Rick Davis

From John McCain's perspective, the dispiriting outcome of the last presidential debate was determined long before he and Barack Obama arrived on the Hofstra campus. It had been decided months before, in fact, largely by the ineptitude of the Republican campaign's strategists. Actually, as experienced figures in both parties now agree, "strategist" is probably too generous a term to describe the people managing McCain's campaign. (Lobbyist is generally a more accurate term for the top advisers but beside the point here.) Rick Davis, Steve Schmidt, and the rest of the McCain-Palin crew have consistently failed to move their campaign above the tactical level.  read more »

The evening of Oct. 15 marked not only the final debate of the long presidential campaign, but also the last installment of the now time-honored tradition of the post-debate spin room.

Last night, as reporters bounced dutifully between the little clusters around the yellow square signs identifying backers of McCain and the blue rectangular banners above the heads of Obama supporters, they’d heard practically everything the two camps had said before. But some remarks were notable nonetheless, if only for their sheer spinniness.

Some highlights follow.

Here's Obama campaign manager, David Plouffe, a talking campaign memo, on where the campaign goes from here:

"We want to hold down all of the Kerry states.  read more »

When voters return to the grim task of assessing John McCain's credibility, they may turn to The Nation, which has just exposed yet another highly embarrassing episode in the career of his campaign manager, superlobbyist Rick Davis. This time the issue is not just another special interest represented by Davis, of which there are many examples, but the connections between Davis, the ruling Russian oligarchy, and the government of Vladimir Putin.  read more »

Let's address the question we asked last week: Does print matter? Today's example: The Rick Davis story.

Yesterday, The New York Times printed a front-page story by Jackie Calmes and David D. Kirkpatrick on how McCain campaign manager Rick Davis' lobbying firm has received $15,000 a month from Freddie Mac since 2005. This is after Senator McCain claimed on Sunday in an interview with CNBC and The Times that Mr. Davis has had no relationship with the company for years. (Newsweek and Roll Call also had the story).

McCain spokesman Michael Goldfarb responded on John McCain's Web site. In it, he quibbles with The Times' facts and argues that (a) Rick Davis has received no money from the arrangement or from his lobbying firm since 2006 and (b) the piece is a perfect example of how the paper is out to get them.  read more »

This morning, The Politico ran an innocuous-seeming story in which a series of unnamed Republican consultants and strategists – with the exception of Ed Rollins, who went on the record – took turn taking shots at various aspects of the McCain campaign’s strategy.

The story didn’t seem particularly surprising, given (a) McCain’s underdog status in the presidential race, which automatically makes many Republicans uneasy; and (b) the general willingness of unnamed consultants and “strategists” to use the cloak of anonymity to tell the world how much better Campaign X would be if they were running the show.  read more »

The McCain campaign has posted an on-line "strategy briefing," in which campaign manager Rick Davis uses a series of charts and maps to paint a rosy picture of the G.O.P. candidate's fall prospects.

About five minutes into the slideshow, Davis turns to the electoral map and highlights what are matter-of-factly labeled the "solidly Republican states."  read more »