Where’s Team Perry?

Posted on October 30, 2011 by msjs0315

Ah, the surprises that await the aspiring pol!

Exhibit A: Texas Governor Rick Perry.

He jumped into the race in August as a force to be reckoned with. His early polling gave him a 29-17 lead over Mitt Romney.

Now we hear from Iowa, a state that was ‘supposed’ to be his, that he’s tied for fifth (!) with Newt Gingrich and trails leaders Herman Cain and Romney by about 15 points.

Despite what the punditry claims, the Iowa caucuses aren’t that important. Since 1976 only one non-incumbent GOP candidate who won the Iowa caucuses has gone on to win the presidency.

But it seems to me that for Perry to poll way behind a candidate who is barely campaigning in that state says a lot about his campaign and the people who are running it. I’m not talking ideology, but campaign mechanics.

If I were a campaign manager, I’d take a long look at every skeleton or perceived skeleton in my client’s closet and create a strategy for the candidate to minimize, dismiss, or even benefit from it. I don’t get the sense that Team Perry has done anything close to that.

First, there’s the book he wrote that was published late last year. As Steven Levingston wrote,

“He didn’t think much of legislation on food safety, the minimum wage, child labor bans, environmental protection and Medicare.”

When challenged by those in the electorate who were uncomfortable with his positions in the book, Team Perry scrambled to contain the damage control.

Second, was the statement about Ben Bernanke. I understand why he might object to Bernanke’s quantitative easing, but instead of preparing him with a 40-second soundbite to counter it, Team Perry left the man without a fallback. And again, they had to mop up when Perry called the Fed chairman’s actions “almost treasonous.”

The list goes on. The ranch name. Allowing him to reignite the birther issue in a way that riled other Republicans instead of giving him more presidential sounding talking points for his interviews. His lack of preparedness for the debates and his response to same.

Isn’t up-front preparation, in part at least, what an aspiring pol pays a campaign team for? Is Perry’s team not capable of providing guidance and counsel, or is it not allowed to? Either way, Perry’s candidacy looks to me like it needs proactive focus from a capable campaign team who is allowed to do its job.

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Sunday Funnies and Open Thread

Posted on October 30, 2011 by lmsinca




Here’s a bit of good news for consumers. Looks like the banks are backing off.

Joining an industry’s retreat in the face of customer protests, Wells Fargo has abandoned the idea of charging debit card fees — the third major bank to back away from such plans in a day.

The San Francisco banking giant had planned to test a monthly $3 fee for users of its debit cards in five states. It said in a statement Friday that it had called off that pilot program “as a response to customer feedback the bank has received.”

“We will continue to stay attuned to what our customers want,” said Ed Kadletz, head of Wells Fargo’s debit card division.

A host of critics including President Obama have attacked Bank of America’s plan to charge account holders $5 a month if they use their debit cards to make purchases. The populist outrage, highlighted by protests staged by the Occupy Wall Street movement, has caused other major U.S. banks to hold off on imposing similar fees.

Earlier Friday, Bank of America backpedaled, saying it would make it easier for its customers to avoid the fee by waiving the charge if they also used BofA credit cards, maintained minimum account balances or made certain direct deposits. Details of the revised plan had not been finalized, a person familiar with the changes said.

Also Friday, JPMorgan Chase said that after its own eight-month testing of $3 monthly debit card fees it had decided against imposing them on its customers.

Citibank, US Bank and Union Bank are among other major institutions that have now taken the no-debit-fee pledge. However, certain regional banks, such as SunTrust and Regions, already have implemented fees similar to those at Bank of America.

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