How much credit do we give the respective campaign managers? (Obama, McCain)
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I've claimed (and heard it said elsewhere) that Obama has run a great campaign.
But how much of the credit does David Axelrod get?
And likewise with McCain's campaign manager - how much blame does he get for a somewhat sloppy campaign, by comparison?
I've never been a part of a political campaign, so I have no idea how to value the two campaign managers.
When I watch movies these days, I pay more attention to the director than anything else (Peter Jackson, Christopher Nolan, Coens, as examples). It seems a director has more control than any other single person in the film and I wonder if there is a parallel to campaign managers there.
I'd give a lot of credit to the campaign managers. Especially as we inch closer to the election, the candidates themselves don't have the time to get into every decision, big or small. They have to trust that their staff, staring with the campaign manager, will make the right calls.
That said ... the ultimate responsibility for how well a campaign is run is that of the candidate. Not only is he the "front man" - the public face of the campaign - but he also had to make a sound decision many, many months ago when selecting a campaign manager.
I'd say day-to-day, it's the campaign manager.
Setting the overall tone, and certainly in selecting key personnel, it's the candidate.
And I would say that how a campaign is run - staying on message, making the right moves at the right time, and so on - says a lot about how each candidate's Presidency would look and function.