President Obama's grassroots group late this afternoon announced the winner of its health care video contest -- a bunch of cute kids at a playground listing medical problems and saying that they deserve health care.

Organizing for America said it received more than 1,000 entries (some of which are mashed together at the beginning of the YouTube video with the winner) before narrowing them to 20 finalists and picking one.

"The winning video shows that our supporters' creativity and passion is more than a match for the slick ads and partisan spin doctors on the other side. In the next few days, we'll be using this video as the basis for a new television ad that will air across the country -- and you can help, by ensuring we have the resources to make the biggest impact," Obama's campaign manager David Plouffe says in an email to supporters soliciting contributions.

"With Congress wrapping up its last round of negotiations and closely gauging the public's mood in these crucial final weeks, now is the exact time to get this grassroots message out far and wide."

Exactly one year since his historic election, President Obama sent a video message today to his grassroots supporters, telling them that they put him in office, thanking them for their dedication since, but warning that they have much more work to do.

"Victory alone was not the change we sought, it was only the chance for us to make that change," he says.

His campaign manager David Plouffe elaborates in an email to Organizing for America accompanying the video: "One year ago today, you made history.We all knew that electing Barack Obama President was only the opportunity to bring about change; that we would all have to keep working to fulfill the promise our victory offered.

"And you've come through -- by making hundreds of thousands of calls to Congress to push health reform forward, by pouring your effort into seemingly insurmountable challenges time and again, and, since January, by building on the power of our campaign to create Organizing for America. And now, with the finish line on health reform in sight, we need your voice more than ever before," Plouffe implores.

President Obama's campaign manager says that he was surprised at his boss's interest in Hillary Rodham Clinton as his running mate, but that worries about Bill Clinton ultimately ended that flirtation.

In excerpts of his new book published online and in the new issue of Time magazine, David Plouffe writes that Obama "said if his central criterion measured who could be the best VP, she had to be included in that list. She was competent, could help in Congress, would have international bona fides and had been through this before, albeit in a different role."

As meetings continued, "Barack continued to be intrigued by Hillary. 'I still think Hillary has a lot of what I am looking for in a VP,' he said to us.... I think Bill may be too big a complication. If I picked her, my concern is that there would be more than two of us in the relationship,' " Plouffe writes in "The Audacity to Win: The Inside Story and Lessons of Barack Obama's Historic Victory."

He and senior adviser David Axelrod were not enthused about the Democratic "dream ticket" incorporating the former first lady. "Neither Ax nor I were fans of the Hillary option," he writes. "We saw her obvious strengths, but we thought there were too many complications, both pre-election and postelection, should we be so fortunate as to win. Still, we were very careful not to object too forcefully. This needed to be his call."

Obama, of course, eventually picked then-Senator Joe Biden as his vice president and put Clinton in his cabinet as secretary of state.

UPDATE: Asked about the assertions in Plouffe's book, Clinton told CNN today, "I'm very happy with the position that I have and I think Joe Biden's doing a great job as vice president, so I think we should move on from the campaign of 2008."

Plouffe also gives his take on Republican John McCain's surprise pick of then-Alaska Governor Sarah Palin as his running mate -- a choice that provided an initial boost in enthusiasm among the GOP rank-and-file, but that eventually reflected poorly on McCain as many Americans decided Palin was not qualified to be the proverbial heartbeat away from the presidency.

"Palin was a bolt of lightning, a true surprise. She was such a long shot, I didn't even have her research file on my computer, as I did for the likely McCain picks. I started Googling her, refreshing my memory while I waited for our research to be sent," Plouffe recalls.

"I also thought it was a downright bizarre, ill-considered and deeply puzzling choice," he continues. "The one thing every voter knew about John McCain's campaign at this point was that it had been shouting from the rooftops that Barack Obama lacked the experience to be President. With the Palin pick, he had completely undermined his core argument against us. Worse yet for McCain, he would look inherently political in doing so. His strength — and the threat he posed to us — was rooted in the fact that many independent voters believed in his maverick reputation and believed he did not make his decisions by prioritizing politics over what was right. I guessed people would view this choice more as a political stunt than a sound, reasoned call."

Obama was of like mind, Plouffe says, telling him, "When voters step back and analyze how he made this decision, I think he's going to be in big trouble. You just can't wing something like this - it's too important."