After the election, Obama’s top political operatives — strategist David Plouffe, reelection campaign manager Jim Messina and then-DNC executive director Patrick Gaspard, now U.S. ambassador to South Africa — debated the decision of retaining her as DNC chair so intensely that there was already a replacement in mind: R.T. Rybak, the former mayor of Minneapolis and a DNC vice chairman.

But there was nervousness about the optics of Obama dropping a woman from the party leadership. Plus, the sense internally was that they had originally picked her largely to help win the women’s vote and avert problems with Jewish donors, and both had indeed happened, whatever the other problems.

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The focus in Obama’s political orbit at that moment was on transforming the campaign apparatus into Organizing for America, a 501(c)4 nonprofit group led by Messina that would exist solely to back the White House agenda. The DNC got stuck with $25 million in leftover debt from the Obama campaign, while OFA started fresh and has raised $36 million of its own since, although with limited political and policy victories to brag about.

The decision to stick with Wasserman Schultz is, according to a person familiar with Obama’s thinking, part of his “benign neglect” of the DNC overall.

This year, Obama has taken a somewhat more active interest in the DNC, appearing at 20 fundraisers so far compared with only a handful previously, with two more planned in Washington this week and an “intimate dinner” event next month at Gwyneth Paltrow’s home in Los Angeles.

In mid-June, he attended two in one afternoon in New York, including the DNC LGBT Gala. Wasserman Schultz waited until the end of the photo line to swoop in.

“Mr. President,” she said, according to people familiar with the encounter. “I just want you to know, the DNC has retired its debt.”

Obama looked at her.

“Debbie, you think I don’t know?” he said. “I’m the president of the United States.”

FUTURE AMBITIONS AND DIVIDED LOYALTIES

Being DNC chair is a major political opportunity.

“Unless you do something or say something stupid — which Debbie hasn’t — unless you do something illegal— which Debbie hasn’t — it’s nothing but pluses for your career,” said Rendell, who served as DNC chairman between being mayor of Philadelphia and governor of Pennsylvania, and credits in part his television exposure, new donor connections and expanded relationships with elected officials he got.

But the knock on Wasserman Schultz isn’t that she’s taking advantage of these relationships but that she appears to be planning her personal political rise while also trying to lead the party.

According to multiple people who have been in the room for DNC donor meetings, Wasserman Schultz regularly finishes a pitch to donors by asking them to give money to the DNC and her leadership PAC, or her congressional committee, or both. There’s nothing illegal about this, but donors often grumble privately that this sends mixed messages about her priorities and why she’s interested in meeting with them.

“I usually don’t — hardly ever do I have a conversation with someone where I’m having to ask them for support for all three at the same time,” Wasserman Schultz said. “There are times when I have spoken to donors who are donors to me in my reelection, donors who give to the party, sure.”

DNC policy is not to accept donations from lobbyists. However, her own DWS PAC accepts lobbyist money. Wasserman Schultz says this has never been a problem. “DWS PAC is a separate entity,” she said, denying that the initials have any relation to her name, although her father used to be its treasurer and it’s run day-to-day by Jason O’Malley, whose salary is split between the DNC, DWS PAC and Wasserman Schultz’s congressional campaign committee. He works out of a cubicle in the finance department at DNC headquarters.

“It stands for Democrats Win Seats,” she said. “And that’s important. It stands for Democrats Win Seats. It is a political action committee that exists to elect Democrats.”

Anyone with any political sense who’s interested in running for House leadership positions keeps track of favors to and commitments from colleagues. Wasserman Schultz’s list, cataloging everything from fundraisers to flowers sent after a parent’s death, is kept by DNC staff. Some versions of the spreadsheet, according to people familiar with the document, lay it out very simply, with “The Plan” handwritten across the top. As one document notes up top, there are about 100 members “with more seniority than DWS.”

“They never tried to hide what they were doing. They were tracking what she had done for other members and how likely they were at the moment to support her in a leadership race,” said a former DNC staffer.

Wasserman Schultz has traveled to 99 cities in 37 states as of September, according to DNC figures, for everything from state and local party fundraisers to a press event in front of the George Washington Bridge last week to needle New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie.

What that accounting does not show is how many of those trips were, according to people familiar with the decisions, guided largely by Wasserman Schultz’s interest in appearing at events for very safe members of Congress whom she’s hoping to count on for a leadership bid or to pitch meetings for her PAC or stops on her book tour.

“We say the big ‘D’ is for Democratic,” one member joked to others at the House Democratic retreat on the Eastern Shore of Maryland in February, according to one of the members. “For her, the big ‘D’ is always for Debbie.”

“People know she works hard,” said another House colleague. “But there’s this sense that she only works hard for herself.”

Wasserman Schultz has brought in four senior staffers to the DNC, including, for four months in 2013, a ghostwriter for her book, “For the Next Generation.” All four are now on the DNC payroll full-time or split between her congressional office, PAC and congressional campaign committee.

Public relations firm SKDKnickerbocker also has a large contract with the DNC through which consultant Hilary Rosen works directly with Wasserman Schultz, though Rosen says she does so only as “a friend.”

“I spend time with the chair, but we think of it as outside of that piece,” Rosen said.

Many longtime DNC officials distance themselves from her leadership.

“Debbie is the leader of the DNC. She’s the chief spokesperson and, along with the staff, she manages the resources of the Democratic National Committee,” said vice chairwoman Donna Brazile, formerly Al Gore’s campaign manager. “As vice chair, I’m not involved in the day-to-day decisions, the budget or anything else.”

Even when there is a state Democrats can use her in, there have been problems.

In Milwaukee earlier this month for a women’s roundtable, Wasserman Schultz said that Gov. Scott Walker has given the “back of his hand” to women. “I know that is stark. I know that is direct. But that is reality,” she said. “What Republican tea party extremists like Scott Walker are doing is they are grabbing us by the hair and pulling us back.”