Government

Senator Schumer’s right-hand man

Kennedy graduate is Washington power player’s L.I. director

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Most pundits agreed: Mitt Romney won the first of three presidential debates in 2012, held at the University of Denver on Oct. 3. President Obama, whose rhetorical skills were the stuff of political legend, appeared tired, and in the weeks after the debate, his poll numbers plummeted.

The president needed to win big in the second debate, a town hall forum at Hofstra University on Oct. 16, and he delivered, scoring a solid victory, if not a knockout blow, poll numbers suggested.

Moments after the Hofstra debate, the president’s top campaign advisers went to work, honing the talking points that would guide his surrogates as they chatted up journalists in “spin alley” over the coming hours. Leading the strategy session were David Axelrod, former senior adviser to the president; Robert Gibbs, former White House communications director; and Jim Messina, former deputy White House chief of staff.

Listening in on the session, soaking up the history of the moment, was Kyle Strober, who grew up in Merrick and graduated from Kennedy High School in Bellmore in 2000 before earning a history degree from the University of Michigan in 2004, serving as Nassau County Legislator David Denenberg’s chief of staff from 2006 to 2011 and becoming Sen. Charles Schumer’s Long Island director in 2011.

Schumer, a Democrat from Brooklyn who is next in line to succeed Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, played a crucial role in telegraphing the president’s platform after the Hofstra debate, and by his side through it all was Strober.

“I was like a fly on the wall,” said Strober, 31, who moved to Long Beach after college. “These are the once-in-a-lifetime experiences I hope to never forget and tell my children about. It’s a privilege to be a part of it.”

Obama and his election team reset their campaign at the Hofstra debate, after which the president’s poll numbers started to climb again. Most pundits agreed that Obama also won the third debate, at Lynn University in Florida on Oct. 22, on his way to re-election.

A career-defining disaster

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