Former Obama strategist David Plouffe appears on MSNBC's 'Morning Joe' to discuss the 2016 race. Plouffe: Not wise to underestimate Carson or Trump

The Acela corridor should not underestimate Ben Carson or Donald Trump as serious Republican presidential contenders, former Obama strategist David Plouffe warned Wednesday.

Plouffe, who managed then-Sen. Barack Obama’s 2008 presidential campaign, told MSNBC’s “Morning Joe” that he does not follow the ups and downs of the campaigns as closely as he used to, “which may be healthy, actually.”


“I find it interesting, Carson’s getting dismissed, but here’s someone who’s leading in all the polls, who’s building a large following, has a lot of social media skill, apparently a lot of grass-roots support that should materialize. I think sort of in the Acela corridor, there’s a dismissive approach to Carson and Trump, but they’re both sitting there, if you combine them, over 50 in most national polls,” Plouffe noted.

Trump and Carson are leading most early states, “and they’re running completely unconventional campaigns,” he commented.

“That’s one of my questions, as a former political practitioner, is something changing out there? Because it seems like the old rules don’t apply,” Plouffe added. “But [Carson is] very strong, and I don’t think his support is going to drop from 30 to 10 overnight.”

Carson is “going to be a force throughout this,” he predicted, remarking that both men have staying power.

“I think Trump’s taken a little bit of a hit, but he’s also not made his case. I mean, he’s showing up to debates without preparing, he’s not done any advertising. I think that will change,” Plouffe said. Indeed, Trump said in an interview with Fox News’ Sean Hannity on Tuesday night that his campaign would soon run its first ads in early voting states like Iowa, New Hampshire and South Carolina.

Plouffe quickly added that his assumption, “maybe thinking too conventionally, is whether it’s a [Jeb] Bush, or a [John] Kasich, or a [Ted] Cruz, this period will end and they’ll emerge.”

“But I don’t know. We’re getting pretty deep into this,” he said. “It’s still early. We’re almost to Thanksgiving, and we’ve got two people with significant leads.”

Plouffe, who endorsed Democratic front-runner Hillary Clinton for the nomination last month, also addressed what he called a “pretty ferocious race” between the two senators in 2008.

At this point, he explained, Clinton is “far and above the rest of the Democratic field, and I would argue, the Republican field” and would do the best job of being commander in chief.