Rumour that John Sasso might take over Kerry campaign

[billbuckhead]

Dukakis and Estrich fired Sasso because he was too mean to Bush Sr.
<http://politicalwire.com/archives/2004/08/31/kerry_weighs_campaign_shake_up.html>

[JI7]

1. anyone know or remember anything about this during that time ?

i was a kid and not paying attention to politics then and don't know and haven't read much about it.

but joe lockhart is a GREAT choice for sure. and he should get more control.

[Rose Siding]

3. Yeah, maybe Lockhart

Sadly, dems excel at wasting other dems but not laying a glove on repubs. Maybe it's all due to the viscious struggle for power within the party. Whatever it is, I don't think highly of any of the primary campaign mgrs.

[Southern Patriot]

2. Could be great news.

I don't have a clue about Sasso but I share Kerry's frustration.

This will be the second major shake up of the Kerry Campaign and it doesn't lead to a lot of faith in his ability to assemble the best and the brightest.

[Connie_Corleone]

6. People said that the first time he shook up his team.

And he won the primaries.

Maybe another shakeup is needed.

[demwing]

15. Thats the negative outlook

the positive is that Kerry is a dynamic leader, willing to shake things up in order reach a goal.

If this is true, it gives me MORE faith in Kerry's ability to lead.

[Southern Patriot]

33. I call it realistic. I was with you after the first shakeup.

Two in one campaign? Getting to be too much of a pattern.

[gristy]

34. Yup. I agree.

I like a flexible leader.

[Skidmore]

4. Estrich, as in Susan Estricth? nt

[quinnox]

5. Might be a good move

Maybe Mary Beth is not the right person in the final crunch time. Get a junkyard dog in there.

[cspiguy]

7. I think Mr. Michael Moore would be a fine Carville type.

n/t

[incapsulated]

8. If this is true...

(That Kerry is pissed), then I'm happy. He's done this before, everyone thought he was desperate, including me, but look at the results. If things need shaking up, and I think they do, at least, then do it.

[WI_DEM]

9. only thing that bothers me

but it is unavoidable but it will start a rash of stories that the Kerry campaign is floundering becuz of the change in command, but Kerry has been thru it before and came out on top.

[John_H]

10. Ruh-roh. Will the hand-wringers take over the Kerry campaign?

FYI, Sasso is already involved in the campaign, functioning as the chief liason between Kerry and the DNC. Everybody probably already knows that Lockheart kicked the GOP and mediawhore ass on a daily basis throught the dem party's last victory against the GOP slime machine.

[NewYorkerfromMass]

11. Magic Bullet?

I thought we were more mature than that.

[Southern Patriot]

12. I like Rahm Emmanuel.

Whether they use him as a chief surrogate or whatever...

He's razor sharp and thinks great on his feet.

Best of all: he'll cut your throat and have your guts for garters before you know what happened.

[Myrina]

28. Rahm can have my garters anytime

I'll even take 'em off for him !!! :loveya:

[Southern Patriot]

31. Uhm, I'll take that as a sign that he'll pull positive with females! nm

nm

[aldian159]

39. God I love my Congressman

[Doosh]

13. guess Mary Beth is in over her head

remember, it was the shakeup that got Kerry going in the primaries. But this time Kerry isn't down by 30pts, it's still neck and neck. Such a change might give the impression of turmoil, not good.

[Guaranteed]

25. Yeah, her email to us

telling US to email the Bush campaign and tell them to stop attacking Kerry was really effective. :eyes:

[Manix]

14. I wish the Big Dawg was calling the shots!...Go with your best!

[Southern Patriot]

32. That's pretty much what Scarbourgh said on Tweety today.

He said that he doesn't understand why the Dems don't simply study what Clinton did 1992 and replicate it.

Every now and then Scarbourgh will take off his partisan hat and contribute something interesting.

Of course, after Scarbourgh commended Clinton giving a sermon in an African-American church, Tweety belched out that Clinton would go to church in the morning and have Monica "penciled in for the afternoon."

Tweety, all class and totally hung up on other people's sex lives.

[DemNoir]

16. I think

Describing his campaign as faltering is a bit over the top. Perhaps their responses are'nt all they could be but they have not made any major mistakes either.

[mbali]

17. Campaign faltering?

Since when is a challenger who is neck and neck with an incumbent president, in the midst of a war, following nearly $100 million in attack ads, "faltering?"

[mzmolly]

18. I agree.

:crazy:

[Larkspur]

26. Bush is the worse president in US History!!!

Considering the cronyism and incompetence of the Bush Admin the door should be wide open to the opposition candidate. Kerry is leading in many states, but not always by the margin of error. Unlike 2000 when Bush could hide his Texas record, Pres. Bush's incompetence and lies are on record, and Kerry should be winning every state, except maybe Texas, Alabama, and Mississippi by double digits.

