: It worked for Kerry…
Or at least that’s the popular thinking–the Kerry campaign turned around after the staff shake-up last year. Now Howard Dean has fired campaign manager Joe Trippi and replaced him with an associate of Al Gore’s–Roy Neel.
Josh Marshall points out the irony: “I’m no purist in political matters, but isn’t Neel a Washington lobbyist? An insiders’ insider? I don’t think that makes him a bad guy. But isn’t it a little out of tune with the campaign Dean’s been running?”
At the time of Al Gore’s endorsement of Dean, I offered this opinion about the purpose of the endorsement:
I think it is possible that one of the reasons Gore chose to endorse Dean now is so the contest would appear to be over after the New Hampshire primary. Then, after Super Tuesday, we might expect the field to be cut by a third or even half. I think Gore wants Democrats entering the convention solidly behind one candidate (something he suggested in his endorsement statement). This will have the effect of giving Dean more time to make the difficult tactical/rhetorical adjustments necessary to run a presidential campaign in the political middle where these things are won.
Long-term goal: Buy Dean precious time to make the change.
That Kerry won in Iowa and New Hampshire doesn’t change the plausibility of this scenario. It just makes it more difficult to achieve. I think hiring Neel moves Dean in exactly the direction I contend.
But it appears to me (from the proximity of my office in Kansas City) that Dean is not particularly skilled at taking advice. Or at least that’s my speculation about why he has committed so many communications “errors” since declaring his candidacy (yes: the quotes indicate that, as with all rhetorical criticism, assessments may change over time as effectiveness is properly measured). So my question is: What will Neel tell him to do, and will Dean listen?
In my opinion Mr Dean Comes Closer to understanding the average “Middle-Class” tax payer and how he is being taxed for the very poor, and the very rich. Mr Kerry is a washington insider and a Multimillionaire in his own right.
Probably none of the wish-to-be candidates ever did a days work in thier whole life. So how can they know about the average hard working Middle Class taxpayer? Humm!
It seems to me that such understanding is possible, e.g. FDR.
Dean contiunes to maintain that they are running “a national campaign”. There was something I saw last night, and i’m not sure if it was pundit heresay, or actual reporting, but Trippi’s intention was indeed to front-load the primaries — they fully expected to win Iowa and New Hampshire. It’s almost as if firing Trippi was a pre-emptive move to curtail media criticism of how the campaign has been handled. Certainly the pundits would love to spend air-time talking about how Dean should fire the guy in charge because of his “devastating” losses in Iowa and New Hampshire.
(I hate saying “win” and “lose” — because, like all forms of racing “placing” pays out a little too).