So, uhhh, Dean hired Al Gore's campaign manager.......

[ShaneGR]

I would like to hear Dean people defend this move. In 2000 the Gore campaign ran one of the worst campaigns ever. They succeeded in ignoring states they had a great chance in, like Ohio, and managed to lose the candidates home state.

I respect what the Dean campaign managed to do, energizing its supporters and Democrats as a whole. Even though it appears the campaign isn't going all the way, I'm still happy that the Dean campaign has been involved.

But, is this what the Dean people envisioned?

[liberalnurse]

1. I'm fine with the selection.

I really trust Dr. Dean. The campaign grew so quickly, and so big....I can appreciate the experience of Neill.

[bitchkitty]

2. Me too -

although I wish Joe Trippi had stayed on in some capacity.

[On the Road]

11. If Neel Engineered Gore's Comeback After Labor Day

he could be the perfect choice.

Yes, it's a move of desperation and it's appropriate.

Yes, Dean should have been saying and doing certain things differently. But that comes about from a dialogue with top campaign officials. Trippi should have been telling Dean for weeks:

"Now is the time to settle down, stress your executive experience, talk about domestic and economic issues. Become someone who undecided and moderate voters can feel comfortable with. Stop being an attack dog. Appear electable and presidential."

Not making this change is the joint responsibility of Dean and Trippi. It's too late now that Dean is no longer the front runner. It's perfectly appropriate to hire someone who may have some ideas on how to do damage control and turn this thing around.

Dean has a great message and is a great candidate. His strategy and tactics worked a year ago, but have cost him the longer the campaign has gone on.

[brainshrub]

3. The problem with Gore's campaign was Gore.

That won't be a problem with the Dean.

[lurk_no_more]

4. It doesn't matter

The man can just do no wrong!


And then there were none!
” JAFO”

[dsc]

5. No he didn't

Gore's campaign manager was Donna Brazile. She is a black female. Dean hired a guy.

[patmacsf]

It sure does matter

Dean waged his campaign as the non-Washington candidate. The man who wasn't tainted by the business as usual politics and that's what his campaign manager turned into the Dean-juggernaut.

Now, when Iowa and New Hampshire get bamboozled, Dean quickly jettisons the architect of his plan for an inside-the-beltway veteran of many, many years. Shameful! Dean is toast.

[ant]

7. I disagree

I think you can work in politics for a long time and still believe, just like you can be brand new and still be a tool. What matters is what you've been doing, not how long you've been doing it for.

That being said, I don't know much about this guy or what his plan for the Dean campaign is, but on the surface, the very act of hiring an "insider" doesn't strike me as hurting Dean's message that we need a candidate free from corporate control. You can't win with a campaign run by only amateurs. You need people who know the system and can help you play the game effectively. I know purists often see that as selling out, but changing the system from the inside requires people who know how the system works.

Whether this character is a wise choice, well...only time will tell.

[patmacsf]

6. It sure does matter

Dean waged his campaign as the non-Washington candidate. The man who wasn't tainted by the business as usual politics and that's what his campaign manager turned into the Dean-juggernaut.

Now, when Iowa and New Hampshire get bamboozled, Dean quickly jettisons the architect of his plan for an inside-the-beltway veteran of many, many years. Shameful! Dean is toast.

[genius]

8. Gore's campaign did not do him justice.

Bad idea.

[frustrated_lefty]

9. Am I happy? No.

Is it what I envisioned? No.

Dean, however, DID have to make a change. And I can armchair quarterback all I want, but I am sorely tested to think of something he could have done which would be better.

He cannot run 10-20% behind Kerry in every state, something had to change. It will be a deemed, in hindsight, as an act of brilliance or as an act of stupidity and that judgment will be based entirely on hindsight.

[DJcairo]

10. Donna Brazile was Gore's manager, this neel guy was an aide

[AP]

12. I wonder if this guy was the one who brought us Joe Lieberman

and other wonderful strategies, like not asking for a statewide recount in the first phase of the recount?

[dsc]

13. From what you yourself have posted in the past

you know the answer to that question. Lieberman did the military ballots as an ad lib of his own and the lawyers decided on the strategy. Both were in Tapper's book from which you have posted several times.

[AP]

14. I quote Toobin's book, which doesn't say

who's advice Gore was taking when he picked Lieberman. Re the statewide recount, it just says he didn't take the advice of the professional experts (lawyers) he hired to tell him what to do. Again, it doesn't say whose advice he listened too (lawyers or otherwise).

I don't think I mentioned Lieberman's military ballot thing. Reading Toobin, you get the sense this was Lieberman's own invention.

[gauguin57]

15. gore's problem

was listening to his daughter and to Naomi Wolf (who was on an ego trip, big time). He got bad advice, and he got stubborn about certain things that could have helped him.

That, and the fact that the Bush Crime Family wouldn't have let him have the White House under any circumstances, anyway. Bastards.

Don't know how I feel about the new campaign manager. It's a little scary changing horses after the voting's begun.