The other day Michele Bachmann's campaign "Did a Gingrich" as she lost her manager, the sainted Ed Rollins and his deputy. Ed said it was because, at 68, he's too damned old to go riding around on small planes and buses for 14 hours a day, seven days a week. I have known Rollins for a hundred of his 68 years, and I am willing to bet heavy money that Rep. Bachmann - or Rep. Bachmann's husband - decided they knew more about how to run a Presidential campaign than Ed did and he told them he was perfectly happy to let them prove it.
At The Washington Post, Chris Cillizza writes:But the departures are also part of a pattern of top staff members’ leaving Mrs. Bachmann, often after short periods. She has parted ways with half a dozen chiefs of staff in her Congressional office since 2007.
“She loves when things are going well, and when things aren’t going well, it’s very tough times,” said Ron Carey, a former chief of staff who left in July 2010. “I think what brought this to a head was the lack of momentum coming out of Ames, and knowing Michelle as I have for 10 years, she has probably been beside herself off-camera.”
Mr. Carey endorsed one of Mrs. Bachmann’s rivals in the straw poll, Tim Pawlenty, before he dropped out of the primary race following a disappointing finish.
Bachmann’s campaign team, to date, has been remarkably disciplined with few leaks about anything emerging. But, the decision by campaign manager Ed Rollins to take on an advisory role and deputy campaign manager David Polyansky’s decision to leave the team entirely suggests that there is some level of internal dissension about the direction of the campaign. When campaigns start to struggle, the people whose advice is not being listened to tend to take their complaints public and, in so doing, focus the coverage on process — the “why” and “how” questions that derail candidates’ preferred messages.
