McCain Shakes Up Campaign Staff
Well, I guess not so much a shake-up as a change in leadership, but CNN is reporting that McCain has appointed a new manager of day-to-day operations, Steve Schmidt.
Schmidt had already been doing clean-up work within the campaign, says CNN, which includes fixing such errors as hiring lobbyists who worked with the junta in Myanmar, poor choices of religion figures such as John Hagee, and an ad that distanced McCain from President Bush’s support of offshore drilling, which McCain later reversed.
Schmidt will report to campaign manager Rick Davis (who is taking a more behind-the-scenes role), but everyone else will report to Schmidt. What this really means, in plain English, is that Schmidt is now the de facto campaign manager.
I must say, McCain could use it. I think polling at this stage is kind of silly, but you don’t need to look at numbers to see McCain’s campaign could use help. Just consider what he’s doing this week. He’s holding trade talks in Columbia while Obama is giving a series of speeches outlining everything from his patriotism to his plans for faith-based initatives, to his plans for national service. I don’t know about anyone else, but can’t trade talks wait until after McCain secures the White House?
I wouldn’t be surprised if some of Schmidt’s plans for McCain include some speeches in the near future. I know they’re not McCain’s strongest suit, but lets face it: If he becomes President, he’ll need to do them…a lot. What better way to learn to do it well than practice?
After a LONG and NUMEROUS series of reversals where Obama has abandoned the positions he took in the primary and has now adopted President Bush’s position, the McCain camp is letting opportunity and after opportunity walk by without a response. I was starting to wonder if McCain has one person on his staff that ever reads a newspaper or a blog. I have just written about this very subject on my blog http://iusbvision.wordpress.com/2008/07/03/obama-reverses-himself-on-terrorist-surveillance-program/
That’s a new one. Obama as a third Bush term?
I don’t think so. I already didn’t agree with the left’s portrayal of McCain as it, and it doesn’t seem to me that Obama could be Bush surrogate any more than McCain could.