campaign
Posted at 12:47pm on Jul. 3, 2008 New boss Steve Schmidt set to tighten McCain's campaign
He'll keep but transform McCain's "regional managers"
By Mark Kilmer
Yesterday, John McCain put Steve Schmidt in charge of his campaign, while former campaign jefe Rick Davis was moved into heading the veep search, fundraising, etc. We had some questions, and we've now some answers, thanks in part to a McCain memo reported in a blog entry from Chris Cillizza, who seems to be having as much fun as Jake Tapper, albeit perhaps in a more Obama-centric manner.
Schmidt is strengthening the McCain national HQ in Virginia, which should mean a more focused, message-driven national campaign, although he evidently will not scrap the regional manager concept crafted by Davis, wherein eleven managers ran the campaign in specific geographic areas. But though the basic structure of the strange scheme will be intact, the more dangerous parts of the notion will be transformed:
Under the Schmidt regime, it seems as though these regional campaign managers will be far more like field operatives than managers of a specific geographic region.
Schmidt will also hire national political director and a field director. Of this, Schmidt writes in the memo obtained by Cillizza:
"These individuals will work with all of you and with [deputy campaign manager] Christian Ferry to increase our capacity to reach out to voters, build coalitions, identify supporters, and ultimately turn them out to the polls on November 4. We will be enhancing our headquarters political capacity to provide additional resources to you and your regions."
This sounds as if it could be similar to what Karl Rove and Ken Mehlman did for President Bush in 2004, which is a good sign. Some appeal, some GOTV, is more important now than it was in 2004, when Bush faced a political dud in JF Kerry.
Hopefully, Schmidt will have his operation ready to work full capacity by the time of the conventions, for though neither candidate has emerged as a clear front-runner as yet, one suspects that an energetic, precise, and talented organization such as Obama is believed to have will be on the top of its game when the campaign begins in earnest. McCain has to be ready to emphasize his strengths and to exploit Obama's weaknesses as the fly from out the woodwork.
Posted in Archived | campaign | McCain | Steve Schmidt — Comments (8)/ Email this page » / Read More »
Posted at 1:51pm on Jul. 2, 2008 Steve Schmidt takes over the McCain campaign
A new direction?
By Mark Kilmer
Steve Schmidt has assumed "full operational control" of the McCain campaign, the Washington Post tells us, with McCain reducing the role of current campaign manager Rick Davis, who will now concentrate on finding a veep. (This lays to rest the "Romney is leading" and "Palin is leading" and "Jindal is out" garbage from the media. How can one have a leader for a position if the process has not yet begun?)
Schmidt will take over just about everything else, according to two senior sources in the campaign. The political, coalitions, volunteer and communications departments will report to him, as will the regional campaign managers.
Several McCain advisers said they believed Schmidt intends to scrap Davis' plan to give the regional managers wide lattitude to run the operations in their states. Instead, the sources said they expect Schmidt to hire a political director and a field director -- two positions that are traditional elements of a presidential campaign.
What changes? Dunno. After his June 3rd speech, my thought was that McCain could us the late, great Mike Deaver. He's not available.
We'll see what magic the supposedly virtually unfettered Schmidt can work. What the almost comical tone of the Obama campaign so far, he should have plenty with which to work.
(And there is more from Jonathan Martin at Politico.com.)
Posted in 2008 | campaign | McCain | Steve Schmidt — Comments (19)/ Email this page » / Read More »
Posted at 10:29am on Jan. 30, 2008 Quotes That Catch My Fancy
By Paul J Cella
Pejman has highlighted a characteristically excellent Andrew Ferguson essay — an essay, again characteristically, that is at once very funny and very serious. Ferguson’s target this time is the unutterable madness at back of the presidential campaign system, how it drives out normalcy and favors the monomaniac and egotist, thereby oppressing the Republic with the curious monomania of narcissists and confidence men who may actually believe the yarns they spin.
There is a better way. It used to be our way:
He entered New Hampshire politics as an advocate of religious toleration. For a while he toyed with the idea of medicine, but decided, after some reading, that too little was known to justify an honest man’s taking up doctoring as a profession. Already elected justice of the peace by his fellow townsmen, he went into a country attorney’s office to study law. He applied the same hard common sense to the law that he did to religion. He was successful as a lawyer, and in state politics, and became a man of some means, raising a family of five children in his plain white weatherboarded farmhouse. In 1802 the New Hampshire legislature elected him to the United States Senate.
— John Dos Passos, The Shackles of Power, 1966.
Posted in 17th Amendment | Archived | campaign — Comments (0) / Email this page » / Read More »
Posted at 10:07am on Nov. 15, 2007 Democrat sugar-daddy Stryker caught in medicare scandal, stealing from seniors to buy MI elections
By RightMichigan.com
Cross-posted on Right Michigan at www.RightMichigan.com.
We know Jon Stryker funds everything from the Michigan regressisphere to the Democrats take-over of the State House to radical and militant gay-special-rights groups to Governor Granholm’s reelection campaign (who did donate all that partners for progress money, anyways?) and the Michigan Democrat Party and we all assumed that it was family money he’d inherited or made through his company, Kalamazoo based Styker Corporation.
Posted in Breaking News | campaign | Jon Stryker | Justice Department | medicare | Michigan | Scandal | Stryker | theft — Comments (3) / Email this page » / Read More »
Posted at 8:50pm on Nov. 10, 2007 Hillary's prefabricated campaign takes planted questions
Clinton scripts "audience questions."
By Mark Kilmer
[UPDATE 12/10 ]For the second time in as many days, Hillary Clinton's presidential campaign has had to deal with accusations of planting questions during public appearances, FOX News has learned. -- Fox News I guess that stuff about "It won't happen again" went the way of all her other positions.
Democratic Presidential frontrunner Hillary Rodham Clinton is a sock puppet. Her campaign is comprised of illegitimate, creepy sock puppets. Their hands stay warm, of course, but nothing is what you see:
SIOUX CITY, Iowa — Democratic presidential frontrunner Hillary Clinton’s campaign admitted Friday that it planted a global warming question in Newton, Iowa, Tuesday during a town hall meeting to discuss clean energy.
Clinton campaign spokesman Mo Elliethee admitted that the campaign had planted the question and said it would not happen again.
"On this occasion a member of our staff did discuss a possible question about Senator Clinton's energy plan at a forum,” Elliethee said.
But they (Mo Elliethee) must maintain plausible deniability for Hillary:
“However, Senator Clinton did not know which questioners she was calling on during the event. This is not standard policy and will not be repeated again.”
In a state where the caucus is held sacred and the impromptu and candid style of the town hall meeting is held dear, Clinton’s planted question may come as a great offense to Iowans.
Read On…
Posted in 2008 | campaign | Hillary Clinton | planted questions | untrustworthy — Comments (51)/ Email this page » / Read More »
