Interesting interpretation of the McCain campaign fight, coming to me secondhand: Terry Nelson was a Bush guy. A Karl Rove guy, in fact. He was political director of Bush-Cheney ‘04.
When McCain prepared his 2008 campaign, with Dick Cheney and Bill Frist not running, McCain set himself up as the “primogeniture” candidate, the one Republican who can be counted on to continue the president’s policies on Iraq and Terror. (Immigration, as well, come to think of it.) He brings on quite a few former Bush folks.
I am told, secondhand, that in recent weeks, as Rick Davis and Nelson had fought more frequently, it was looking like Nelson was winning the fight, and more likely to have the louder voice in campaign decisions. Then the second quarter fundraising numbers came in, looking pretty bad. McCain goes to Iraq. He comes back, and today all of the Nelson people, plus Weaver, are out.
Conclusion? This was McCain’s call. Plain and simple. Davis and his folks were McCain’s original team going back to 2000 (Davis was campaign manager). It would appear that McCain decided that if he was going to go down, he was going to do it with his own people, not the President’s people.
Of course, Salter’s departure doesn’t fit this theory. That suggests an all-around house cleaning…