Politics

Starting Gate: Bottling McCain?

By Vaughn Ververs

July 3, 2008 / 9:48 AM EDT / CBS News

Ten months ago, John McCain's campaign was running on fumes in every way possible. Broke, battered and failing to connect to his party's base, either personally or on the issues. "Let McCain be McCain" became the battle cry. And that is largely what happened. The candidate ditched his top-heavy, front-runner strategy, jumped back onto the "Straight Talk Express" and hit the town hall circuit in New Hampshire with renewed vigor.

The string of victories that began in the Granite State and culminated with McCain as the presumptive nominee was one of the great comeback stories in modern political history. But a candidate who rode to victory with an on-the-fly style is finding that running a national general election campaign requires something quite different.

That reality was recognized yesterday when the campaign confirmed that it was shaking up its top leadership. Longtime McCain adviser Rick Davis is out as the day-to-day manager of scheduling, message and organization and veteran campaign operative Steve Schmidt, who has been with McCain throughout the campaign, is in.

According to most reports, the changes are one part cosmetic and three parts mechanical. Republicans outside of the campaign have grown increasingly concerned that McCain failed to capitalize on the breathing space he was given while the Democrats slugged it out long after he had wrapped up the nomination.

Those worries were exacerbated by the inability of the campaign to push forward a coherent and consistent message, according to reports in recent weeks. And the structure of the campaign has been criticized for lacking clear lines of communication and authority, alienating key constituencies, state party organizations and others who felt shut out. According to CBS News reporting, Schmidt will begin restructuring the campaign in major ways to rectify those problems.

It all may soothe nervous Republican nerves -- at least temporarily. Certainly campaign adjustments are nothing new in presidential politics and this "shakeup" leaves intact all those advisers who have surrounded McCain throughout this race, albeit in different roles.

But will a return to script help the candidate in the long run? When he kicked off his effort, McCain took on all the trappings of a front-runner. He hired a large campaign staff, gobbled up advisers and consultants, raised boatloads of money and sent the message that this was his turn.

For a "maverick," the structure didn't work. It may be necessary for him to return to a more organized, disciplined regimental campaign as he heads into the fall. But will it be at the cost of jettisoning the style which got him here in the first place – letting McCain be McCain?

Around The Track

CBS News' John Bentley reports that John McCain was told by Colombian President Alvaro Uribe about the mission to rescue hostages being held by radicals when the two met Tuesday but insisted that his trip had nothing to do with the timing of the operation.

A new AP/Yahoo poll finds that 15 percent of the electorate describe themselves as moderates not strongly supporting either McCain or Obama – and over half that number are independents, a key group for both candidates.

Barack Obama's campaign is stepping up its fund-raising efforts in the wake of their decision to opt out of the public financing system. The campaign has more than a dozen fund-raisers scheduled for the next two weeks, reports the New York Times.

Former Bush strategist Karl Rove questions Obama's financial strategy, particularly his campaign's decision to run ads in reliable GOP states like Alaska and Montana. "Money may be the mother's milk of politics, in Jesse Unruh's famous phrase," Rove writes in his Wall Street Journal space, "but when running for president, money alone can't buy a candidate love. Cash matters, but being a good candidate and right on the issues matters even more.

Happy Fourth of July, Staring Gate returns 7/7.