All I have to say is thank God mcbush hasn't hired mike murphy or rollins to run his campaign. They know wtf they are talking about, unlike the train wreck that is currently happening. I don't think that either of them would win it for mcbush, but it would be more competitive. On the other hand, maybe he has approached them and they said forget it, because they don't want to be associated with this disaster.

It's the candidate stupid.

Halperin has a nice link I wish were being shared more in the good old MSM now that Johnny's on a trip to Latin America:

http://www.sunherald.com/newsupdates/v-print/story/660742.html

Cochran recounts McCain dustup with the Sandinistas
By MICHAEL NEWSOM
Sun Herald
Tue, Jul. 01, 2008

Let's see, what do we know about Steve Schmidt?

• Chief strategist in charge of Supreme Court nominations of Samuel A. Alito. and Chief Justice John Roberts
• Counselor snd spokesman for Vice President Dick Cheney.
• Member of the exclusive "breakfast club" led by top White House adviser Karl Rove that ran President Bush's re-election campaign. (2004)

And McCain wonders why people keep connecting him to Bush?

What does it say that they had a 2 1/2 month head start, and is still getting his act together. Now I see why he owes taxes from 4 years ago and has a six figure debt on his credit cards. Shameful.

The McCain camp faces a real problem in it's VP selection. They desperately need someone who can generate some enthusiasm but traditionally, a candidate doesn't want a VP who outshines or is more charismatic than he is. Anyway, how on Earth do you find a (living) person who is less charismatic than McCain?

That's weird. I thought Rick Davis was just doing a heckuva job.

I love how the word "controversial" is used as a synonym for "scumbag" in news reports like this.

I am laughing deliciously at the comments in this thread.

Honestly, though, this will be the first shake up, but there will be another later on down the road, I think. McCain is such a disasterous candidate at the core. He's Crocker Jarmon without the pizzazz.

They had to do it when McCain was out of the country so that Hothead John wouldn't give Davis a physical throttling during his sh*tcanning.

As the NYT put it in their article on the shakeup, "Mr. Schmidt is a veteran of President Bush’s 2004 re-election campaign and he worked closely with Karl Rove, who was Mr. Bush’s political adviser."

In light of Mr. Schmidt's background, I think the appropriate headline, here, should not be the one TPM has now: "McCain Shakeup 3.0: Rick Davis Out as Campaign Manager." Who's Rick Davis to 97% of the readers of this blog, much less of the voters?

A headline that conveys what's happening with equal accuracy -- but also a headline that will resonate far more -- would be something like: "McCain gives control of his campaign to Rove associate."

Remember, framing does matter, and this is no time to forget it.

Looks like McCain and Co. have cooked up a July "surprise" with this Columbian hostage release. McCain is now winging his way to Columbia, according to MSNBC, for a photo-op, no doubt! Why does it seem as though McCain and the Columbians are in cahoots and arranged this "rescue" just before July 4th to enhance McCain as a foreign policy heavy weight?!

And on a minor note, what does it say about a campaign's political acumen when they roll out a story like this the same day their candidate is supposed to be getting great coverage for his trip to Latin America? Great way to step all over their own story - campaign in trouble and disarray, bringing in Bush/Cheney/Rove hacks is going to get as much news coverage as the boring guy hanging out with right wingers in Colombia.

Hope they keep it up.