Sure, there were lots of jokes about bungling by the McCain-Palin campaign, but the mismanagement of the organization keeps on giving up laughs — and not a little head shaking.

Turns out, attempts by the campaign to raise money and pay off some of its debts resulted in selling some used equipment — most interestingly about a dozen BlackBerry smartphones used by campaign operatives.

But whoever managed IT for the organization didn’t take the very necessary step of wiping all data from the phones before selling them.

Turns out, a few units — without chargers — were purchased by reporters, charged up and rummaged through. What was found? Lots of campaign-related e-mail and contact numbers.

So much for privacy and confidentiality.

The incident’s a cautionary tale for IT folks who handle the hardware and gadgets of finance folks especially. You wouldn’t want company info floating around the cyber universe once the units are ditched by busy execs.

As for the McCain-Palin fumble, it kind of makes you wonder how well they’d have run the country if they couldn’t keep a handle on simple things like this.

Would you want people saying the same thing about your organization?

Tags: Blackberry, campaign, McCain, Palin, sold, units