Rove criticizes McCain campaign management

Karl Rove is now criticizing the McCain campaign management a month before the election. Perhaps Karl feels he has to since FOX is paying him as an analyst. Whatever - it is interesting to hear an expert express his opinion.

• Rove can't understand why the McCain camp closed down the Michigan campaign so publicly. It caused a great deal of disruption inside the Michigan Republican Party because of the way it was done.
  
• Rove thinks it strange that McCain camp insiders would speak so publicly about their plans to shift the focus of the McCain campaign from the economy and instead go after Obama for his character traits. It's not something that the press or the Obama camp should be given advance waring of. But if it is done, it should be accompanied by a positive economic message. Obama doesn't publicly explain why they are presenting any given message.
  
• Rove also said that if the election were held right now, Obama would win it with at least 273 electoral votes, primarily because of the economic situation. But the campaign is highly fluid and still has 30 days left to go.

Those are interesting observations.

My own opinion is that the most interesting observation is that the McCain camp is leaking strategic reasons for their behavior. That's a characteristic of an organization which is under a great deal of pressure, appears to be failing to achieve its goals, and as a result it's members are exhibiting poor morale. It's a dead giveaway of poor overall leadership in an organization under stress.

Good leadership may not be able to change the outcome of the effort, but good leaders can keep morale up even as the effort fails. You get high morale in an organization where everyone feels they belong to a team that is working together even though they may not be successful. That isn't happening with the McCain campaign.

Some of the individuals in such an organization feel that they have to justify the fact that they are doing everything thing they personally can to win the election, but that they can see their individual efforts are not enough. They are leaking now because if they wait until the election results are in, no one will believe they say it coming.

The management of the McCain campaign is a reflection of John McCain's personality and his management style. I'd be extremely interested in finding out how McCain has treated ex-Senator Phil Gramm since his unfortunate "This is a mental Recession" comment, especially considering McCain's obvious Contempt for inferiors and his anger issues.

The post-election analysis books are really going to be interesting next year.