Who is Kerry's "Karl Rove"?

[rucky]

talk about behind the scenes... who's calling the strategery shots over in the Kerry camp?

Not the high-profile Rove or Trippi type. maybe that's why it's working so well.

[Melodybe]

1. As long as Dean is a political strategist for him, I'm happy

Dean is always one up on the repubs and I'm sure that Kerry has taken notice.

[jpgray]

2. Kerry has much less need for a Rove-type

No one doubts he has a corps of political advisers who are very important, but I think that Kerry can bring a lot more to the table than his adversary in terms of formulating his own ideas/speeches.

[JohnKleeb]

3. the closest thing he has is Mary Beth Cahill, his campaign manager

[mobuto]

16. Not really

From what I understand, Cahill's role, while very helpful, is still rather limited. Whouley's the man.

[JI7]

18. yes, she is a campaign manager

good at keeping things together and on track. but i don't believe she does much strategy.

[mobuto]

19. Right, that's what I meant

there are campaign managers and there are campaign managers. She's more an organization type, rather than a Karl Rove.

[silver state d]

4. I think it might actually be....

John Kerry.

[raysr]

5. God I hope there's only one

[silver state d]

6. Me too. I hear ya.

[La_Serpiente]

7. Mary Beth Cahill

if it wasn't for her, Kerry would not be the leading nominee right now.

She seems to have a pretty good track record.

She is the one who told Kerry to ditch the motorcycles



The Miracle Worker
Mary Beth Cahill used blunt talk and discipline to bring back John Kerry. No surprise from this working-class Catholic girl

No one enjoys a chance to poke a little fun at the mannerisms of Boston's Brahmin class as much as those who grew up in its working-class shadows. Which is probably why the daughter of St. Peter's parish in Dorchester, Mass., delivers such a wicked funny impression of the deep patrician voice that was on the other end of the line when she picked up the phone at home one Friday night last November. "Mary Beth," she says, tucking her chin, locking her jaw and dropping a register or two, "this is John Kerry." Mary Beth Cahill knew why he was calling. The presidential candidate whom everyone had once anointed the Democratic front runner was careering toward oblivion. Kerry was about to fire his campaign manager and wanted Senator Edward Kennedy's chief of staff to take over an operation that was short on money, full of backbiting and left in the dust by the Internet-and-anger-fueled phenomenon that was Howard Dean. "So I showed up Monday morning," she says, "and that was that."

It was not the first time the former congressional-office receptionist had got a 911 call from a desperate politician. At a time when operatives can become as famous as the candidates they work for, Cahill's is not a name you hear on the cable-and-best-seller circuit. But few can match her record for turning around campaigns that are just this side of hopeless. And she was one of the few people left in Washington who shared Kerry's belief that his luck hadn't run out. "She felt it was winnable," Kerry told TIME. "She distinctly felt that, as I did. But we knew we had to make some adjustments."

That's a delicate way of describing the upheaval that took place when Cahill arrived the following Monday morning at the shabby Capitol Hill town house that serves as campaign headquarters. Three months later, Kerry finds himself with 18 primaries and caucus wins under his belt and could be on the verge of clinching the nomination. Campaigns are won by candidates, of course, but someone had to come up with and stick to a plan that would have Kerry standing in just the right spot if lightning struck. That was Cahill's job, and the against-the-odds strategy that she executed paid off in ways that more than justified the confidence Kerry had placed in her. "It just liberated me," Kerry says of her arrival. "It completely liberated me to focus on my message and focus on the energy I needed to put into day-to-day campaigning and on the people I was meeting. To not be distracted, to be able to really just give it 100% focus, which is what it takes. It helped to make me a better candidate."

