Bad signs from the Clark campaign

Others are already commenting on the story of Clark's campaign manager quitting (Kos, Kevin Drum, Matt Singer, Atrios).

As bad as this story is as a sign of the troubles the Clark campaign is having integrating the Draft Clark people (from the above story it sounds more like they are being bought off rather than actually being brought in) there's a more troubling aspect of this story: normally when someone leaves a political team they try to soften the blow of this story by giving it some convenient cover (the old "leaving to spend more time with his family" canard). Everyone knows its bullshit but it at least leaves the impression that the campaign will not be hurt badly by the move.

In this story, it sounds like Fowler just up and walked out, leaving the Clark campaign no time to put together a comment for the media. This is an indication of truly bad feelings on the part of the parties involved combined with a flat-footed media operation. This is not surprising considering how quickly this campaign came together. But it is something that will have to be cleaned up if the Clark team is to take on the Rove team next fall.

As it stands, Rove (assuming he's still around) will eat these guys like they were a light appetizer.