NET LOSS:

In Shake-Up, Dean Names Gore Ally to Run Campaign (JODI WILGOREN and GLEN JUSTICE, 1/29/04, NY Times)

After spending nearly $40 million only to face devastating defeats in Iowa and New Hampshire, Howard Dean named a longtime friend of former Vice President Al Gore as his campaign chief on Wednesday, prompting the abrupt resignation of his campaign manager, Joe Trippi.

Dr. Dean said he had tapped Roy Neel, who was given the title of chief executive officer, to streamline day-to-day decision making as the Democratic presidential contest enters a lightning round of multistate contests. He said he had hoped to keep Mr. Trippi on as senior strategist.

But after a year of building the Dean juggernaut, from a staff of seven to what he has often called "the greatest grass-roots movement in the history of American politics," Mr. Trippi refused to be sidelined, and walked out after what aides described as an emotional staff meeting here.

"You're going to see a leaner, meaner organization," Dr. Dean, who has asked his 500 staff members to skip their paychecks for two weeks, told reporters on an 8 p.m. conference call. "We had really geared up for what we thought was going to be a front runner's campaign. It's not going to be a front-runner's campaign. It's going to be a long war of attrition. What we need is decision making that's centralized."

Seems like just yesterday that everyone in the media was telling us how Mr. Trippi had revolutionized politics by tapping into the Internet. What they never seemed able to grasp is that it was such a limited base as to badly distort the campaign. First, the Internet isn't America--it's wealthy white youngish America (which just happens to include most of the media). Second,
because of this the initial $40 million they raised was not a sign of things to come because more contributors weren't coming. Third, maybe worst of all, the online world in which the campaign dwelt was concerned about only their own issues and their take on those issues which aren't shared by many outside this limited social milieu.

Posted by Orrin Judd at January 29, 2004 8:46 AM