Should our President need an "uber adult"?

George W. Bush has a longtime stable of key advisors on matters political, military, and domestic.  It's a stable stable, if you will — with no huge shake-ups over time, good message discipline, and few leaks.  Dubya demands loyalty and gives it in return.

What a contrast one finds in tomorrow's page A1 WaPo article on the latest "additions" to the Kerry campaign.  I started taking notes, trying to compile a scorecard to identify all the players, but gave up when I started getting "memory overload" errors from my PC.  WaPo reveals that not only has the Kerry campaign concluded that it needs, as they admitted on September 2nd, "an adult traveling with the candidate," they need an adult to supervise the adult:

"In the wake of the Swift boat ads, Kerry had largely deputized Lockhart to oversee the day-to-day communications and message strategy of the campaign — two of the most important jobs. "He's the chief strategist," one aide said of Lockhart. McCurry is, in the words of one aide, "the adult on the plane," as far as implementing the day-to-day communications strategy.

Sasso has taken the role of "uber adult" on the road, the unofficial "best buddy" candidates traditionally have at their side, but that Kerry has often lacked. Sasso, who initially ran Michael S. Dukakis's campaign in 1988 and served as the former Massachusetts governor's chief of staff at a time when Kerry was Dukakis's lieutenant governor, is a widely respected manager. Democrats outside the campaign are looking to him to unite the various moving parts and changing roles in the campaign. Sasso and Lockhart are tasked with keeping Kerry's multitude of advisers at bay.

"It's obvious that they're trying to beef up the plane, that they need some help out there," said Democratic strategist Bill Carrick, a longtime adviser to Rep. Richard A. Gephardt (D-Mo.) who has no role in the Kerry campaign. Carrick calls Sasso "the ultimate grownup, someone who goes back a long way with Kerry and someone Kerry will obviously listen to."

Unfortunately, this apparently doesn't just betoken a campaigning weakness on Sen. Kerry's part, but something that's a fundamental part of his general management and decision-making style:

One of the abiding truths about Kerry — and one that is often frustrating to his aides — is that he will listen to anyone. He is known as a political loner, but he is also constantly on the phone and will take counsel at any time from any number of parties, be it fellow senators, longtime friends, advisers in ill-defined roles such as Shrum or freelancers such as Begala. Kerry is not a micro-manager, friends say, but he is prone to engaging in a vast and drawn-out process by which his decisions are informed.

"This is what works for John," said one longtime aide who is not involved in this campaign, "and we try to be respectful of it. But it can create a greater sense of chaos than is probably necessary."

Kerry insists that for example with respect to the Iraq War, he would have done "everything differently" than President Bush has.  Yes, Senator, I believe you — but differently doesn't necessarily mean better.  The way you're running your campaign — which reminds me strongly of my memories of junior high school, on a bad day — doesn't give one much confidence in your ability to run a war or a nation.