Is McCain’s Campaign Hillary 2.0?
By Justin Gardner | Related entries in 2008 Election, McCain, RepublicansRemember when Hillary shook up her primary campaign and put somebody else in charge (twice) and both times it was unclear who was actually in charge after the big change had been made?
Well, the same thing is currently happening to McCain, and that doesn’t bode well when you’re going up against the near clockwork perfection of Obama’s machine.
The New York Times reports “it is becoming clear that his campaign is once again a swirl of competing spheres of influence, clusters of friends, consultants and media advisers who represent a matrix of clashing ambitions and festering feuds… His orbit remains filled with people who have been demoted without being told they are being demoted.”In fact, this morning on Fox News, McCain himself denied that Steve Schmidt now runs his campaign — despite his recent promotion — saying “Rick Davis is still the guy in charge.” He added that Schmidt has simply “taken on some more responsibilities.”
I’m sorry to say this, but what McCain is saying shouldn’t be believed. Because not only has Schmidt completely reorganizing the campaign structure to a more centralized system (previously McCain had independently controlled regional offices), but he’s also bringing in other people to assist with new messaging focused on the economy. We’re talking about seismic organizational shifts here, and whoever is in charge of that strategy is in charge of the campaign…regardless of what McCain may claim.
To be sure, McCain has more wiggle room than Hillary did because he’s not in the middle of any contests right now, and his team already did make a big switch before the primary season to reemerge as the front runner…so there’s still time to make this work. But campaigns need clear and direct lines of leadership, and the mish mash that’s emerging from the recent shakeup isn’t going to engender any additional confidence in McCain’s leadership abilities.
Or, as a commenter over at Political Insider puts it…
If how you run your campaign is a preview of how you manage the executive branch of our government, then this kind of thing makes one wonder who’s the savvy veteran and who’s the immature rookie who doesn’t have what it takes for the job.
More as it develops…
This entry was posted on Tuesday, July 8th, 2008 and is filed under 2008 Election, McCain, Republicans. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.
