

The 1972 Democratic nominating contest was the first under a series of reforms ordered by the 1968 Democratic National Convention to give much greater weight to the primaries and caucuses and take the selection of the candidate out of the hands of party officials in “smoke-filled rooms”. As well as opening up the process to ordinary voters, it also gave the media a crucial role as the conduit between candidate and citizen. Paid advertising, free news coverage and importantly, grassroots campaigning and organising, particularly in smaller states, became the new way to win the Presidential nomination – a lesson not lost on David Plouffe and David Axelrod who plotted Barack Obama’s successful 2008 campaign along similar lines.

This interview was conducted in New York City on “Super Tuesday” February 5th, 2008, as Senator Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton traded victories in one of the closest and most protracted Democratic primary contests in history – it was the first Presidential campaign Shrum had sat out since 1972. Meanwhile, Republican John McCain was all-but sealing his nomination victory over chief rivals Mitt Romney and Mike Huckabee.

Bob Shrum was interviewed by US Studies Centre Research Associate John Barron, who as a journalist at the ABC and commercial media covered Presidential campaigns for almost 20 years.