Posted on 04/17/2008 5:06:26 PM PDT by 2ndDivisionVet
For reasons of financial necessity, personal preference and plain politics, John McCain is gearing up to run one of the least traditional presidential campaigns in recent history.
The problem is that even prominent strategists within McCains own party wonder if his unorthodox strategy will work.
Facing the prospect of competing against a Democrat who is on track to shatter every fundraising record and confronted by his own inability to rake in large bundles of cash McCain and his key advisers have largely been forced into devising a three-pronged strategy that they hope can turn their general election weaknesses into strengths.
McCain will lean heavily on the well-funded Republican National Committee. He will merge key functions of his campaign hierarchy with the RNC while also relying on an unconventional structure of 10 regional campaign mangers.
And finally and perhaps most importantly McCain will rely on free media to an unprecedented degree to get out his message in a fashion that aims to not only minimize his financial disadvantage but also drive a triangulated contrast among himself, the Democratic nominee and President Bush.
McCain advisers acknowledge they have little choice but to seek free entry into the media marketplace, as they have no chance of matching Barack Obama or Hillary Rodham Clinton in a dollar-for-dollar ad war, given that the Arizona senators fundraising totals pale in comparison to both his prospective opponents and the Bush-Cheney political machine.
But aides also hope they can turn necessity into virtue and argue that by facing tough questions from reporters on his bus each day and potentially even tougher ones from audience members at frequent town hall meetings, McCain will demonstrate how hes different from two politicians who are far less accessible.
People in the country are in a very bad mood, and they want to have change, says Steve Schmidt, a senior adviser to McCain. And the first place they evaluate change is through the prism of what kind of campaigns candidates are running. Voters will have an indication of the different kind of presidency he would preside over by looking at his campaign.
Mark Salter, another top aide to McCain, says Obama is running one buttoned-up, conventional campaign.
Is new politics just stadium-sized crowds and lots of money? he asks.
But the tactics arent solely meant to portray the Democratic candidates as distant and McCain as grounded.
McCain aides also want to paint their guy as different from an unpopular administration that prefers secrecy to transparency and friendly crowds to unpredictable ones.
Sen. McCain believes every American should participate in the arena, and that includes people that dont agree with him, Schmidt says, taking care to note that such unscripted exchanges have waned in the last decade.
Additionally, McCain and his advisers want to pursue voters that look different than the bare majority coalition that Bush put together twice.
Were running a campaign that is not designed to get 50-plus-1 percent of the vote, says Schmidt.
Even if they cant win in places such as California or inner cities both of which McCain will stop in during his different-sort-of-Republican tour starting this week they want to send a signal that he intends to at least compete for nearly every vote.
You want to make sure that you tailor the campaign to the candidate and not other way around, said Charlie Black, a top adviser. And McCain sincerely believes in campaigning everywhere.
But McCains campaign plan is as much about pragmatism as it is perception, despite efforts by his campaign team to create the notion that they are taking this route of their own free will.
First, his advisers can read polls and recognize the daunting right track/wrong track polling headwind that is gusting in their face.
Differences between Bush and McCain will be discussed at great length, promises one aide.
Hell be direct about it. Hes never gratuitous, never disrespectful, but there are going to be policy breaks where it couldnt be clearer. Two areas of difference McCain will highlight: global warming and spending.
And, quite practically, McCain doesnt have much choice but to run a campaign that differs from the Bush model, given his lagging fundraising performance.
It is true well be outspent, concedes Black. But between the RNC and McCain, well raise enough money.
Indeed, to help counter their money deficit, McCain strategists now suggest that the proper comparison should be between the combined assets of the campaign and the RNC and that of their opponent and the far less flush DNC.
The McCain camp is funded jointly is how one adviser describes it.
By taking federal funds something they intend to do, campaign manager Rick Davis told a closed-door meeting of chiefs of staff on Capitol Hill last week McCain will receive $84 million.
That money, McCain aides say, will be bolstered by the $20 million in coordinated funds that they can legally direct the RNC to spend on anything they want.
Further, theyll rely on the committee-campaign joint Victory Fund run out of the RNC, which allows contributions of up to $28,500 per person far more than the $2,300 donors can give to individual candidates.
The Victory dollars will go into the states and be used to hire staffers, who in some cases will serve as the de facto McCain aides.
Other elements of the campaign, such as those tasked with developing coalitions and lining up surrogates, will also be placed at the RNC to save on overhead.
Those functions that can legally be done at either [the campaign or RNC], well err on the side of doing them at the RNC, Black says. The whole thing is under one umbrella in the way we are budgeting.
So instead of hiring a traditional political director and field director at the headquarters, for example, theyve so far effectively merged the functions between Davis deputy at the campaign, Christian Ferry, RNC adviser and former Rudy Giuliani chief Mike DuHaime, and the regional managers themselves.
The 10 regional managers, the last of which are being hired this week, will have both autonomy over and responsibility for the key elements of the campaign in their area: the political and field operation, relations with state and local media, and fundraising.
