Reply #17: All this factionalism really reminds me of a few Pres. campaigns [View All]

and that does not bode well.

http://www.deanblog.com/archives/000127.html
I believe that there is a tried and true formula for winning the White House. First, you take a candidate with uncanny political instincts ... not necessarily a political genius or master strategist, but someone who knows good advice when he hears it and has the good sense to find ONE advisor who he can turn to. Bringing us back to baseball, it's like Joe Torre with Don Zimmer. Cubs and Red Sox fans know very well that Zim isn't the best guy in the world to run a team on his own, but if you take his unconventional thoughts and make them available to a leader with an uncanny ability to take good advice and leave the rest, the results can be remarkable. Zimmer has made Joe Torre an excellent manager. The right advisor can make a politician with an ear for good advice President.

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To sum up, I think it is a serious matter when a political campaign has too many advisors giving contradictory advice and the candidate doesn't know how to cut through it. Look at what a mess the State Dept. vs. Defense war has had on Bush foreign policy. It's a President's job to create a decision making structure. A political campaign is the first test of this person's ability to filter out the noise of leadership.

Early this week, all the news reports were about the conflict and noise in the Clark campaign. Then all of a sudden a leak appears about how the Kerry campaign is going through the same troubles. This story just happened to be about how a Chris Lehane speech wasn't used by Kerry. Lehane, that same day, is seen looking for an apartment in Little Rock (no doubt because he had a job interview with Tyson's Chicken, I'm sure.) Coincidence? Perhaps, but it sure smells like a leak from a disgruntled former employee.

Regardless of the source, the news this week about both Kerry and Clark is troubling. These guys need to take control of their own campaigns, find someone they can trust, and ride that advisor through thick and thin. Howard Dean was fortunate to find Joe Trippi early, but let's not forget that anyone just looking through resumes would have tossed out Trippi with the lunch time takeout. Past success is irrelevant. Political relationships are critical.