On poor organization

An interesting tidbit from Susan Delacourt, as the much-ballyhooed Con election machine apparently isn't yet equipped to keep track of the Cons' own candidates:

(T)his week, Harper's Conservatives invited reporters out to an industrial park in Ottawa's east end to show off the party's readiness for the ground war. The Tories have leased 17,000 square feet of space and filled it with snazzy computers, specialized "desk" units and a fully equipped TV studio.

There's one thing, though – if you ask this highly sophisticated operation for the names of Conservative candidates on the ground, you're out of luck. "Sorry, can't help," the Star was told when it asked for the names of duly nominated Tory hopefuls in about a dozen or so interesting ridings across Canada.

The Liberals, on the other hand, who are supposed to be highly disorganized and unready for a campaign, were able to supply those Conservative candidates' names in under a half an hour. Go figure.

I suppose there's an argument to be made that since individual Con candidates aren't intended to do anything more than repeat talking points from on high in any event, it doesn't matter who the candidate is for a riding. But there's no apparent reason why the Cons would want to admit that publicly.

As a result, it seems far more likely that the Cons are so focused on attacking the Libs that they've forgotten that important first step of keeping track of who's on their side. Which in turn suggests both that it may not only be Con candidates for whom intelligence and strategy are optional - and that the Cons' big-money investments haven't paid off in the slightest.