campaign staff

My confidence in the McCain operation just increased substantially:

Steve Schmidt is taking over the day-to-day operation of John McCain’s campaign, according to multiple campaign sources.

At a staff meeting in the campaign's Arlington, Va., headquarters this morning, campaign manager Rick Davis made the announcement about Schmidt's new role. 

Schmidt, a bald and barrel-chested operative known for his aggressive brand of political combat, responded by exhorting campaign aides with a speech that one staffer likened to a locker room pep talk out of the football movie "Rudy."

I'm not completely impartial here, but this is the guy who took Arnold from less than a sure thing to a 20-point winner in 2006, who ran the confirmation processes for Justices Roberts and Alito, and and who was the Bush operative most responsible for defining John Kerry. So this is a big deal.

Michael Goldfarb, blogger in chief to the Weekly Standard, is joining the McCain campaign as a deputy communications director.

Martin:

Michael Goldfarb, online guru at the Weekly Standard, has taken a leave of absence from his post at the magazine to become deputy communications director for McCain.

Standard chief Bill Kristol announced the move on their blog.

In his new role, Goldfarb will use his grasp of the rightosphere to help drive the McCain message online and will also lend a hand in writing campaign materials. He'll focus especially on the rapid response element of a campaign that is already being fought hour by hour.

This is what I like to see. Folks with solid online experience being mainstreamed into line positions in all the key divisions, not exclusively ghettoized into the e-shop.