Friday, February 06, 2004
An Email Gone Horribly Astray
Look, I've contributed countless hours to the Dean Campaign. Most of the people I met there were folks I would invite to a dinner party, even if I had to sit next to them without requiring a conversational barrier. Smart people, dedicated to the cause they almost invariably left regular lives to join. But I have to be unbridled in my criticism of what's going in HQ as of late. It's not so much that the lunatics are running the asylum. It's that no one wants to admit just which lunatics are in charge. Yesterday's "anything less (than a Wisconsin win) will put us out of this race" drove it home like a prom-date Dad with an overly protective tendency. Sorry - overwrought metaphor. Nonetheless, the point must be made, no matter how painful.
Dean's consequently disavowed himself from making that pronouncement, calling it a brilliant "ploy" that he wouldn't take credit for. I still can't get a straight answer on who's responsible. In the end, it obviously doesn't matter. A decentralized campaign without a clue about strategic approaches to accountability will have many of these episodes. But when the future of your campaign is at stake, you'd think someone with a non-delayed paycheck would have something to say about the text the media was assured to jump on like a 3-yard-line last-second fumble. For those of you keeping score, this one put the Dean Campaign down 15-0 with just a few minutes to go in this season's final game. The people that talk only about the daily fundraising totals will argue this only bolstered the reasons for believing that Dean can come back (the Campaign raised over $700K yesterday based on the aforementioned plea). But those people - while certainly necessary for any Campaign - are complete and utterly overly-optimistic morons.
Am I sounding increasingly harsh? Sorry - I'm just channeling the news as it pours over those few junkies such as myself that pay WAY TOO MUCH attention to such things. Kerry got Gephardt's endorsement today, assuring an impressive victory in labor-strong Michigan this Saturday. Washington's also looking like strong KerryCountry. Maine should have been competitive, but Kerry's got that state essentially wrapped up, too. Then VA and TN vote next Tuesday, where the dynamics will be Kerry vs. the Southern Guys (Edwards and, to a lesser degree, Clark). For Dean to delay the inevitable until the 17th when WI votes seems marginally savvy when you consider all the races he's expected to substantially lose before that time. But the sand in this hourglass is running out.
Look, I've contributed countless hours to the Dean Campaign. Most of the people I met there were folks I would invite to a dinner party, even if I had to sit next to them without requiring a conversational barrier. Smart people, dedicated to the cause they almost invariably left regular lives to join. But I have to be unbridled in my criticism of what's going in HQ as of late. It's not so much that the lunatics are running the asylum. It's that no one wants to admit just which lunatics are in charge. Yesterday's "anything less (than a Wisconsin win) will put us out of this race" drove it home like a prom-date Dad with an overly protective tendency. Sorry - overwrought metaphor. Nonetheless, the point must be made, no matter how painful.
Dean's consequently disavowed himself from making that pronouncement, calling it a brilliant "ploy" that he wouldn't take credit for. I still can't get a straight answer on who's responsible. In the end, it obviously doesn't matter. A decentralized campaign without a clue about strategic approaches to accountability will have many of these episodes. But when the future of your campaign is at stake, you'd think someone with a non-delayed paycheck would have something to say about the text the media was assured to jump on like a 3-yard-line last-second fumble. For those of you keeping score, this one put the Dean Campaign down 15-0 with just a few minutes to go in this season's final game. The people that talk only about the daily fundraising totals will argue this only bolstered the reasons for believing that Dean can come back (the Campaign raised over $700K yesterday based on the aforementioned plea). But those people - while certainly necessary for any Campaign - are complete and utterly overly-optimistic morons.
Am I sounding increasingly harsh? Sorry - I'm just channeling the news as it pours over those few junkies such as myself that pay WAY TOO MUCH attention to such things. Kerry got Gephardt's endorsement today, assuring an impressive victory in labor-strong Michigan this Saturday. Washington's also looking like strong KerryCountry. Maine should have been competitive, but Kerry's got that state essentially wrapped up, too. Then VA and TN vote next Tuesday, where the dynamics will be Kerry vs. the Southern Guys (Edwards and, to a lesser degree, Clark). For Dean to delay the inevitable until the 17th when WI votes seems marginally savvy when you consider all the races he's expected to substantially lose before that time. But the sand in this hourglass is running out.
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