Oh Will Pitt... they're talking about you...

[helderheid]

http://newsbusters.org/node/9645

*sigh*

"Dennis Kucinich Presidential Kickoff Buried Under Avalanche Of Media Obama Worship
Posted by P.J. Gladnick on December 13, 2006 - 17:18.

Talk about bad timing. Dennis Kucinich yesterday announced that he will be running for the Democrat presidential nomination in '08 and almost no one noticed. No wonder. It was impossible for Kucinich to get the least bit of attention focused on himself because most of the media was in the midst of an orgy of Obama worship even though the junior Senator from Illinois hasn't even officially announced that he is running for president. In case you think things couldn't get any worse for the Kucinich campaign, they do. The day before Kucinich made his announcement that almost no one noticed, his former press secretary made a startling confession of personal incompetence and declared that Kucinich might not be qualified to become president because he was clueless enough to hire a press secretary with absolutely no ability such as himself. In case you think this is a skit for a comedy show, it's not. You can read for yourself the confession of incompetence by William Rivers Pitt at the Democratic Underground:"

[Hosnon]

1. Pitt is Kucinich's press secretary? nt.

[helderheid]

2. was n/t

[Hosnon]

5. What happened? nt.

[KoKo]

17. If you read the linked article, it quotes Pitt as to what happened.....n/t

[question everything]

25. Here

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=364x2899813

[Radical Activist]

7. After Jeff Cohen

and some other people. There was a high turnover rate of staff on that campaign.

[Tandalayo_Scheisskopf]

3. The entire staff of NewsBlusters...

Should wish they were as incompetent as the good Mr. Pitt.

After all, did he not write the single most prophetic book on the Iraq war, extant? Hmmm?

[uppityperson]

4. darn that librul press bias anyway. Picture of their header here.

[Radical Activist]

6. LOL Funny but Will has a point.

I missed that thread. Will Pitt was the third for fourth press secretary Kucinich had.

More importantly, look at who he hires as campaign manager. He had two different ones in 2003/04. Neither of them were remotely qualified for the position. Additionally, he drove away or fired the few qualified campaign staff he did manage to hire. His second campaign manager had never worked on a political campaign of any kind at any level. Dennis needs to stop being paranoid and hire someone qualified to manage a campaign. If he can't do that, then his failure will be his own fault and he doesn't deserve the efforts of supporters who take his campaign more seriously than he does.

[LittleClarkie]

8. Can I ask how he chased the competent people away?

What happened?

[Radical Activist]

10. I'd rather

not get into the details of what happened. But those who watched his campaign closely or were part of it saw the few people he started out with who did have real-world campaign experience leave, one after the other. They were generally replaced by people as unqualified as the campaign manager.

If Kucinich hires a qualified campaign manager this time, I might take him seriously. If he hires the same person, or another person who is equally unqualified, then I don't think he is taking his campaign seriously so neither will I.

[badgerpup]

27. Yikes!

This is the same kind of thing that Krazy Katie's Kampaign Follies had happen, isn't it?

And if a guy isn't able to choose competent people to run his election campaign...
I'm not sure I want him in the White House choosing ostensibly 'competent' people for much higher positions.

Been there, done that, thank you very much.

Not saying Kucinich is a bad guy, not at all! :patriot:
But it may be that we need him more, and he can accomplish more and do more good where he is than in the Oval Office.

[KoKo]

12. Do you have a link? Is this your personal experience with him working on

his campaign?

He seemed to do a great job in '04 for a guy that was villified as an "elf, wooden and weird looking." I met him at a big rally and he can really turn on a crowd and he answers questions honestly and is neither as short or weird looking in person as he seems to come off on the Tee Vee Screen.

Maybe he does have problems with campaign managers and he didn't really have the BIG BUCKS to hire the folks that the rest could. He worked himself tirelessly on the campaign trail and maybe MANAGING HIMSELF was the only way he could deal? :shrug: But, I'd like to hear more of your experience with him.