Some will have just a couple of states, while others will have as many as six; the average will be about five. To spread the wealth, there will be at least one targeted and genuinely competitive state in each region.
Theyll have a daily phone call with McCains Arlington, Va., headquarters and answer directly to Davis. If Davis is absent, Ferry will ride herd. DuHaime will offer guidance from his role at the RNC.
The hope is to give these aides complete hiring and budget authority for their regions to make for a more responsive and agile campaign. As Davis told Hill aides last week, the goal is to have 80 percent of the structure in the field and 20 percent back at headquarters.
You can get better service, better coordination and, most importantly, get decisions made much more quickly if its done in the states, argues Frank Donatelli, deputy chairman of the RNC and the chief liaison between the committee and the McCain campaign.
We have some confidence in it, because its kind of the way we got nominated, adds Black. Our people were out in the states. By definition, people in New Hampshire and South Carolina had a lot of authority.
There has, however, been much private grumbling in the ranks of Republican operatives that such a decentralized plan, the campaign equivalent of federalism, will inevitably prove unrealistic and have to be scaled back.
First, says one prominent GOP strategist, Davis wont be able to directly oversee regional aides with all the other responsibilities that come with running a campaign. And further, says this source, delegating so much decision-making authority to different individuals will lead to mixed results. There are some things campaigns are going to do everywhere because they work and are fundamental to the campaign, says the strategist.
In every campaign, some people perform up to expectations, and some people dont, Black said by way of tamping down such criticism. If some [regional campaign managers] dont perform well, of course theyll get more supervision.
Other Republicans suggest McCain is overcompensating for his top-heavy early campaign last year, which went broke and forced him to the brink before his improbable comeback.
The Mehlman campaign style of 04 would never work for him, and the beginning of the campaign proved that, noted another GOP operative with ties to Bushworld. But I just dont know if this is realistic why experiment in such a large-scale way?
McCain strategists insist their paradigm can work. And the sour national climate for the GOP, McCains limited money supply and his preference for an impromptu campaign style that he can take to all parts of the country mean there is no other option but to break the mold, says one aide.
To run a normal, typical race like a normal, typical Republican, we would win 45 percent of the popular vote and 189 electoral votes, this aide says. You cant just go to Columbus.
Dream on. The media will turn against McCain the minute the Democrat winner is announced. He will get NO favorable publicity from them, only attacks.
And the conservative blogosphere is unlikely to give him much support, either.
It's not surprising that he is merging his campaign with the RNC. He is the RNC candidate, and now they're stuck with him.
And finally and perhaps most importantly McCain will rely on free media to an unprecedented degree
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Where has all that boot-licking free media been since Huckabee dropped out ,, NOWHERE ... the mainstream media will give him coverage all right ,, as part of Hillary’s attack message.
I don’t know how he will get the grass roots support to go into the local party headquarters and make all those GOTV calls. I know I won’t be there.
I may do it just to keep Barack Hussein Obama out of the White House. See my tagline...
Well, I just got my nightly call from the RNC begging for money. I mean, literally begging. I said “Nope”, sorry, I’m targeting because the RNC has done such a poor job for the Republican Party. More begging. Thank God somebody called and I hung up on her.
That seems right.
Well, the way I see it, if Osadam Hussian and Hitliarry can be the rat nominee, maybe we need 4 yrs of communism to wake people up! The turn coat Jaun McCain will never get my vote. He screwed us and himself!
I have caller ID. That gets my vote for the best calling feature ever invented.
What a load of horse do do!
First with the distrust that conservatives have for the MSM how in the world does MSM engineer such a thing. Whether you like it or not McCain got the votes and the nomination.
The weakest candidate? I don't know what little world you live in, but that is just not true. Unlike you I will state that as my opinion, not just a fact because I say so.
Never another dollar to the country club Republicans, never.
McQueeg and the RNC get the "Gringo de Mexico" peso from me.
I have caller ID also. It tells me “unknown number”, but I can’t let it ring because my husband retires very early and he is not well. So I have to answer the thing. Most of the time I just hang up on them. Somehow I got roped into arguing with her. Probably because I’ve heard too much from the Rats today and I’m frustrated that we don’t have a candidate to defeat them.
Rudy will be his VP choice. Does that blow your skirt up?
“Rudy will be his VP choice. Does that blow your skirt up?”
Please don’t say that. The thought is...awful. A strong Conservative this time around would make Reagan-Mondale look like a tea party. Of all the years to have a weak Rep. candidate...DAMN IT
... Boy this sounds just like the Picture... The "CREW" seem to be getting ready for the final push....
Me either: and this will be the first election since 1976 that all I did for the Republican candidate was to vote for him.
IOW, conservatives are voting with their pocketbooks...or in this case NOT voting with their pocketbooks.
Just the free market at work. Conservatives will prudently donate to candidates who share their values, plus have a decent chance of winning.
And a damn good tagline it is.
Were you alive during the Carter administration? Can we afford that, or worse?
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