Wes Clark gave a

Start your day with TPM.
Sign up for the Morning Memo newsletter

Wes Clark gave a great speech on Tuesday at the Center for American Progress conference in Washington. And the most recent national poll, the Quinnipiac University Poll, has him back ahead of Howard Dean, after several that showed the reverse.

But let’s be honest: the air’s going out of his campaign. In money, in direction, in the polls, at the grass roots.

In fact, that doesn’t even quite capture it. The air’s going out of his candidacy because he doesn’t have a campaign. Where’s the campaign, the strategy, the organization?

What’s surprised me most is that he’s managed to do as well as he has over the last six weeks even with the complete lack of direction and organization from Little Rock.

The operation is being run by an interlocking directorate of folks who can’t be bothered to be more than absentee proprietors of the general’s campaign. (We’ll say more about the details on these points in a follow-on post.)

I have to imagine Clark can see this. How could he not? The question is whether he’s going to really do anything about it. Getting a national campaign up and running on the quick is no mean task, especially if you’re new at it. And I still think he’s a very strong candidate. But even the strongest candidate can be run into the ground by a bad campaign operation. He needs to get some new heads in the operation and let some others roll.

Latest Editors' Blog
Masthead Masthead
Founder & Editor-in-Chief:
Executive Editor:
Managing Editor:
Associate Editor:
Editor at Large:
General Counsel:
Publisher:
Head of Product:
Director of Technology:
Associate Publisher:
Front End Developer:
Senior Designer: