It begins: Obama to close WH political office and start 2012 campaign

Mr. Obama has signed off on the plan to set up his campaign headquarters away from Washington, a first for a modern-day presidential re-election campaign. To avoid turf battles, chaotic communications and duplicated efforts, aides said, a significant realignment is underway in the West Wing, with the duties of the political office being taken up by the Democratic National Committee.

The president intends to formally declare his candidacy in about two months by filing papers with the Federal Election Commission, aides said. That step would allow him to start raising money and hiring a team of advisers, whose job it would be to make him the second Democrat since Franklin Delano Roosevelt to be elected twice to the White House…

Closing the office will hardly remove politics from the West Wing, considering that the political arena is central to Mr. Plouffe’s portfolio. But aides said that by moving the political director and his staff to the Democratic National Committee, the restructuring of the president’s political operation could reduce the likelihood that it will become a target of an investigation by the Republican-led House Oversight Committee because of the fine line that exists between government and politics.