Ed Gillespie hire indicates the Mitt Romney campaign can't get it together

[ProSense]

Ed Gillespie hire indicates the Mitt Romney campaign can't get it together

by brooklynbadboy

One of the unreported stories of this cycle is how awful the Romney campaign operation is at driving a message and setting the agenda on matters of policy and selling the candidate as a suitable alternative to President Obama.
A great deal of the problem is Mitt Romney himself. He's just not a very good politician. He's gaffe prone. He's got a terrible presence. No sense of timing. He isn't likeable. He's a serially obvious liar, moreso than what one expects in a politician. He's milquetoast. I think it's obvious to all that if Romney were not up against a nincompoop and a has-been, he'd get creamed by a real heavyweight politician of even average ability. Like John McCain.

The campaign operation itself, however, seems to be equally stumblebum. You'll note how they've managed to consistently failed to amplify the candidate's message even when he sticks to the script. Or the way they've bungled the primary campaign by allowing Rick Santorum, a used-up big time loser with no money and no organization to give them a run for their money. Or the way they step on their own candidate by leaking to the press how weak a performer Romney is. Or having the campaign manager end up giving the nation a metaphor for the candidate in the form of a child's toy from the 1960s. Or, and this is big, how they've failed to build any significant amount of ground organization for the general election during the primary process despite the candidate traveling around the country for six years.

I was once of the opinion that this bunch was ready for a seriously contested general election, but now I know for sure that they are not. Today's announcement that Ed Gillespie is going to be running things from now on is a big tell.

The Romney Campaign is trying to spin this hire with statements like this:

The addition of Gillespie, a well-regarded operative with deep congressional, campaign and White House experience, comes amid some grumbling from Republican insiders that Romney has an overly insular campaign. The gripe is that Boston’s senior staff, filled with veterans of Romney’s last presidential run, has been too resistant to including outside voices.

Gillespie is not displacing anyone in Romney’s orbit but augmenting a campaign that was purposefully kept lean during the primary. The strategist is close to campaign manager Matt Rhoades and political director Rich Beeson from their days at the RNC and worked with Romney message gurus Stuart Stevens and Russ Schriefer on President George W. Bush’s campaigns.

- more -

http://www.dailykos.com/story/2012/04/05/1080904/-Gillespie-hire-indicates-the-Romney-campaign-can-t-get-it-together

[madokie]

1. What worries me with them is the win at any cost attitude the pukes have

They control the voting machines and sooner or later they will figure out how to throw even a wide margin, election.
They are desperate and getting more so every day. Dangerous like a cornered wild animal is.