Saturday, April 10, 2004

Cracks in the Kerry Campaign

The NYT cites in opinionless fact (a distinction that needs to be made with them) the rapid joining and departure of long-time political hack Howard Wolfson to then from the Kerry campaign.

The reason cited by Wolfson is "[i]t proved difficult to extricate myself from my client responsibilities." The cover story is attacked in their own party - "Democrats expressed surprise that Mr. Wolfson had taken a position running the Kerry campaign's so-called rapid-response operation — a mid-level job he had held earlier in his career — and suggested Mr. Wolfson might have find his responsibilities less than challenging."

C'mon, ladies. Wolfson served on Hillary's and Schumer's campaigns. He knows the commitment, he knows the job, and he knows this time in history. Someone with his experience does not make a mistake in assessing the publicly available and privately disclosed information.

What did he see when he showed up for work the first day? A campaign out of control? Perhaps. A wildly diverse and perhaps volatile group of personalities? Sure. A rat's nest of bad decisions? OK. But those are challenges to be expected in any organization. Any seasoned person knows those problems will be present, the only issue is degree. When Wolfson got up close and personal, he viewed the inner workings of the Kerry machine and saw a completely unfixable situation. Perhaps he even felt misled.

Whatever the specifics, he had but one option: leave. And he did. Within 72 hours.

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