AP: Two more officials quit Kerry campaign

[hedda_foil]

http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/news/archive/2003/11/11/national1532EST0605.DTL

Two more officials quit Kerry campaign

Tuesday, November 11, 2003

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(11-11) 12:32 PST WASHINGTON (AP) --

Democrat John Kerry's press secretary and deputy finance director quit Tuesday amid chaos on a presidential campaign staff that lost its manager a day earlier.

Robert Gibbs, chief spokesman for the Massachusetts lawmaker, quit to protest the firing of campaign manager Jim Jordan, let go by Kerry Sunday night.

Deputy finance director Carl Schidlow also quit, although the reason was not immediately available.

<snip>

The departures threaten to erode the morale of a campaign that had been viewed just months ago as a front-running team. Kerry, who has been trailing former Vermont Gov. Howard Dean in polls, gave in to pressure from donors and supporters to shake up his campaign by firing Jordan. Several campaign officials said the firing was viewed as unfair by many Kerry aides, and there remained a possibility that others would follow Gibbs and Schidlow out the door.

[WilliamPitt]

1. Bye, John

:(

[NewYorkerfromMass]

8. again with the dirge

Thanks again for the support :mad:

[Walt Starr]

20. Will is being realistic

These are the sorts of things that indicate a melt down is in process.

I pretty much have to pin it all on the campaign manager who had to be fired yesterday after reading the email that he leaked.

[Zolok]

24. Ah...the DU's unwavering loyalty to a fellow liberal...

bracing to see really.
Once again I ask...y'all hate Kerry so much I'm sure you'll be here in 2006 to run his @ss out of the senate right?

[IndianaGreen]

26. We love Kerry, but we are very disappointed about his role in IWR

I think that his vote was based on focus groups or some other crass political calculation that the war would be over in a short time and the American colonial army was going to be welcomed with singing and dancing in the streets.

Kerry is as responsible for the Iraq quagmire as those that voted for the Tonkin Gulf Resolution that began the Vietnam quagmire. Kerry knew better. More was expected of Kerry. Kerry crapped out.

[David Zephyr]

42. That's How I Feel, IG.

Seeing John Kerry flounder like this is very painful to me because I have a lot of admiration for him, but he should beat Lieberman to the punch and withdraw from the race now.

[Khephra]

44. That's exactly how I feel

Senator Kerry is a wonderful man that I'm proud to have on our side. Until he voted for the IWR he was my candidate. I was prepared to buy a bus and travel the country to support him next Summer in the spirt of the 60's.

It's CANDIDATE Kerry that I have no use for.

(That goes for all IWR voters)

[Eloriel]

40. Don't tempt me, Zolok

I wouldn't mind all the warmongers out of Congress.

Eloriel

[HighNoonMeetUp]

35. Sure, pin it on the manager

Kerry's problems couldn't have anything to do with his spinning on his war vote and other possible infractions of trust.

[dfong63]

37. conclusion seems premature

[MUAD_DIB]

38. WP

I thought that you were a diehard supporter of Kerry?

[WilliamPitt]

39. You might have seen

the :( I put up there.

[xultar]

2. Is that a fat lady I hear?

[SpiralHawk]

3. This, too, shall pass

Sic Transit Gloria Campaigna

[slinkerwink]

4. ouch....::sympathetic wince::

:nopity:

[KoKo]

5. Geeze.....Give the guy a break....he's not my candidate but he could

come back from this......Some people are reading to start wailing at the graveside.......He's got time....not much but still enough to pull it together.

[annxburns]

9. If Clark is smart ...

... he'd snatch these guys up. I don't even think Clark has a campaign manager yet. Ya know, I like Clark, but I can't say I've been overwhelmed with his campaign.

He had better hope for a decent turn on MTP this Sunday. I would be wary of Russert - I think he would love to put a big dagger into the Clark's campaign.

[Racenut20]

23. U R not impressed with Clark's staff because

they are all "Lose it for Gore" people.

[salin]

36. There is WAY too much premature "this is over" for x or y candidate

going on. Still a bit out before the primaries - lots of things can happen. I wish the best of luck to the Kerry campaign, to the Senator and his supporters. In a long haul campaign there are always sudden bumps and jolts - may this just be more of that natural phenomon from which recovery is quick.

[returnable]

6. All over but the shouting...

I hope Kerry can right the ship, but it doesn't look good.

I'm bracing for the influx of "Where Will Kerry's Supporters Go?"-type polls in GD...

[The_Gopher]

7. in other news: kerry reportedly throws away winning lotto ticket

[LuminousX]

10. Sometimes you have to clean house

in order to get anything accomplished.

[The_Gopher]

11. it's a different story though when your cleaning crew quits on you

[IndianaGreen]

17. The problem is Kerry, not Kerry's campaign

Unless he is willing to get rid of all the handlers and start being the Kerry he was 20 years ago, his campaign is doomed to failure.

[realFedUp]

12. It's still early....this doesn't have to be a problem

for the Kerry camp. After all we still don't
have Osama, Saddam, the anthrax killer, the
informants from the White House...and Bush
still stands.

