UPDATED 30 May
To call Mitt's inner circle flaccid is not very nice but it is more than accurate. The folk have some ability but they lack the capacity to stand tall and see the whole picture and drive home whatever their message might be. At minimum they would need a message. But that would not be enough. They would need a David Plouffe to be co-equal with Mitt and steer the ship. They don't have one. You might say Rove, but Rove has lost his moxie and is the associate of an unprosecuted war criminal.
Here in order of in-ness are Romney's top five.
Beth Myers is running the Veep search. She is a former Karl Rove colleague. She was in charge of Mitt's last presidential effort. She is closer to Mitt than most anyone outside of his family.
To call Mitt's inner circle flaccid is not very nice but it is more than accurate. The folk have some ability but they lack the capacity to stand tall and see the whole picture and drive home whatever their message might be. At minimum they would need a message. But that would not be enough. They would need a David Plouffe to be co-equal with Mitt and steer the ship. They don't have one. You might say Rove, but Rove has lost his moxie and is the associate of an unprosecuted war criminal.
Here in order of in-ness are Romney's top five.
Beth Myers is running the Veep search. She is a former Karl Rove colleague. She was in charge of Mitt's last presidential effort. She is closer to Mitt than most anyone outside of his family.
Then there is the Etch-a-Sketch guy Eric Fehrnstrom who was Mitt's spokesperson when he ran Massachusetts and is now a senior adviser. But wait! According to WaPo he is also a senior advisor to the Romney Free and Strong America Super PAC. Do we say nothing about that? The guys are said to be super bonded.
If Mitt has kept the door open to the Right Wing his point person has been Peter G. Flaherty who appears to have substantial diplomatic skill.
Then there's Spencer Zwick who does capitalism with Tagg Romney and supervises Mitt's campaign finances. Like all of the above, a former gubernatorial staffer.
In a rundown of Romney luminaries, Matt Rhoades comes exactly here which means that he keepeth a low profile. But if Romney says something that is idiotic or if he says something that serves him well, look to Drudge-certified namesake Rhoades, a scant 36, to be its likely author. My own opinion is that Romney has not been well-served , but I have been wrong before. We shall see. Did I mention? He is campaign manager.
There are others and there will be more. What seems conspicuously lacking is a David Plouffe, someone with the smarts to dope out a winning campaign. That would appear to be an important omission or else a prescient concession of defeat.
