McCain's campaign manager

[Tribun]

Embarrassing campaign appearances, poor organization, bad opinion poll results: Republican presidential candidate John McCain is worrying his party. Now an architect of the Bush re-election campaign is taking over to boost McCain's chances against Barack Obama.

John McCain spent the weekend at his ranch in Arizona where he occasionally likes to light the barbecue and cook for his family and friends. His speciality: juicy spare ribs.

Behind the scenes, the atmosphere is anything but jovial, though. Republican Party members have accused the presidential candidate of having failed so far to come up with a plan to beat his Democratic rival Barack Obama.

In previous election campaigns George W. Bush, helped by his guru Karl Rove, had managed to launch effective attacks on his Democratic rivals months before election day: He succeeded in dismissing Al Gore as boring and aloof, and John Kerry as an elitist waverer.

"The frustration is there's no big theme around which to build a winning campaign," Steve Lombardo, a Republican pollster, told the Associated Press.

McCain's team has tried to label the Democratic contender as inexperienced, opportunist and unpredictable in recent weeks. They have accused him of changing his positions on Iraq and on gun legislation, of being naïve in dealing with dictators, of failing to understand economics. But the attacks were so broadly scattered that they didn't have much impact -- and Obama is hitting back harder than his predecessors. When doubts were voiced about Obama's patriotism last week, the Democrat thundered that he wouldn't let anyone question his love for his country.

In most opinion polls Obama is clearly ahead of McCain. Four months ahead of the election, that doesn't necessarily mean much, but the results are alarming enough to have prompted a radical shakeup of McCain's campaign team. It has been taken over by a Steve Schmidt, a bald man in his late thirties whom McCain refers to as his "Sergeant." He helped George W. Bush and Arnold Schwarzenegger to get re-elected and recently told McCain in no uncertain terms that he is guaranteed to lose against Obama unless he changes his organization.

Lack of Strategy

Schmidt is renowned as a control freak, as a scrupulous organizer. That's exactly what McCain seems to need. Many of his campaign events appear to be improvised, his team of permanent campaign staff numbers just 300 compared with Obama's army of more than 1,000. Often, there's no discernible strategy. When journalists asked why McCain was making a surprise trip to Colombia and Mexico last week, one adviser simply shrugged his shoulders, according to the New York Times. "It’s simple. McCain says he wants to go to these places, and we say, of course."

McCain has been more successful lately in attracting donations -- a weak point for him so far. But the many donation-gathering appearances in Republican bastions have been preventing him from meeting voters in swing states. Besides, the 71-year-old senator has to plan more rest stops in his schedule than his 46-year-old challenger.

His main campaign issues also seem dated: The war on terror and the Iraq war. The voters trust him more than Obama on those issues -- but the number of voters who will base their decision mainly on a fear of terrorism has fallen to four percent from around 20 percent four years ago.

In addition, many Americans acknowledge the successes of the troop surge in Iraq, which is why Obama is publicly retreating from his ambitious plan to bring the US troops home within 16 months. But that isn't making the endless war any more popular. McCain's support for the war has enabled the Democrats to claim he is standing for a third Bush term. According to a survey by CBS News, almost two-thirds of voters think McCain wants to carry on the policies of the unloved president -- or even shift further to the right.

Avoiding Bush

Bush is currently busy collecting campaign funds for McCain, mostly behind closed doors among wealthy Republicans. "In trying times, America needs a president who has been tested and will not flinch," Bush says of McCain. That's enough to mobilize the right wing of the Republicans, where Bush is still popular. But McCain is avoiding public meetings with the president, and his team is even pondering how best to hide Bush during the convention in September.

But McCain's solo appearances are also worrying his advisers. Many already knew that he's a stiff speaker and can't keep up with Obama's rhetoric. But the Republicans have been shocked at times at the gulf in oratorical skills between the two candidates.

Recently in Las Vegas, while McCain was banging the drum for his program to lessen US dependence on foreign oil, he even found it hard to pronounce the name of his central campaign issue. "Lex-eegton Project," he stammered, instead of "Lexington Project." He mispronounced it again later in the speech, calling it "Lexiggdon Project."

