John McCain, amid GOP concern, shuffles top aides

It worked once before -- why not try it again? As our colleagues Maeve Reston and Mark Z. Barabak report elsewhere on the website, John McCain is shaking up his staff again. The winner: Karl Rove protege and former White House point man Steve Schmidt, known to Californians for his work running Arnold Schwarzenegger's reelection campaign.

The story notes that "the changes took place amid continuing concern in Republican ranks about the direction of McCain's campaign and the seeming inconsistency of his message. The Arizona senator has alternated between appeals to independents and Democrats, who flocked in large numbers to his 2000 campaign, and appeals to the Republican right."

Schmidt takes over day-to-day operations and Rick Davis moves to what seems to be "CEO/campaign manager" status overseeing the general operations and focusing on fundraising, the convention, and that pesky decision on who gets to share a bumper sticker with McCain in the fall. Word is Schmidt will report to Davis and that the changes came at Davis' request and with his blessing.

-- Scott Martelle

Comments

[Tim]

McCain should endorse Obama.

[Tommy T.]

McAdmiral can shuffle the deck chairs but he will continue to steer the USS American in the Bush channel. The McAdmiral as president will guarantee endless wars, more cozying up to petro-dictators and more off-shoring of good paying middle class jobs. Just say No to McBush.

[Jerry]

OBAMA wants to get the religious right votes, he wants to promise that our tax dollars will be spent not to pay for roads, school etc, we will pay tax dollars to pay for Churches that already have a tax exempt status.

What ever happened with the division of church and state, if churches are going to share in the tax wealth of the nation then perhaps they should start paying taxes.

[Johnny Holmes]

Endorsing Obama would definitely improve the public's perception of his decision making.

[lousycandidates]

Okay, I went to that website that denigrates Obama.
How about an expose' of McSame?
He's the darling of the Rothschild empire who helped him rise from the Phoenix-bird ashes; he's a warmonger in the Bushite tradition (GWB styled himself as "a war president" no less); he will gladly serve the desires of that tiny country in the Middle East that loved it when 9/11 happened (it's the same nation that hopes we attack Iran -- otherwise it threatens to do so; I wonder if that's enough clues as to who I'm referring to); he's short-tempered, meaning we don't need a short fuse in the White House; he ultimately did his captors' bidding in N. Vietnam when they wanted him to give them information and help them make a propaganda film that he appeared in -- all in violation of the military code of ethics; he's a real flip-flopper himself, all the quest of trying to juggle his acceptance with independents as well as mainstream Repubs; oh, goodness, so much to say, I'd get tired writing it all (let's just call this part 1, and I can re-appear later, because this is likely enough to upset your applecart for the moment)!