Adviser puts his stamp on McCain campaign

Mr. Schmidt is considered by members of both parties to have a superior sense of a greatly altered news media environment, caused by the proliferation of political Web sites and blogs, providing all different ways of getting out information. This new environment, he has told friends, is easily manipulated because of round-the-clock thirst for news, increased competition, lowered standards created by the proliferation of outlets and hunger for the outrageous.

It was Mr. Schmidt, a fan of both pop culture and Ultimate Fighting, who pressed for the campaign to include Britney Spears and Paris Hilton in advertisements attacking Mr. Obama, aides said. It was Mr. Schmidt, they said, who pushed to drive blogs and other media organizations to present Mr. Obama’s outdoor convention setting as a pretentious temple by circulating photographs of columns and sending out a news release calling it the “Temple of Obama,” which were gobbled up by Web sites and cable television shows.

“He can recognize the absurdity of politics, and is an occasional practitioner,” said Brian Jones, who served with Mr. Schmidt on the Bush campaign and, for a time, on the McCain campaign. “He understands how people relate to politics in a real tactile way. Why would this guy build a stage set that looks like a Temple of Zeus?”

Mark Salter, a senior McCain adviser, said Mr. Schmidt had brought a new mentality to this campaign. “I had no experience with a national campaign,” Mr. Salter said. “My experience was I worked in the 2000 primary in a contest that died after Super Tuesday. And modern campaigns really changed after 2004.”

McCain knew what he was getting
If some of Mr. McCain’s friends are distressed at the tone and nature of the campaign, Mr. McCain knew what he was getting with Mr. Schmidt, as he gradually drew him from part-time status — his wife and two children live in California, and for a while, Mr. Schmidt was making weekly trips to visit them — into an ever-greater role. Mr. Schmidt had helped oversee the war rooms of the National Republican Congressional Committee during the 2002 races, the 2004 Bush campaign and the White House’s Supreme Court nomination fights on behalf of Samuel A. Alito Jr. and John G. Roberts Jr.

Mr. Schmidt traveled with Mr. McCain for the first part of the year. But Mr. McCain sent him back to the headquarters in Northern Virginia after Republican complaints about Mr. McCain’s struggling campaign, epitomized by that Green Wall episode.

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Mr. Schmidt gave the war room a more central place in Mr. McCain’s campaign, streamlining its decision making so only a few key aides decide what is worthy of response and, more important in Mr. Schmidt’s view, what presents an opportunity to attack Mr. Obama as elite, out of touch and lacking substance. Junior aides work shifts across 24 hours, scouring news outlets for tidbits with the potential to embarrass Mr. Obama through circulation to bloggers, the Drudge Report, cable news and newspapers.

“Folks are playing closer attention, there’s more focus, the arguments are more precise, they cut more cleanly,” said Danny Diaz, communications director of the Republican National Committee, adding that Mr. Davis and other staff members deserved credit as part of what several aides called a more cohesive team.

Whoop of "boo-yah"
At the Democratic convention last month, a team of McCain and Republican Party operatives dispatched by Mr. Schmidt huddled in a Denver war room sprung into action when they found what they considered a gem: a photograph of Mr. Obama’s stage set at Invesco Field that they thought looked like a Roman or Athenian ruin.

The room exploded with a whoop of “boo-yah,” and instantly went to work, pressing the perception to receptive reporters and producing heavy coverage throughout the Web, newspapers and cable news.

That sort of speed and spirit inevitably leads to some mistakes. Three months after Mr. Schmidt’s “Fun Steve is dead” declaration, there was Mr. McCain giving his acceptance speech at the convention on Thursday night. His backdrop? A shimmering screen of green, until it was switched over to a more dignified blue.

Michael Cooper contributed reporting.

This story, An Adviser Puts His Stamp on McCain Campaign, originally appeared in The New York Times.

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