Many have speculated on how the Obama administration would leverage its massive e-mail list - some 13 million, NPR says - of supporters and donors. It seems, for now, that valuable contact information will be placed under a new group called Organizing for America, which will work in partnership with the DNC.

A story by The New York Times today, says the  organizers “envision an army of supporters talking, sending e-mail and texting to friends and neighbors as they try to mold public opinion.”

Campaign manager for Obama’s presidential bid, David Plouffe, announced on Friday that Mitch Stewart, who is the former Indiana and Virginia state director for the Obama campaign, will lead the new group.

The new effort is getting some criticism for its partisan roots.

The pharmaceutical industry has been preparing for the big healthcare changes that will be ushered in with the Obama Administration, reports The Washington Post.

Once recognized as a Republican-dominated industry, the industry has shifted its attention, and funding, toward the Democratic Party this year as one way “to burnish its image and align itself rhetorically with the health reform goals …”

Other image enhancers? A million-dollar advertising blitz “promoting Obama-style health coverage” is kicking off today, the industry’s trade organization introduced self-imposed marketing restrictions that went into effect this month, and pharma companies will follow stricter advertising policies, beginning in March.

Health groups, some supported by pharmaceutical companies, are concerns about the appointment of the next FDA commissioner.

The FDA Commissioner Coalition sent a letter to Tom Daschle, the new Health and Human Services Secretary who will pick Andy von Eschenbach’s successor, urging him to choose someone who is familiar with the drug industry.

Groups involved with the coalition include the American Cancer Society Cancer Action Network, Friends of Cancer Research, the Men’s Health Network, the National Alliance on Mental Illness, and Susan G. Komen for the Cure.

The letter comes after some members of Congress requested that the FDA be staffed with agency outsiders and industry critics.

PR executives speaking on background in EU Observer note the problematic nature of the new voluntary registry launched this summer by the European Commission to gather information on clients represented by PR and lobbying firms in Brussels. Given the increasingly international work of PR, the registry will be of interest to many folks in DC.

Just think of the recent Russia-Georgia outreach not just in the US but in the UK and elsewhere around the world. A firm based in the US, given the global nature of media, could well be doing outreach overseas on behalf of all sorts of foreign entities, with media articles making their way back to US readers via the omnipresent Internet, for example.

“Voluntary” means many firms are naturally likely to limit the information they provide on their Brussels work, for competitive or other reasons. For the foreseeable future, the public’s understanding what work PR firms are doing on behalf of foreign governments will remain very patchy.

Surely the financial crises brewing in New York City will have some sort of effect on lobbying and public affairs in DC, but it’s  hard to predict exactly how. Lobbyists in DC are concerned, The Hill reports.

Harper’s Washington editor Ken Silverstein on his blog is following the Sunday Times’ recent undercover “journalism sting” of a UK lobbyist interested in representing a former dictator of the energy-wealthy country of Kyrgyzstan.

Silverstein himself pulled a similar stunt on APCO and Cassidy and Associates last year, creating some debate over whether going undercover was ethical. At the time Silverstein said that criticism of his tactics, by the lobbying firms anyway, was simply a way to change the subject away from the ethics of representing countries with human rights issues.

This Sunday’s on the Bush administration’s use of military analysts to promote favorable messages on the war in Iraq, and its larger one on terrorism, included a nearly breathless account of the PR executive who executed the Pentagon’s strategy to win over the airways by allegedly offering the retired military officers exclusive pow-wows with then-Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld, as well as personal tours of Iraq where some of the men’s companies were eager to begin buying and selling. A must-read for PR professionals, the (the Times sued the Defense Dept. to gain access to 8,000 pages of e-mail messages, transcripts, and other records) takes up 11 pages of the Times online space.

One example from the Times story:

Torie Clarke, the former public relations executive who oversaw the Pentagon’s dealings with the analysts as assistant secretary of defense for public affairs, had come to her job with distinct ideas about achieving what she called “information dominance.” In a spin-saturated news culture, she argued, opinion is swayed most by voices perceived as authoritative and utterly independent.

