WP: Loss Leader: Kerry adviser Shrum 0 for 7 in pres. elections (1 for 7)

[DeepModem Mom]

Loss Leader
At 0-7, Adviser Bob Shrum Is Well Acquainted With the Concession Speech

By Mark Leibovich
Washington Post Staff Writer
Friday, September 10, 2004; Page C01


...Talk of the (Shrum) Curse becomes rampant when Shrum's candidates sputter. And Kerry is sputtering, down nine points in a new Washington Post poll after leading Bush for much of the summer. His campaign has been called listless and unfocused, words that were also applied to Shrum's last presidential enterprise, the Gore campaign (a forbidden comparison within Kerry headquarters)....

***

As Kerry's campaign mishandled the controversy over his service on a Navy Swift boat in Vietnam and Republicans ridiculed him at their convention last week -- apparently to good effect -- critics started to rehash old complaints about Shrum. They say he relies too heavily on populist rhetoric, that his comfortable position inside the Beltway made him slow to recognize the potency of the ads purchased by the Swift boat group, that his aggressiveness led to backbiting within the campaign....

***

With the Kerry campaign consumed by problems after the convention,...several leading Democrats have pointedly criticized Shrum in recent weeks. Bill Clinton adviser and CNN commentator James Carville harpooned Shrum relentlessly to reporters at the Republican convention last week. Clinton himself was critical of the campaign's reluctance to attack Bush -- a position Shrum had advocated -- in a phone call to Kerry while he awaited surgery in a New York hospital, according to a source with knowledge of the call. Shrum's brand of old-style liberalism -- steeped in the tradition of his political patron, Ted Kennedy -- is anathema to the centrist, New Democrat ethic that got Clinton elected twice....

***

As part of a shake-up of his campaign, Kerry last week elevated the role of John Sasso, a Massachusetts operative with long ties to Kerry. Sasso will now serve as Kerry's chief adviser on the road, a role that, unofficially, had been Shrum's. Kerry's expanding team also includes former Clinton aides Joe Lockhart and Joel Johnson, and increasingly, Carville and Paul Begala. There is a belief among people close to Kerry that the "Clintonistas," as they are sometimes called, will provide a fresh blast of energy for a campaign that had become inert....

(The "Clintonistas," according to the article, also bring "credibility" because they have won presidential elections.)


http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A9895-2004Sep9.html

[trumad]

1. LOL.... Karl Rove is 0 for 1

bfd

[Leilani]

2. Do you think the next Dem candidate

should pass on hiring Shrum?

[Spinzonner]

3. Nope. He won in 2000

Steals by the Supreme Court (or the Florida Legislature if the SC hadn't) don't gount against him.

[DeepModem Mom]

5. You raise a point of fact -- WP should correct to 1 for 7 nt

[DeepModem Mom]

6. Edited subject line

[JI7]

4. he won in 2000

[Democat]

7. At least the DU "archair strategists" are 0/0 not 0/7!

:)

[DeepModem Mom]

8. Begging your pardon! I once managed a successful campaign...

for a candidate for a seat on a county board (which, admittedly, had quite a large number of seats) --

;-)

[virtualobserver]

9. shrum is an idiot

I base my opinion on what I saw in his television appearances.
He was a bumbling clueless man.

I was horrified when I saw that he was an advisor to Kerry.
This shows me that Kerry knows how to make the proper adjustments.

I'm very encouraged.

[bambo53]

10. Well, this certainly explains a lot to me.

I thought I had experienced this confusing and frustrating campaigning style before, and I kept wondering why the hell I kept seeing Donna Brazile and the like on TV apologizing and retracting every semi meaningful statement a Democrat made.

These campaigns against Bush should be a hayride of a rout, and yet Kerry chose a lackluster team of proven losers right out of the gate. This election, like the last one, should not even be close.

I'm well aware that Gore got 600,000 more votes than Bush in 2000, but I'm also painfully aware of just who's in the White House and how much damage he's done in 4 short years. What was the point in rerunning a losing strategy.

Kick these people to the curb and feed the new handlers some raw meat & a megaphone. Let's win something for a change

[Placebo]

11. Exactly.

THANK YOU jebus for some other sane person! :pals:

[gulfcoastliberal]

14. Agreed

You don't go into what is universally acknowledged as the most vicious, nasty campaign ever acting like Mr. Nice Guy while your opponents mug you left and right. Lets not be victims people. Lets get the truth out about these thugs.

Lets make like Truman:

"I don't give them Hell, I just give them the truth, and they think its Hell."

Harry S. Truman

[lancdem]

15. I guess Kerry didn't consider Shrum's track record

before hiring him. Not smart.

[lancdem]

17. I was wondering who was behind the "high road" strategy

that has worked so beautifully. <sarcasm> Now I know.

[yardwork]

12. I'm pleased with Kerry's leadership. He is making needed adjustments

That's a good sign of strength and confidence on his part.

[rpannier]

13. Shrum's a Loser

He was the one who decided that Gore should make the 2000 campaign about policies and ignore scrubbies pitiful record. Shrum's idiotic decisions most likely cost Gore West Virginia and the White House. He needed to go.

[freedom_to_read]

16. this is more BS masquerading as journalism

jeez, WaPo is really coming out today.

the Kerry camapaign is now "sputtering" and "consumed with problems," requiring a "shakeup" because it has become "inert."

there's a word for this: editorializing.

this what the "press" loves to do. rather than providing the American people with the facts they need to make an intelligent decision, they just fill bandwidth with this tripe. turn the election from a national discussion of real issues into a sporting event. take polls that -- methodological problems aside -- are WAY to early to determine anything, and make every gain for Bush look HUGE and minimize every positive indicator for Kerry. it's just a horserace -- rah, rah, everyone wants to bet on the winning horse.

then judge candidates based on their performance in this farce. if he's behind in the polls it must be because a bad leader.

don't fall for it. Kerry is going to keep on doing what he's been doing -- hammering Bush for not knowing how to govern. WaPo can pound sand.

[SoCalDem]

18. Personally, I object to the "loose-lip" nature of the whole campaign

Shrum does not impress me much, but then MOST of them do not impress me.. I wish they would take their counsel PRIVATELY, and QUIT running to the press to announce every bathroom break, and what they all had for lunch..

Campaigns should be like sausage... tasty, but not to be viewed in the making..

Do football teams exchange playbooks before the game???