You have probably never heard of Robert Shrum. He’s the most sought-after Democratic strategist right now, and today we find out that he’s signed on with Kerry. ABC’s The Note refers to this as winning “the Shrummy” or the “Shrum Primary.” Last year, Joel Klein wrote a piece prophesying the importance. Why the excitement?First, there’s a soap opera quality to the choice, since Shrum is friendly with everyone in the field. He’s worked for Gephardt, Edwards and Kerry. “He has close personal relationships with a lot of people involved in this process… And it is very difficult to sort that out, and deal with the very high profile atmospherics of all this. There are friendships and relationships at stake here, and he takes that very seriously,” a close friend of Shrum told The Note.
Second, Shrum has a Kennedy fetish. He’s famous for his “I’m On Your Side” message — but lately he’s veered towards what Joe Klein calls “an aggressive, pessimistic, and unsubtle strain of economic populism.” We can expect him to work hard on Kerry’s charisma deficit, which is seen as the biggest weakness. In so doing, Shrum will change Kerry’s formula, which he’s used successfully thus far. It’s also possible that Kerry can’t be molded in the Shrum image.
The Edwards campaign has picked up on this, referring to this as an irresponsible “vanity hire.” Sour grapes, of course, but the argument has merit.
Third, Shrum doesn’t have a great record on these races. He made his name in state races, but his candidates have a tendency to drop out during primaries or lose elections outright.
a technology job is no excuse 
Herewith a powerful, hard-hitting, direct, go-for-the-jugular, plain-language speech I wrote for John Kerry which is a concise but encompassing indictment of Bush and his Administration’s record of failure–which responds to the political wisdom that this election is not much about John Kerry but very much about the incumbent and his record
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