[Radical Activist]

15. I'm not sure that

any of the old stories about his campaign managers are still online. I'm not finding any yet. But, there were several stories when he hired his second campaign manager and they all pointed out that the first had almost zero campaign experience and the second had absolutely zero campaign experience. Yes, he did have the option of choosing someone at least nominally qualified but he preferred people who he felt closer to personally.

Since I'm posting anonymously, any claims I make about personal experience won't have credibility anyway. I would just strongly suggest to anyone supporting Kucinich that they watch who he hires as campaign manager. If he hires another person with no campaign experience as manager and in other top positions it will suggest that he didn't learn from his mistakes in 2004. It will also mean that his campaign will be the organizational disaster it was in 2004 and it will be his own fault when he loses.

Personally, I'm not willing to invest time and money to support him like I did in 2003/04 if he isn't willing to take his campaign seriously enough to hire a decent manager and pick up the phone to raise money, which is another thing he didn't do last time.

[KoKo]

20. okay...thanks for sharing that..

I wonder how he survived just on small donations though. I gave to him and know there were alot of DU'ers who did and many others who supported him. (I also donated and worked on the Campaign for Kerry here while I gave to Kucinich as my "dark horse.") He won three delegates here in NC ...not an easy thing to do in a red state.

He's his own person and that's not a bad thing. He brings alot of issues out that we need to focus on and perhaps that's his cause in life.

I'm really glad he's running because he will speak the truth without "Carville" type handlers shielding him and running him.

In these times it's not a bad thing. :shrug:

[Radical Activist]

24. I do appreciate that Dennis

brings issues into the realm of debate that are otherwise ignored. He'll make a positive contribution in that way and he did have a huge impact on the debates last time. But, unless I see him doing things very differently this time, I'm not going to support him as my first choice again. I wish him well but I'm putting my efforts into someone else.

Kucinich did become a kind of movement candidate that got small donations from many donors across the nation, even after it was clear that Kerry won. That was fairly impressive and it says a lot about what can be done with the internet. The MoveOn.org online primary practically saved his campaign. Dean and Kucinich both got a huge number of small donations after that. It gives me hope for what could be done by a person with progressive ideals who runs a better campaign, is a better fundraiser and is good with the media. I'm fully confident that a progressive can win the nomination and the general election.

[WilliamPitt]

34. "MANAGING HIMSELF"

Any candidate who thinks they can do it all themselves in a national campaign for president of the United States should stay in bed.

[KoKo]

9. hmmm...Freeper Trolls run off and do their dirty work. Trash Kucinich

and yet one wonders if he's that insignificant why would they bother.

[Renew Deal]

13. Weren't you trashing Obama the other day?

Does every DUer have to beatify every democrat?

[KoKo]

16. I reported what Jim Warren of the Chicago Tribune said on C-Span....

regarding Obama's Bio. And, when asked about my quotes I gave the C-Span link to the interview. That's very different from Freeper Trolls commenting on the above linked website trashing Kucinich and making fun of his wife. Go over there and read the comment on the thread.

:shrug:

[Renew Deal]

11. Kucinich is not a serious candidate when it comes to actually winning

So no one serious in the game will latch on to him. They all want to get a WH job and that's not going to happen through Kucinich.

[Lex]

14. *ouch*

for all involved . . .

[Selatius]

18. Look, as much as I agree with Kucinich on the issues, you simply can't win if...

you don't even hire a competent staff. If your senior staff has a higher turnover rate than a McDonald's fast-food joint, something's wrong.

[Radical Activist]

21. Bingo.

Someone like Dennis has a hard enough time getting traction without him screwing it up himself with a horribly disorganized campaign. I met some very good people who worked on Kucinich's campaign staff. Most of them didn't work for him very long.

[Bryan]

19. P.J. Gladnick?

I recognize that name from my Usenet days. Gladnick was a worthless schmuck with a bottomless amount of time to spend on right-wing trolling*. Mr. Pitt shouldn't take this seriously, and neither should anyone else.

*http://tinyurl.com/u9cqb

[devilgrrl]

26. I remember him too...

a total git.

[me b zola]

22. I'd like to point out to the folks @ newsmax....

...that it is perhaps the definition of incompetenece to be reporting on a political story and not know the name of one of the two major US political parties.

[Selatius]

23. Well, shooting the messenger doesn't address the message.

Will Pitt's confessional is very real about working for Kucinich's staff. Pitt had no real experience at all with respect to PR work.

[me b zola]

28. The messenger shot themselves

If an economist were to speak to an issue and not know what a dollar was, I'd say that they were incompetent to speak about the economy. We're not talking about trivial matters, we are talking about basic competence; that was my point. I'd rather not debate whether an incompetent source is right or wrong.

[Fire Walk With Me]

29. Geez. They should read Vaclav Havel's self-depricating, humble self-judgements.

And he governed a nation.

[helderheid]

30. OOGA BOOGA SMOOGA WOOGA!

[Morgana LaFey]

31. Now that's a DU thread I'd like to read -- anyone have a link?

It definitely confirms what I just posted on a Kucinich thread -- that I didn't think he had any executive/managerial ability. Boy, can I nail 'em or what?

[WilliamPitt]

32. It's in my journal

[WilliamPitt]

33. It's the truth.

I was hired to do message work - speeches, press statement fine-tuning, etc. 48 hours after I came on, the press secretary either quit or was fired (still not sure). I got shotgunned into the position even though I'd made it crystal-clear that a) I didn't want that job, and b) I had no experience.

In hindsight, I came to the conclusion that it is amazing (and disturbing, hence the thread referenced above) they kept me on as long as they did. In fact, I was the one who left. Anyone who thinks I am or should be embarrassed about this can think again. I'd like to see anyone with no experience become press secretary for a national campaign and pull it off. If you flap your arms hard enough, maybe you can fly, too. :)

Anyone who wants to read my comments on this can find them in my DU journal.

[Radical Activist]

35. It takes guts for you to say that.

I'm sure some people you worked with and Dennis Kucinich himself won't appreciate it very much. But the truth is that there are several people that worked for Kucinich who are saying the same thing here at DU. It wasn't an isolated incident related to you personally; it was a systemic problem with the campaign.

Dennis would be doing a real disservice to his supporters if he doesn't learn from his mistakes. If he isn't able to do that, then he isn't qualified to be President.

[WilliamPitt]

37. You think?

I feel like this is pretty common knowledge, especially among those who were involved. I'm not really saying anything I haven't said here before. Maybe it's getting attention because Dennis announced again.

Either way, thanks. :)

[helderheid]

42. I second that. I love love LOVE Dennis but he ran a crappy campaign.

[Cameron27]

36. Hell, I'm off to read your journal.

Sounds like a fascinating but (you're right) disturbing situation. What the hell were they thinking; sounds more like a run for Prom King.

Thanks for the info, going to do some reading.

[Jack Rabbit]

41. Will, there's something else about this I've wondered about

When you first announced here two-plus years ago that you were going do some press work for Kucinich, I was wondering then if they were just so short of good people that they had to put a Kerry supporter in a key position.

Did that bother them? How did it strike you?

[WilliamPitt]

43. At the time I was hired,

I wasn't a Kerry supporter, and contrary to the beliefs of some, I wasn't a Kerry person while I worked for the man. So, basically, nice try. Some myths die hard around here, despite the best efforts of the myth-pushers.

[LSK]

38. I'm reading the comments and wondering how people can be so stupid

"The terrorists are going to get us!! The terrorists are going to get us!! The terrorists are going to get us!!"

:eyes:

[WilliamPitt]

39. ?

[LSK]

40. comments on newbusters, not here

:rofl: