According to a report in the New York Times this weekend that described Kerry as "a four-term senator with comparatively little management experience," aides say Kerry too often deliberates even the smallest detail, leaving himself little reaction time to a much swifter Bush-Cheney campaign.

The paper noted that Bush’s background as a business executive and then governor of a large state has allowed him to manage his own campaign with greater success.

Of course, the Times still played Kerry up, quoting some aides as describing Kerry as "uncommonly bright, informed and curious. ..."

But the paper also paints a picture of "analysis paralysis" within the Kerry operation.

Some aides complain that their boss gets bogged down in the details, making him slow to take action as he struggles to process and use information.

One aide told the Times he has figured out how to influence Kerry: He doesn’t say anything until the very last moment. The waffling Kerry tends to take last-minute advice.

Case in point: His staff was asked recently to find out all they could about certain details regarding the Bush administration's Medicare plans.

After his staff provided the information, Kerry didn't even use it in a speech on the subject.

His staff says such a waste of their time makes it difficult for them to prepare their boss for the positions he wants to take against his Republican opponent.

"The downside to [Kerry's] deliberative executive style, they said, is a campaign that has often moved slowly against a swift opponent, and a candidate who has struggled to synthesize the information he sweeps up into a clear, concise case against Mr. Bush," says the Times. "Even his aides concede that Mr. Kerry can be slow in taking action, bogged down in the very details he is so intent on collecting."

Aides have other complaints, too. Like when Kerry spent more than a month trying to decide on his campaign logo. He was mulling over the font of the logo and whether it should have an American flag. Eventually Kerry decided to keep the flag.

Even diehard liberal Jesse Jackson, who has traveled with Kerry's campaign, says although the Massachusetts liberal is a "thinker" by nature, "a boxer needs a manager and needs a cut manager in the corner and needs someone to handle the towels. But once the bell rings, a boxer needs his instincts."

Other Democratic Party stalwarts and officials complain that Kerry is more interested in the "finer points" of politics, but doesn't seem too concerned with the mechanics of the business.

"Scott Maddox, the chairman of the Florida Democratic Party, said he could not recall getting a call from Mr. Kerry checking in with what was going on in that critical state," the Times said in one example.

Florida is considered a "battleground" state; it is headed by George W. Bush's brother, Jeb, but polls indicate the state is still in play.

Aides also say Kerry isn't one to delegate too much power to any one person. There is no "Karl Rove" on his staff, say aides.

"I am always in charge," says Kerry.

Kerry's also not afraid to upbraid his staff – even longtime friends and associates – as well as let staffers go if he feels his campaign is running "off the tracks."

As a result, few loyalists from his 1972 campaign are still around. Now, few who consider themselves friends are currently on his campaign staff.

Meanwhile, President Bush takes advice from a small – and unchanging – gaggle of staffers. His most senior campaign staff hasn't changed in 18 months.

"He's not involved in the details," says Democrat Rep. Ted Strickland of Ohio.

Editor's note: