Positive Analysis Of Top Staff Resignations From McCain’s Campaign

Just a little more than a week after John McCain’s campaign announced that they would be reducing their payroll by cutting staff due to lack of resources resulting from a lackluster fundraising quarter, additional campaign shakeups were announced today: McCain’s Campaign Manager, Terry Nelson, and Chief Strategist, John Weaver, have resigned effective immediately.  Shortly after their announcement, it was also announced that Rob Jesmer, Political Director, and Reed Galen, Deputy Campaign Manager, would also be leaving McCain.  Additionally, Mark Salter, a close staffer to McCain, will be scaling back his role in the campaign to that of an unpaid adviser.

Rick Davis, a longtime aid to McCain, will be taking over the campaign.  And as with most stories, there’s certainly more to it than you’d think.  The majority of strategists, political analysts and pundits out there will spring to their computers in order to write the next “McCain Doomsday” piece or (staying biblical) “McCain Exodus” story (as Drudge is calling it).  Prudency and logic simply prevent me from following suit, but don’t get me wrong I’m not saying this is good.

Let’s start with what we know…

1. We know that the McCain campaign has been riddled with division at its top levels.  Those who philosophically fall in line with Davis, who ran McCain’s operations in 2000 and those who philosophically fall in line with Nelson.  These tensions have been escalating over the past few months, especially in light of the fact that McCain would not give Nelson the kind of authority that he demanded.
2. We also know that the campaign has been poorly run since its inception.  They overestimated how much money they would be able to raise, they ran a luxury campaign when they only had enough money for an economy campaign, they squandered huge amounts of cash on things they didn’t need (like massive amounts of internet advertising…as if people didn’t know who John McCain was), they failed to really deal with McCain’s unpopular position on the Iraq war, their handling of the immigration saga was disastrous…
3. We also know that McCain didn’t try and stop Nelson and Weaver from leaving (the nonpolitical term for this is “good riddance).

Now, given all the aforementioned, is it really such a bad thing that the guys at the top are leaving?  Now, I recognize that it doesn’t look good when a campaign’s top staff resign; I do.  But, consider the alternative of continuing to drag on with a divided staff and a bootleg operation.  Not only would that look bad, but it would demonstrate prolonged bad judgment on the part of McCain.  Whether or not Nelson and Weaver resigned completely on their own, were fired or (and most likely) were pushed to resign is really irrelevant at this point.  All their resignation tells us is that up until this point McCain’s campaign hasn’t been run well and either they or McCain were fed up with the status quo.  Well guess what?  We already knew that the campaign wasn’t doing well before their resignations.

Nelson and Weaver’s departure offer an opportunity for optimism within the campaign and amongst McCain’s supporters.  If Davis can heal the wounds of division within the campaign and reconstitute McCain’s ground operation, the new energy in the campaign could generate political momentum for McCain.  Indeed, there are a lot of “ifs” in that scenario.  From my perspective, I can’t understand why folks are so eager to now say that McCain’s campaign is over (other than the fact that it’s sensational and draws readers) when his campaign actually does something positive by ridding itself of people that have been messing up.  Don’t get me wrong, I’m not predicting a massive McCain resurgence, but it’s certainly more likely now than it was under the previous situation.

Not all of the blame is on Nelson and Weaver, of course.  John McCain has not been a very effective candidate thus far; this is something that made Nelson’s job tougher and is something that Davis will have to contend with as well.  It’s somewhat ironic and telling that on the day of these resignations, McCain delivered a speech on the floor of the Senate, where he stated that the current surge in Iraq was working and that withdrawal of troops would lead to failure [video].  Davis will not only need to manage a fledgling campaign operation, but he’ll also need to get McCain on board with some changes, if he has any hope of salvaging this campaign.

I realize that John McCain has an uphill battle.  Outside of his campaign issues, he has serious problems as a candidate and with his policies/positions on a few critical issues.  However, at this point, I urge caution.  What’s the point of saying that McCain’s campaign is over, when his campaign is just in beginning stages of what could be a new and effective strategy?

[Update] Political Realm also a post that looks at the positives of these resignations.  

[Photo Credit: Uncorrelated.com]

Related at 2008Central.net:

• The Inevitable John McCain Shakeup is Finally Here (7/2/07)
• Is Tom Ridge Abandoning McCain? (6/30/07)