Posted on 09/06/2004 1:24:46 AM PDT by Liz
Candidate under pressure from Democrats to climb out of slump and regain initiative
PITTSBURGH -- Under fire to shape up his presidential campaign, Democratic challenger John Kerry yesterday tapped two veteran party strategists from Boston to assume top roles in an operation that has been criticized by Democratic allies for allowing President Bush to regain the initiative in the battle for the White House.
Campaign officials said John Sasso, who has been running general election operations at the Democratic National Committee, will now become the senior Kerry adviser aboard the candidate's traveling charter until the election. Michael Whouley, who helped rescue Kerry's campaign in Iowa during the nomination battle, will take over Sasso's responsibilities at the DNC, reprising the role he played for Al Gore four years ago.
Kerry advisers described the moves as long planned and part of an overall effort to put the strongest possible team together for the final 60 days of the campaign. But the decisions, which caught some staff members at the campaign and DNC by surprise, were seen by other Democrats as an acknowledgment by Kerry that his campaign needed help in the wake of the most difficult month he has endured since winning the nomination last spring.
Those Democrats said Kerry had been slow to respond to criticisms and the campaign appeared to be sluggish in some of its decision-making. They predicted the changes would bring greater focus to the Democratic nominee's campaign.
Kerry advisers said they planned a much more aggressive campaign in the final two months, with Kerry and vice presidential nominee John Edwards leading the attack, and that restructuring at the campaign and the DNC will help in drawing a sharper contrast with Bush and Vice President Dick Cheney.
(Excerpt) Read more at nj.com ...
Bush took advantage of both problems and then used his New York convention last week to hammer Kerry as unreliable on national defense and to present himself as the candidate best able to keep the country safe against terrorism. The first two polls taken after Bush's convention, by Time and Newsweek, showed an immediate boost, with Kerry trailing by 11 percentage points in both -- the largest deficit either candidate has suffered in the campaign. Kerry campaign officials said their internal polls also put Bush in the lead, but by a narrower margin.
Wasn't this one of Karl Rove's top signs of blood in the water?
The thing is, and the press is ignoring it, Kerry cannot even run a good campaign, yet we are supposed to believe he could be president at a time when we're at war with terrorism all over the globe. He fights with all his fellow vets, yet we are supposed to believe he could run diplomacy for the nation. He's been acting like a spoiled and entitled child ever since the swiftvets called him on his Vietnam War stories, yet we are to believe he could handle the pressures of being president. The man is desperate and ridiculous wishing to be president, but he cannot even be a decent person when he deals with secret service agents and other people too plain for the GREAT man.
On the cruise ship, Kool-Aid,,,,,,,,the chairs are shuffled.
Yet another fumble by Kerry. Rather than pick one person to run the whole shebang, he brings in Sasso to be "Senior Adult" on Kerry's campaign plane, while leaving Cahill to run the show on the ground. I'm sure there will be lots of fun phone calls between the two for the next 60 days! This is supposed to help him compress his decision loop and respond better?
He bringing people in but i dont see him letting anybody go
Too many cooks
BAD SIGN
Uhhh, sure. Look there goes another flying pig!!!!!
Whistling past the graveyard. Let's have more of this "reshuffling," shall we? (laughing)
Yep.
"We choose to ignore the rudeness of our inquistor for daring to ask us a question, for we are the queen, and such impertinence is not to be allowed from the unwashed masses."
I swear, I heard Kerry think it during one speech. If I had to bet, Te-RAY-za has SAID it.
It is the typical liberal response, hire more people.
>>The thing is, and the press is ignoring it, Kerry cannot even run a good campaign, yet we are supposed to believe he could be president at a time when we're at war with terrorism all over the globe
Why isn't the Bush camp saying what you said? That's a good line.
>>Americas POW's were being tortured while listening to tapes of John "Traitor" Kerry calling them baby killers.
Listening to John Kerry IS torture !!
Spin, spin, spin.
He bringing people in but i dont see him letting anybody go
I can think of three possible reasons for this.
1.) He can state that he's already 'creating jobs', and use this as evidence that he should be president.
2.) Has more people to blame for his failures.
3.) It keeps disgruntled, ex-campaign staff from making the rounds on the talk shows telling all of the 'dirty laundry'.
Like re-arranging the deck chairs on the Titanic.
Kerry considers himself the rightful heir to the presidency. Kerry's arrogant "sense of entitlement" is a disturbing pre-Revolutionary war image, ala King George IV, that Kerry is totally oblivious to.
Kerry has been planning and scheming to "wear the crown" for so long that he goes ballistic when the rest of America doesn't see it his way.
His arrogance is apparent in that he actually thought he was going to get away with ascending to the presidency on the basis of his Viet service without any questions being raised.
When leftist cartoonists start running pictures of the USS Kerry sinking ala titanic, THEN it might be something. I think this is to lull us into a false sense of confidence.
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