It's not just that Kerry needs to win. Kerry needs to generate coattails to help take back Congress.

[returnable]

19. Dangerous move

Shaking up his staff during a primary season when most of America wasn't paying attention is one thing; doing it 2 months before the presidential election with the national spotlight on you is quite another.

That sends a very troubling signal.

And notice the words used in that article:

"bouncing off the walls"; "often frozen"; "reliance on polls or focus groups"; "aversion to risks."

Considering the Republicans are running on the premise that the Chimp is "a man of action", a public shakeup of the "command structure" cuz Kerry is unable to personally get his act together would be a silver-platter gift to the opposition.

Now, this is not to say that Kerry should continue to just tread water.

But if he decides he needs to change course, why the hell can't he do so without making a public issue of his campaign staff? I mean, can't he just start giving different weight to different people's advice and act on strategy accordingly?

[BootinUp]

20. yes, of course

I am not a PR expert, but it seems if any of this story is true that they think there is a benefit to the story being out there. ?

[John_H]

21. Or the leak is from someone who wants to send the staff a message

[goclark]

22. I see it as "adding another " to his already fine team

I don't think they need to get rid of Cahill. She is great.
But we need to ADD a bull dog to deal with the bullies.

We need a CARVILLE type. A get in your face and shout them down.
To me, Carville won Clinton's first term. He was the key to the bully bashing by the rethugs.

From this second forward, the mode should be "Full Court Bully Press."

[returnable]

23. Yep. I can see that.

Adding to the team would be a plus.

Giving someone (or more) the sack would be a hard negative to spin.

[bushwakker]

42. bad move

shakeup is ok - sasso is a bad move. he will be seen as a dukakoid hatchet man and the media will be ready to pounce on anything "negative." why do they have to bring in someone to get tough? weren't they ready to be tough? did they think this was gonna not be a dirty fight?

[yellowcanine]

24. I believe Sasso was fired because he released a video mocking

Joe Biden, a primary opponent.

[goclark]

27. Is he a pit bull dog?

Is he the best Pit Bull that the Democrats have now?

If so, he should be hired and have everything he does approved by a higher up.

I don't think a Pit Bull should run the campaign but they sure should be at the table.

Nice guys finish last folks. We must have this country for the real people,not the crooks.

[AP]

29. He gets more points from me if that's the reason.

[John_H]

30. I think he's the guy that proved Biden plagiarized a speech.

[MichDem10]

35. As long as he willing to kick the shrub below the belt I'm ALL for it!

[ItsMyParty]

36. I understand there were complaints not only from top democrats but

from big doners who were not happy with the latent response to the swiftboat ads and the fact that his campaign staff was insisting on never really attacking. Money talks--thank god this time it got through!! From what I've read about Kerry the "great closer", the closing relied heavily on vets bringing home the vote. The last was in Iowa where they really worked the vets and the vets delivered. Well, Kerry has prematurely rode that horse as far as it's going to go and Rove shot the horse's ass full of buckshot so I assume they are scrambling a bit for a new way to close. Maybe they finally realized that Bush fights dirty and that the swiftboaters are just 'round' one. If he doesn't fight back in kind, he's just going to be screaming "hey, listen to my plan folks" and "they are not fair to me". People think everything is okay. It's still neck and neck. I give them credit for moving before it's a disaster. We've seen too many idiots who stay the course, right over the cliff.

[bushwakker]

37. No - please don't bring on a Dukakoid

this is getting really bad.

[DaveinMD]

38. I think the point

was he was fired by Dukakis because he was too tough. That's the type everyone has been calling for.

[bushwakker]

40. you are right but

the media will go wild over the duke 88 comparison and sasso will come in with people now expecting him to be the hatchet man. why haven't they been ready to go negative from the beginning? they have to bring in sasso to figure out a way to call awol awol? for god's sake. collect all the info. get affaidavits. get the official records. get all the false statments awol has made about his service. then have jk humself say that he didn't want to be negative but his very integrity had been called into question and he challenges bush to account for his missing year in the guard. and then he says it the next day and the next day...the media will go wild and the bush camp for once will be forced to react and answer questions. then drop some hints about his community service in houston after the coke bust. this is a real opportunity. they opened the door to this line of attack. why they don't have someone on board who can put this together is beyond me. sasso will immediately be labelled the hatchet man and WE'LL be blamed for going negative. sasso is a bad move.

[kodi]

41. the fat guy who used to be on mad tv?

bizarre.