Redstate

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 »