In the months after Sept. 11, as every network rushed to retain its own all-star squad of retired military officers, Ms. Clarke and her staff sensed a new opportunity. To Ms. Clarke’s team, the military analysts were the ultimate “key influential” — authoritative, most of them decorated war heroes, all reaching mass audiences.

The Times goes on to point to Clarke’s ingenuity:

Other administrations had made sporadic, small-scale attempts to build relationships with the occasional military analyst. But these were trifling compared with what Ms. Clarke’s team had in mind. Don Meyer, an aide to Ms. Clarke, said a strategic decision was made in 2002 to make the analysts the main focus of the public relations push to construct a case for war. Journalists were secondary. “We didn’t want to rely on them to be our primary vehicle to get information out,” Mr. Meyer said.

By using covert messaging, the Times article points out, the administration was able to present its points through these “analysts” as third-party independents, rather than people receiving talking points and op-ed writing tips direct from the Pentagon.

To complete the ruse, the “Pentagon’s regular press office would be kept separate from the military analysts. The analysts would instead be catered to by a small group of political appointees, with the point person being Brent T. Krueger, another senior aide to Ms. Clarke,” the article continued.

“The military analysts would in effect be “writing the op-ed” for the war, Krueger noted to the Times.

The PR campaign was complete when the administration’s comms team, “was able to click on every single station and every one of our folks were up there delivering our message. You’d look at them and say, ‘This is working,’ ” Krueger told the Times.

It seems that New York City is the only blurb on the map above South America and below Canada for jean-scouring, culture-hungry foreigners. No, this is not a geography lesson, but a reaction to the New York Times story covering the US’s behind other large industrialized countries in promoting its “beaches, museums, mountains and shopping malls.”

Unlike those countries, the US doesn’t have a central tourism promotion agency, which comes as a bit of a shock considering a drop in foreign visitors since 9/11 – due to a lack of marketing, according to industry experts - and the current esteem in which other nations hold the US. The Travel Industry Association in Washington is lobbying for legislation that would create such an organization. Congress has not yet acted on the proposal, but lawmakers provided $4 million for a Web site to be set up in March.

Meanwhile, Arnold Schwartzeneger is putting muscle behind, and literally on, a global ad campaign to attract foreign visitors to CA; New York is continuing its campaign efforts to perpetuate its growing number of foreigners; and Vegas is considering airing its current US ad in Canada and Mexico.

Come on US, it’s time to work out. You could learn a lot from Arnold.

The Managed Funds Association, a lobby group for the hedge fund industry, has announced that it is considering Louisiana Congressman Richard Baker for president of the organization. Having a former congressman in the top spot (Baker would have to resign his Congressional post) would lend a higher profile to an organization, and an industry, that has operated under the radar.

The article says that this would increase the Association’s efforts in Washington given the calls for legislation that would levy higher taxes on hedge fund organizations. But would that also mean greater communications to the population at large? People outside of Washington have taken a greater interest in the economy in light of the troubled housing market and threat of recession.

The hedge fund industry, in its effort to convince those in Washington that legislation is unnecessary, may also be well-served to let constituents know that as well. For more information about the Managed Funds Association, click here for their Web site.

Another lost show; another group of determined fans trying to restore it.

With the Internet connecting all different kinds of communities, those desperate to bring back the HBO show “John From Cincinnati” for a second season have started a campaign online.

The organized group known as SaveJFC.net is planning to take out a full-page ad in The Hollywood Reporter to make their message loud and clear to the cable network.

Loyal viewers are launching petition drives and making numerous phone calls and sending emails to the station’s executives in hopes of swaying them to take action.

“The show hooked me from the beginning with its offbeat dialogue, brilliant performances and breath-taking surfing footage,” explained fan Brian Lowery.

Martin Bradburn added that occasionally “a show comes to television that breaks the mold and expands the genre into uncharted territory.” He called the show “a radiant tapestry of the human condition with all its hopes and failings.”

I was never familiar with the show, except for the fact that it starred the 90210 heartbreaker Luke Perry (better known to the rest of us as Dylan). The California-set show aired this summer, but was canceled due to low viewership