But the example that has been discussed most was McCain's speech in New Orleans at the start of June, a few hours before Obama declared himself the Democratic candidate in a rousing speech in St Louis. The Republican spoke in front of a green backdrop, which made him look even older and paler, frequently grinned listlessly the cameras and fluffed his lines. "It was a nightmare," a party strategist told SPIEGEL ONLINE.

Rhetorical Shortcomings

Some advisers want to turn this shortcoming into an advantage. They want McCain to focus less on grand speeches and to concentrate instead on "town hall meetings" -- more intimate gatherings with voters -- a format with which he scored points in the primaries. McCain flourishes in smaller groups, appears accessible, informed and witty. But this strategy also entails risks.

Contrary to George W. Bush, who always stuck to his message, McCain is seen as unpredictable. Recently he playfully referred to a boy who asked him how old he was during a town hall meeting as a "little jerk." In front of running cameras.

"Let McCain be McCain," recommends Peggy Noonan, Ronald Reagan's talented former speechwriter, in the Wall Street Journal. And the candidate himself has pointed out that he was already written off a year ago due to his lack of funds and chaotic organization. But he managed a comeback and gained the Republican nomination. "So now I'm the underdog again," he reminds reporters and supporters.

His town hall meeting last Friday in Cincinnati took place in front of 150 people. Obama's camp is currently discussing moving his speech at the Denver Democratic convention at the end of August into the open air because of the expected mass audience, expected to number 76,000.

Source Spiegel Online

[Glocksman]

They want McCain to focus less on grand speeches and to concentrate instead on "town hall meetings" -- more intimate gatherings with voters -- a format with which he scored points in the primaries. McCain flourishes in smaller groups, appears accessible, informed and witty. But this strategy also entails risks.

The main risk being that McCain won't look quite so good in an event where the audience isn't stacked with his supporters asking 'softball' questions.

SMITH: "I reported at the top of this hour that the campaign had told us at Fox News that the audience would be made up of Republicans, Democrats, and independents. We have now received a clarification from the campaign and I feel I should pass it along to you. The McCain campaign distributed tickets to supporters, Mayor Bloomberg, who of course is a registered Republican, and other independent groups."

Keep in mind that this was the event McCain wanted Obama to attend.


Put him in front of a genuinely bipartisan audience asking pointed question with his opponent standing by to call him on the bullshit he liberally throws around, and McCain would be lucky to keep the Kool Aid drinkers that make up the Republican base these days.

[Glocksman]

Forgot to add:

"Let McCain be McCain," recommends Peggy Noonan, Ronald Reagan's talented former speechwriter, in the Wall Street Journal.

Oh yes! PLEASE let McCain 'be McCain'.
Then we get to see the man that even a fellow conservative Republican Senator said was 'erratic', 'hotheaded', and that McCain 'worries him'.

Elected to the U.S. House in 1972 and then to the Senate in 1978, Cochran, a consummate gentleman, measures his words and his actions carefully. But he said something that surprised many in a Boston Globe article in January about his longtime Senate colleague McCain.

"The thought of his being president sends a cold chill down my spine," Cochran told the Globe. "He is erratic. He is hotheaded. He loses his temper and he worries me."

As we saw in the primaries, the Obama people have a way of getting thin skinned people (Bill Clinton, anyone? ) to lose it and start spouting off.
If we're lucky we'll see McCain melt down during the debates.

[Stormbringer]

Embarrassing campaign appearances, poor organization, bad opinion poll results: Republican presidential candidate John McCain is worrying his party.

Of course it hasn't occurred to them that McCain's party is scaring the shit of America. And not in the manipulate the masses sort of way Bush managed for about six years either.

All this is just shuffling the deck chairs on the Titanic as the water is lapping at your feet. McCain is running as Bush-Lite when people are still terrified of what Bush is going to fuck up. McCain has sacrificed the very qualities which made him at least some what attractive to those outside the party. A bit of irony since he sacrificed his principles for ambition only to find out he screwed himself.

America wants some one with principle, character, and a sense of responsibility. This election is very heavily about character and sound policy. And McCain's toe-the-line stances are crippling him.

Thank goodness that Obama actually won the primaries to actually give us a decent candidate for once.