Carson Campaign Shake-up?

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AP Interview: Carson Campaign Shake-up Coming

NY Times: Carson to Keep Advisors Despite Announcing Shake-up

In a stunning development, literally 45 seconds after telling the AP that he is moving to a major shake-up of his struggling campaign, the New York Times reported that Republican presidential candidate and former front runner, Dr. Ben Carson issued a statement saying, "My senior team remains in place with my full confidence".

The AP interview was apparently conducted without the knowledge of Carson's campaign manager, Barry Bennett. Bennett, and Carson spokesman Doug Watts, have publicly feuded with long time Carson friend and outside advisor, Armstrong Williams, who, it is reported, has Carson's ear. Terry Giles, another longtime Carson friend reportedly had Carson's other ear. Unfortunately it was Carson's bad ear; Giles was recently exiled from the campaign due to either internal differences or because Carson couldn't hear what Giles was saying.

The campaign appears to be in total and utter disarray, with questions arising over Carson's grasp of foreign policy, and just about everything else. Regarding foreign policy, Carson told reporters in New Hampshire this week, "The key thing for me is to dispel the rumor that I don't know anything about foreign policy". But despite Carson's vow to demonstrate that he knows something about anything, it is becoming clear that the real basis for the internal disfunction is money. 

The Carson campaign had raised $31 million by the end of September, outpacing all other Republican candidates. Unfortunately, it spent $38 million, not on ads and campaign infrastructure, but on more fundraising efforts.

Carson, a retired pediatric neurosurgeon told the AP that you don't have to be a brain surgeon to know that if you spend more money than you make, "you'll be left with less money." Carson went on to say, "I recognize that nothing is perfect. And yes, we've had enormous fundraising, but that requires that you be efficient in the way you utilize the funds. And, yes, we are looking at all those things."

In order to best look at all those things, the Carson campaign announced late today that it was augmenting its key staff, hiring Werner von Dusseldorf, a rocket scientist, because, according to spokesman Doug Watts, while you don't have to be a brain surgeon to fix this situation, "it helps to be a rocket scientist".