In pulling it off, the 49-year-old woman with a shock of prematurely white hair has brought back into fashion the fundamentals of politics—the organization and discipline that seemed quaintly last century when stacked up against the technology and passion and money that Dean had going for him. But it's her personal toughness that the politicians who have relied on her talk about more than anything else. Vermont's Senator Patrick Leahy credits that quality with pulling him through his most difficult race ever. He hired Cahill to run his 1986 re-election race when, after barely winning his first two Senate runs, he found himself up against four-term Governor Richard Snelling, one of the state's biggest vote getters. It was Cahill's first chance to run a big race, and it was getting national attention because Leahy had been pegged as one of the most vulnerable Senators in the country. "She just told me what I was going to do and gave me that look, and I said, 'All right,'" Leahy says. "To this day, people consider it the best-run campaign in Vermont history." When Snelling hired an ad firm known for its attacks, Cahill put up pre-emptive ads lamenting the prospect of negative campaigning in a state known for civilized politics. "The poor guy got so flustered, he didn't know what to do," Leahy recalls. "People were coming up to him saying 'We don't do this in Vermont.'"

more...

http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,1101040308-596066,00.html

[Finch]

8. Bob Shrum and Mary Beth Cahill

[DannyRed]

9. I think it is

...wait for it....

...wait for it...

...

Joe Wilson.

think about it for a minute, and hear me out, and you might agree....

Not in terms of image (that is probably BShrum and MB Wilson, as noted above), but in terms of response and attack and strategic style.

Wilson has worked with and worked under and worked for the Neocons...specifically during his stints as Ambassador and Charge d'affairs under Reagan and Bush the first.

He was probably in close contact with Perle, Cheney, Wolfie, Rummy, and the whole gang, back when they were all involved in the Defense Dept during Gulf War I.

He knows how they operate, he knows their style, he's been a victim of their attacks AND has been the recipient of their praise (Back in 1991/1992 Bush I called Wilson a hero).

He (and his wife!) know very well how to play this particular game with these particular people.

Couple his input with Kerry's record as a tough fighter in campaigns...

Well, that's my take on it, anyway.

[JohnKleeb]

12. best theory thus far

I like it,

[DannyRed]

13. What made me think so,

was the "offhand" nature of Kerry's recent attack, made before an "accidentally" open mic.

1) Such a "gaffe" almost always generates free press, and gets repeated over and over.

2) It incites speculation about who the target was - the GOP? The RNC? The Bush team?

3) It invites an "outraged response" from the oppositon, which gets further attention..especially if the remarks are not retracted, not apologized for, or are...ummm...massaged by issuing a "non-retraction retraction" (kind of like a "non-denial denial").

4) For reference to this tactic, recall Joe Wilson's comments about Karl Rove in regards to the whole Plame Scandal...remember "Frog Marching" and the buzz that generated?

Anyway, like I said, it's only my opinion.

[Jane Austin]

14. What an intriguiging idea!

I doubt Joseph Wilson has worked his way up to the top, and
Mary Beth Cahill really seems up to the task herself, but I
sure hope he is advising Kerry and becomes a key advisor.

[Guaranteed]

10. Me

Sssshhhhhhhh don't tell anyone. :)

[Guaranteed]

11. Dupe

Still, don't tell anyone. :)

[mobuto]

15. None of the Above: Its Michael Whouley

Whouley's a genius.

[Octafish]

21. The guy may've saved the campaign.

Whouley showed up in Iowa and things changed PDQ.

[jenk]

17. he should hire Nick Baldick

the Edwards campaign manager, that guy is brilliant

[WiseMen]

20. There is NONE. Kerry has many smart people in team. Key Moves Kerry's

I you recall Iowa, there was an experience tight organization, BUT
Kerry took both strategy and execution into his own hands and
JUST DID IT.

[eissa]

22. I don't know much about the Kerry campaign, but

I doubt if he has a "Karl Rove." Kerry strikes me as someone who solicits opinions from many rather from a Svengali-like politico. I remember earlier in his campaign when he gathered a group of journalists that included Alterman, Klein and others for a real "give it to me straight" kind of critique of his campaign at the time. I still think that that meeting of the minds speaks volumes for Kerry's character.

[WilliamPitt]

23. PeteNYC

:)

[GRClarkesq]

24. Shrum is on the payroll

[mrgorth]

25. He's got a mick running it?

Oh man the shrub is dead.;)

[vet_against_Bush]

26. Kerry is.

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