Reply #28: Here's one, if you need it [View All]

[WilliamPitt]

He needs to learn how to be a candidate for national office. In 2004, he ran his campaign as if he were managing his congressional office - totally hands-on micromanagement that required all the pros working his campaign to pass every decision through him. The problem with this was that he was either campaigning, traveling or sleeping 23 1/2 hours a day, requiring important decisions/statements/releases to be delayed for hours or even days until he could find the time to give approval.

A candidate for national office must be prepared to be 'handled.' He or she must allow the pros on the campaign to write the statements and press releases, to get them out in a timely fashion, to keep the campaign abrest with the news of the day and the activities of other candidates. During Kucinich '04, this was impossible because the candidate refused to be managed, and needed every wee decision/statement/release to be vetted personally by him. This is a recipie for total failure, and the frustration felt by his staff watching this happen was volcanic.

A lot of people saw a media conspiracy in the lack of press Dennis got during the '04 campaign. This wasn't true; the press wanted to cover him, we had reporters following us like pilot fish. But because of the approval logjam at the top, releases and statements sometimes were delayed up to 72 hours. The campaign was three steps behind everyone else, and this led to irrelevancy. We'd finally get a statement out on an issue (after waiting for that approval for hours and days), and the press would say "So what? That was three days ago."

If he does it like this again, frankly, he won't be worth supporting. He'll be done before he gets started. He is a good and decent man with amazing ideas, but he needs to learn how to be a candidate. If he doesn't, your energy will be better spent elsewhere.