Were you wondering why Mitt Romney failed to mention Afghanistan, or to thank the troops, in his convention speech? For that matter, were you wondering why his speech generally sucked? And were you wondering why the Romney campaign often seems to be flailing in a way that seems out of keeping from someone who, after all, is supposed to be Mr. I-know-how-to-manage-stuff?
If so, or frankly even if not, you must read this long piece in Politico. They’ve got a bunch of people inside the campaign talking (anonymously, of course) about the campaign generally, and specifically about Stuart Stevens, Romney’s chief strategist, who sure doesn’t sound like someone a buttoned-down guy like Romney would go all-in with (Stevens “has skied to the North Pole, chronicled his use of steroids to compete in an extreme race, written novels and a campaign memoir, advised clients in Albania and Congo and consulted on Hollywood projects, including the political film “The Ides of March.”). But apparently he has. The piece is lengthy, but well worth it.
What’s perhaps most surprising, though, isn’t even the content. It’s the fact that the piece exists at all right now. This is the kind of thing that you expect to see much closer to election day, when it’s becoming fairly clear who’s going to win and, more pertinently, who’s going to lose. It’s when the blame starts flying fast and furious for everything that went wrong. It’s the kind of piece that we saw coming out of the McCain campaign shortly before and also after election day. But I don’t recall seeing anything quite this dramatic coming out of the McCain camp this early in the cycle.
Ryan says
McCain’s campaign staff didn’t start blowing up until a couple weeks before the election. That it’s happening this early for Romney is kind of epic. The bad kind of epic, that is…
Seriously, I can’t remember a worse-run general election campaign than Romney’s effort, nor have studied examples of one outside my memory. Not Kerry, not Gore, not Dole. Not HW Bush, not Dukakis, not even Carter.
I’m guessing someone would have to go way, way back to find a campaign that’s been this bad.
PS. How you know this isn’t just members of Romney’s campaign trying to throw Stevens under the bus, changing leadership, and is instead of an example to place the blame by some on anyone but those “some” people.
From page 4:
The race to stick the blame on the candidate and a few outsider scapegoats, to protect the Bush-era politicos who have been running that party for over a decade, is on. Expect the next round of counter-bashes to commence, soon.
Mr. Lynne says
The thing that I wonder about is this issue of Stevens being criticized for keeping the campaign vague and more about Obama than Romney. I’m not so sure this is a valid criticism. As soon as Romney tacks center, the same people that complain about Stevens not being truly conservative would go apoplectic. OTH, if they make the conservatives happy and roll out more policy specifics he loses a bunch of independents (news flash – their policy ideas suck). The campaign is stuck in a messaging nightmare. They can’t please their base and tack to win the general – best to hang it all on Obama since that’s probably the only thing that’ll please both sides (movement conservatives and Republicans that would rather win).
theloquaciousliberal says
Since it’s important to counter faulty memories on both sides (I don’t remember being “worse off” in September 2008 is a ludicrous thing to say without considering the facts), I feel the need to correct this:
There were lots of stories about McCain’s dysfunctional campaign in Spring of 2008. E.g.: http://www.nytimes.com/2008/05/25/us/politics/25mccain.html?pagewanted=all
In July 2008, Steve Schmidt was appointed to head up day to day operations of the McCain campaign in response to the widely expressed concerns that the campaign lacked coordination and a clear message.
August was slow but, by September 2008, McCain’s campaign was already experiencing tremendous criticism. During this week, the bankruptcy of Lehman and AIG dominated campaign coverage. But, by a mere week from today, the McCain campaign’s inability to deal with the economic collapse was clear, Palin’s interview with Couric had aired so that choice was looking weak, and McCain even bizarrely “suspended” his campaign in a strange attempt to seem above politics.
By October 12th, former campaign adviser Bill Kristol was calling on McCain to fire the whole team saying: “The McCain campaign, once merely problematic, is now close to being out-and-out dysfunctional. Its combination of strategic incoherence and operational incompetence has become toxic.” (See: http://www.nytimes.com/2008/10/13/opinion/13kristol.html)
So, maybe a little earlier in 2012 than usual for the behind-the-scenes expose but by this same time four years ago it was already clear that McCain’s campaign was a disaster (they couldn’t even properly vet their VP choice!) and that Obama was going to wiin.
David says
I still don’t recall anything like this Politico piece, in which people who are still with the campaign are quoted anonymously to go after another person who is still with the campaign, coming out so early. The NYT story from May 2008 you linked quotes people outside the campaign, which really isn’t the same thing. And Bill Kristol’s primary agenda item throughout the entire 08 cycle was to cover his own sorry ass for his major role in pushing Sarah Palin’s candidacy, which of course was a big part of why McCain lost.
centralmassdad says
is that this story is the second-worst thing to happen to the Romney campaign this week.
And it is only Tuesday morning.