Following up on McCain's problems in Arizona http://journals.democraticunderground.com/grantcart/110
His Problems in opening up State offices http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_mesg&forum=132&topic_id=6460157&mesg_id=6460157
McCain's long list of gaffes http://journals.democraticunderground.com/grantcart/105
We can now add McCain's inability to establish a clear command structure.
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/07/08/us/politics/08mccain.html?_r=2&adxnnl=1&oref=slogin&adxnnlx=1215522509-vugUs7OJ4bRoNXKxWSWo3Q&oref=sloginStrangely echoing Gen. Clark's contention that Senator McCain military background did not contain significant command and executive experience are the following reports that indicate that there is mass confusion in McCain's Campaign command structure.
First the New York Times writes "All of this intrigue breeds discouragement among even those former McCain associates who do not dispute the notion that voters now might be getting an early glimpse of the messy, unstructured way in which a McCain White House might be managed"
All of this intrigue breeds discouragement among even those former McCain associates who do not dispute the notion that voters now might be getting an early glimpse of the messy, unstructured way in which a McCain White House might be managed. They are hard-pressed to explain why Mr. McCain tolerates this — or encourages this — or why he has trouble cutting ties with people who have not served him well over the years.
“I can’t answer the why,” said John Weaver, who was one of Mr. McCain’s closest advisers before being forced out in a shake-up last year. “It is just that way and for his own sake, he needs to finally, firmly decide where he wants to take this campaign
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Senator John McCain’s campaigns have long been defined by internal squabbling and power plays, zigzagging lines of command and a penchant by the candidate for consulting with former advisers without alerting current ones, always a recipe for disquiet.
After a period of relative calm on that score, it is becoming clear that his campaign is once again a swirl of competing spheres of influence, clusters of friends, consultants and media advisers who represent a matrix of clashing ambitions and festering feuds. The cast includes the surviving members of Mr. McCain’s 2000 campaign, led by Rick Davis and Mark Salter; a new camp out of the world of Karl Rove, led by the recently ascendant Steve Schmidt; and on the periphery, the ever-present Mike Murphy, Mr. McCain’s strategist in the 2000 presidential race who has been dispensing advice to the candidate to the annoyance of the other camps, and is the subject of intensifying rumors in Republican circles that he is about to re-enter the campaign.
The New Republic also chimes in with almost the exact same image of a campaign in the middle of chaos "McCain's style is, call everyone into a room, say you guys work it out, and then turn off the lights. And then throw in a knife." It seems that the question going forward for Murphy--or anyone, for that matter, who wants to run the McCain campaign--is whether he can grab that knife before somebody else does.
The New Republic is confirming that Mike Murphy, a long time friend and aide to the candidate is definitely joining/not joining the campaign as the key strategist: http://blogs.tnr.com/tnr/blogs/the_plank/archive/2008/07/08/as-mike-murphy-turns.aspxThe McCain campaign is pushing back against Kristol's column and other talk of Murphy's return. "No one discussed or offered Mike the strategist's job," a McCain adviser told me yesterday afternoon. "Mike is a friend of the senator's, but he is not joining the campaign, and neither the candidate nor his campaign are responsible for any press speculation suggesting otherwise." The Republican strategist with knowledge of the situation elaborated: "There's no one in the senior leadership of the campaign who wants Murphy there. Schmidt has pushed back very hard against Murphy being there."
But there is, of course, one other member of the Murphy tribe in addition to Murphy--and that's McCain himself. As the Republican strategist puts it: "McCain likes Murphy and talks to him. I imagine he'll continue to do so and that it will continue to be a problem within the campaign." One big reason it will be a problem is because McCain will oftentimes be talking to Murphy behind his other advisor's' backs. "McCain talks to people, former advisor's or in some cases advisor's who were fired, without the other advisor's knowing about it," a former McCain adviser told me.
And, indeed, it was apparently in one such surreptitious conversation that McCain offered Murphy the strategist's job. "Before he left for Mexico and Colombia, McCain informed Murphy that when he returned, there would be changes in the campaign, that Davis would be demoted and that Schmidt would assume some operational control of the campaign, and that he wanted Murphy to serve as his chief strategist, as he currently didn't have one," a friend of McCain's told me. "Murphy didn't say no," the McCain friend went on. "Murphy expected that to happen." When I asked why it didn't, the McCain friend replied: "As usual, chaos took over."
Now what is becoming clear is that by calling McCain Bush III we are in fact insulting Bush II,as the McCain campaign is even more poorly organized than the Bush campaign and White House.