[Zynx]

13. This is it. He's done.

[underpants]

14. No he's not his staff was made up of too many operatives

constantly trying to go in at least two directions at the same time. They are just thinning the staff. He should have done this a long time ago but there is plenty of time left anyway.

[IndianaGreen]

15. This is more evidence of progress in the Kerry campaign

which seems lately to have adopted some version of the Rovian lexicon.

[Walt Starr]

22. If five more quit, he should be a shoe-in for the nomination!

I agree, quite Rovian.

[deutsey]

16. I'm a Dean supporter, but this news sucks

I hope Kerry can pull out of this slump. I want my guy to win, but I would hate it if Kerry's campaign implodes.

[WindRavenX]

18. It really looks like his campaign is imploding..

Which is sad because I think Kerry is a great guy.
I hope he can recover. Reagan, I seem to recall, had similar problems with his campaign in 1980, so...

[eissa]

19. I'm with you

Although I've been really disappointed with how Kerry has run his campaign lately -- attacking Dean every chance he gets -- I still think he has a good shot of winning the nomination and we need good contenders like him and Clark to remain in the game and focus their attention on shrub. I hope this cleaning house thing works for him.

[Upfront]

21. Serves Him Right.

Went nagitive on Dean in panic mode. Sometimes there is justice in the world. For get his vote on the war, he is a poor candidate.

[WindRavenX]

25. He really isn't a poor canidate

But, like Gore, he's run a very bad campaign so far.
He made a mistake for his vote for the war, but Kerry is still the man I want as president.
(or Dean, or Edwards, or anyone BUT Bush)

[IndianaGreen]

27. Remember how Kerry spoke and his demeanor on the Boston Red Sox

question? Now, why can't he talk the same way when he is answering a policy question?

[WindRavenX]

28. Good question

To be honest, I think that the pressure has gotten to him of late. I mean, everyone thought Kerry was going to crush Lieberman and Dean, and when Clark and Dean became the frontrunners I think Kerry started to panic.
However, I still believe that his voting record (minus the sad mistake of voting for the war) is excellent and extremely liberal.
He's down, but he's not out.

[eissa]

31. Good point IndianaGreen

Although as a Dean supporter, I hated that "debate" because of the gang-bang performed on Dean, I do remember Kerry being more at ease. Compare that to the Planned Parenthood debate, where there were less candidates present and the atmosphere much more cordial, and Kerry was the only one who appeared tense and distant.

[IndianaGreen]

33. Although now that we know that CNN planted some questions

it makes me wonder about what other questions were planted, and if any candidate had been prepped for the planted questions.

Black eye on CNN.

[DemNoir]

29. I think this is no big deal

People vote for the candidate. Except for a handfull of geeks around here, people have no conception of a campaign staff.

Its so early, no votes have been cast yet. How many times did Clinton's campaign look totally dead early on?

[radfringe]

30. speaking of Kerry...anyone see his new commercial

CNN had a clip of it and then proceeded to rip it apart

kerry is using Baghdad-Bush's "mission accomplished" cod-piece landing on the Lincoln

[Eloriel]

41. I thought it was absolutely awful

Now, my animus towards Kerry is no secret, but viewing it objectively,I found it a little frightening -- him pointing and gesturing menacingly, not smiling. And if those clips weren't in black and white, they seemed to be. NOT a good campaign ad.

Edited to add: This is symptomatic of what I see wrong with the Kerry campaign. I'm sure there are people here who will say it's a good ad, but trust me, it will be seen as an uninspiring, off-putting ad. SO! The question is: who's the fool who okayed that ad before it even got to Kerry? And I would imagine Kerry himself would have okayed it too, what possessed him? I just see a huge lack of judgment in the campaign (wherever it comes from, and the ad is but one example), as well as tone-deafness and out-of-touchness. If Kerry's lucky, he's dealt with the problem now.

Eloriel

[movonne]

32. I'm really sorry about this as I like Kerry although I'm sorta

pulling for Dean. But Kerry would also make a great president.

[IndianaGreen]

34. Kerry will make a great President

perhaps an even better President than some of the other candidates now running, but that is not the issue, the issue is how is he going to stop being the Kerry that he has been since last Fall.

[David Zephyr]

43. Kerry Should Have Simply Said His Vote, in Hindsight, Was Mistaken.

Actually, he would be voicing the opinion of millions of Americans who supported the war and now realize it was wrong.

Even though most of us here were rabidly against the war and gave Kerry hell about his vote, I always kept waiting for him to own up to this mistake. Kerry, with his whole Vietnam experience, knows the war was, as Kennedy said "fradulent", so why he never had the grace to simply admit it has baffled me.

It's time now for Kerry to exit the stage as the New Hampshire primary would be humiliating for him. I just don't know what's going on with this man. He deserves better.

[Endangered Specie]

45. you know

how they say that when the rats and roaches start to jump ship, then, perhaps you should get off the boat too? Guess they realize that Kerry's foundation is cracking at the base.