Items From the Kerry Spot on National Review Online

THREE OMINOUS SIGNS FOR KERRY

Three items to note regarding the rumors of a Kerry shakeup.

One, in the New York Daily News:

Sen. John Kerry is angry at the way his campaign has botched the attacks from the Swift boat veterans and has ordered a staff shakeup that will put former Clinton aides in top positions.
"The candidate is furious," a longtime senior Kerry adviser told the Daily News. "He knows the campaign was wrong. He wanted to go after the Swift boat attacks, but his top aides said no."


If that is the case, Kerry looks astoundingly weak, as he his subordinating his judgment to the judgment of his staff. The Daily News also states, "Democratic insiders have been saying for weeks that communications director Stephanie Cutter and media consultant and strategist Bob Shrum are two top aides who need to be replaced."

Two, from CNN:

Democratic leaders, increasingly concerned that John Kerry's presidential campaign is adrift, are urging the presidential nominee to make changes in his staff before Labor Day, according to some party sources...
Much of the Democrats' criticism — which is coming from donors, top strategists and elected officials — was directed at Mary Beth Cahill, who was hired to run Kerry's campaign after the senator fired campaign manager Jim Jordan in late 2003. Democrats are also urging the candidate to overhaul his media strategy, led by communications director Stephanie Cutter.

There's no indication that Kerry will fire Cahill or Cutter, or change their titles...

Several campaign officials and advisers say they recognize the need to have an "adult" traveling with the candidate — as one put it, "someone who can tell him to shut up, or change something if and when that is necessary" and quickly deal with other strategic issues from the road.


Again - how bad is it when people on Kerry's own staff say he needs someone to tell him to shut up? Oddly, from the earlier source, Kerry makes it sound like his own staff is telling him to shut up all the time, and not letting him speak his mind. Three, in the Note, attributed to the Washington Post's Howard Kurtz:

"James Carville, a commentator and former Clinton strategist, said he told senior Kerry aides that they badly needed 'someone who can drive a communications message.' Describing what he called the campaign's sluggish responses and muddled message, Carville said, 'They're a perpetual committee listening to a perpetual focus group, and it's got to change.'"

"A perpetual committee listening to a perpetual focus group"? Jumpin' Jehosaphat, could a Bush attack ad be any tougher on Kerry? Run Carville's quote and then ask the viewer, "Can America afford having a leadership team described this way by Kerry's own political allies while we're fighting the war on terror?"

Still no word from my guy on the Kerry campaign about this shakeup talk. This may not mean much; I'm sure this is the kind of topic he (or she) would not want to talk about, on or off the record.