What it is really like work on a campaign: fending off free advice

Here's a snippet from a gossipy New York Times article about the Biden campaign.

“I’ve really never been in a campaign where so many people every day are reaching out to me with offers of assistance, advice, input, suggestions about everything,” said Ron Klain, who served as Mr. Biden’s chief of staff when he was vice president.

“Everybody wants to win,” said Representative Cedric Richmond of Louisiana, one of the campaign’s co-chairmen. “And everybody wants to give their ideas on what they think it takes to win.”

All that input has its downsides. “At some point you have to be able to make a decision and execute a strategy,” said Representative Richmond. He credits the nominee’s tight inner circle for keeping the campaign on track. “You just can’t have a million coaches.”

Some close to Mr. Biden have adopted a more absolutist approach. “I get letters and telephone calls from people saying, ‘This is what Biden needs to do,’ or, ‘This is what you need to tell Biden to do,’” said Representative Jim Clyburn, the South Carolina Democrat, chuckling. “I don’t tell him any of it.”

I don't quite believe Ron Klain about this. He's an old pro who knows better. A deluge of advice and "helpful" ideas always is part of what successful campaigns must navigate. Somehow, whoever is responsible for setting the strategy and tactics has to develop a plan and stick to it -- without seriously pissing off either self-aggrandizing and/or well-intentioned supporters. All that, while remaining alert to any suggestion that really might be useful amidst the maelstrom.

Campaigns, and particularly this one in 2020, are anxious battlefields on which hope and fear war with each other. Rank and file Democrats and progressives are fired up to "fumigate" the White House. (That's Nancy Pelosi's language; I like it.) They think their lives depend on Joe Biden campaigning well -- and they are not wrong. But tamping down our appropriate angst is another campaign burden.

The professional Democratic Party class thinks, with plenty of current evidence, that Joe Biden is likely to win this election. So they all want in and hope to get some credit. So they offer more good advice.

Media and pundits want stories to tell. They have advice too.

Most campaigns need someone to do the job Representative Clyburn says he's taken up; listening without alienating, while filtering out what is useless.

Photo (from Wikipedia) shows Ron Klain (l.) working with President Barack Obama in 2012 on debate prep. John Kerry was playing the role of Mitt Romney.