QandO

September 15, 2004

Coelho: Kerry Campaign in Chaos
Posted by McQ

Tony Coelho, former Al Gore campaign manager fired some heavy shots at the Kerry campaign today:

Longtime Democratic insider Tony Coelho lashed out at the John Kerry presidential campaign, characterizing it as a campaign in chaos. With yet another appointment of a former Clinton administration staffer to Kerry’s team on Tuesday, Coelho argues the problem is worsening.

“There is nobody in charge and you have these two teams that are generally not talking to each other,” says Coehlo, who ran Al Gore's campaign early in the 2000 presidential race. As Coelho and other detractors see it, there is a civil war within the Kerry campaign.

If true its explains some of the reasons Kerry has seemed so inept lately on the campaign trail. Per Coelho, its all about money:

“Here are two groups that have never gotten along and have fought, and it is a lot over money,” says Coehlo. "Because in the Democratic Party the consultants get paid for the creation and the placement of [advertising]. Republicans only pay you for the creation.”

So each faction is fighting over what ends up in the ads? And what gets in the ads ends up being 'the message'.

That's where the fight is .... over what constitutes "the message".

“Our problem here is a national message,” Coelho says. “What is it that we [Democrats] are? If you go to Kerry, that’s a disaster because the candidate should not be involved in solving disputes or the creation of his message.

“You need a [campaign] boss, somebody who says ‘Shut up, we are going to work this out.’ Not someone who can go around to Kerry, and that’s Shrummy’s forte,” Coelho continues, speaking of Shrum. The Kerry campaign has over the past week refuted speculation that either Shrum or Sasso are running the campaign.

Coelho isn't a big fan of Shrum's. Shrum has managed many presidential campaigns, but they've all been losers. Shrum's 0 for 7.

Coelho is a Sasso fan. Sasso has recently joined the Kerry campaign.

“What I’m looking for is a Karl Rove and I don’t know where our Karl Rove is.” Coelho says. “I think Sasso is a Karl Rove. I’m very high on Sasso because I don’t think he plays Machiavellian games. I think he very sincerely wants to win. I think he is very big on Kerry. And I think he’s tough enough to say, ‘Goddammit, come together.’”

But apparently the power struggle is in full bloom. And the result is a failing campaign. The signs of distress are so obvious that Democrats are coming out of the woodwork to try and save it:

But in a sign of how seriously the Kerry campaign is taking its dive in the polls, a trio of ex-Clinton staffers has come aboard recently, including former Clinton press secretary Mike McCurry who signed up on Tuesday. He joins Joe Lockhart, another onetime Clinton press secretary, and Joel Johnson, the former president’s legislative strategist.

The call for the Clintonistas, in McCurry’s view, illustrates that Democrats are circling the wagons.

“Democrats are sort of coming out of places where normally they might sit on the sidelines,” McCurry says, “because there is a strong sense that we really need to get in there and try to help, because it is an important election.”

McCurry tries to downplay the apparent lack of an identifiable Democrat message.

McCurry defends the Kerry camp and says he doesn’t think they got off message in August. “I think Bush got on message,” he says.

“I think [Mr. Bush] had a much better August than he had had prior,” McCurry adds. “So I think part of this is a reaction to the fact that [the Bush campaign] sharpened up their operation and had a good convention on their side. We just have got to do our bit, on our side.”

Sounds a little like whistling past the graveyard to me.

Meanwhile Coelho says its time to decide who's in charge:

Of Shrum’s role as adviser, Coelho says “I’m not anti-Shrummy here. What I’m saying is that you need to have someone in charge and I think Sasso’s capable of it.”

“If [Sasso] is in charge then Goddammit, say it and stop having the speculation of who's in charge because that’s worse,” Coelho says. “It also starts to impact in regard to the whole image of leadership. If someone can’t control a message in a presidential campaign, how are you going to be a good president?”

Makes you wonder, doesn't it? If candidate Kerry can't even "lead" his own campaign, why in the world would you want to give him the opportunity to lead the country?

48 days and a wakeup.

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