November 10, 2003
...on the John Kerry Presidential Campaign.
Talk about rearranging the deck chairs on the Titanic!
In a move that borders on the absurd, Sen. John Kerry (D-Mass.) has removed Jim Jordan as campaign manager. Kerry has invited Jordan, a former executive director of the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee and a long-time Kerry strategist, to become a "senior strategist" for the campaign. Mary Beth Cahill, who has been chief of staff for Sen. Edward Kennedy (D-Mass.), replaces Jordan.
Let’s face it, Kerry is the one who needs to be removed, not Jordan.
The problem with the Massachusetts senator’s campaign is the candidate, not the campaign manager or even the campaign. Kerry has raised enough money to be competitive, has enough endorsements, and has put together credible organizational efforts in the early states.
Kerry is trailing former Vermont governor Howard Dean in New Hampshire and Dean and Rep. Dick Gephardt (D-Missouri) in Iowa because he has not yet connected with enough Democratic activists and primary voters.
Putting this in Massachusetts terms, Jim Jordan ain’t no Grady Little. The problem is that John Kerry ain’t no Pedro Martinez.
Sometimes professional sports teams fire a manager because they aren’t getting the most out of their teams. They hope by firing someone, they will shake up the players. But teams that are competitive usually fire their coach or manager early in the season or at the midway point, not just before the playoffs begin (or in this case, before the Iowa primaries take place).
Is Kerry’s grass roots organization going to work harder now that the manager has been canned? Is the team going to be more confident? Is Kerry going to be a more appealing candidate? What’s next, a new media consultant?
It’s hard not to conclude that Kerry’s campaign is now in panic mode.
I really don’t blame them. It is increasingly difficult to see how Kerry wins the Democratic nomination. Two quick wins by Dean eviscerates Kerry’s prospects, while a Gephardt win in Iowa and a Dean victory in New Hampshire probably leads to a two-man contest - and Kerry isn’t one of them.
Actually, Dean has given Kerry something of an opening by refusing public funds. The Massachusetts Democrat can attack Dean for being a hypocrite and violating a Democratic principle (public funding of elections), and Kerry now has a reason to blow the $45 million cap (and the state spending limits) himself. That means that Dean and Kerry (and possibly retired general Wesley Clark) will have more funds to spend than the others in the race will.
But it’s hard to see how cutting Jordan loose helps Kerry. Jordan, of course, is unlikely to hang around the Kerry campaign in a position with less authority, especially given the bevy of advisors that Kerry still has around him. Jordan can do quite well for himself financially by joining one of a number of busy Democratic media firms.
I have at times been critical of John Kerry and his campaign, believing that he has done little to distinguish himself from the rest of the field and has relied too strongly on selling his biography. But with all the gurus who have surrounded the senator, it’s hard to blame Jordan for Kerry’s inability to hold his front runner position. In any case, the timing of the move is strange.
If John Kerry wants to look into the eyes of the one person most responsible for his current predicament in the Democratic race, he needs only look into a mirror.