General Discussion
Related: Editorials & Other Articles, Issue Forums, Alliance Forums, Region ForumsFour key Hillary Clinton staffers from 2008 unlikely to sign on for 2016 bid
Howard Wolfson, the 2008 communications director for Hillary Rodham Clinton, has said he will not return for a 2016 presidential campaign. Neither, for that matter, will Neera Tanden, the campaigns policy director. Ditto for Mark Penn, the chief strategist, and Patti Solis Doyle, the embattled campaign manager.
As core members of a dysfunctional Team of Rivals, these top advisers were seared, scattered and, to different degrees, forged by the 2008 experience. Haunted by the failures in management and messaging, they have worked hard to get over their shattered White House dreams and rejection by a Democratic base enamored with Barack Obama. They express their requisite hope that Clinton will run and win, but also their lack of interest in jumping back in.
Clinton, who declined to be interviewed, moved on more quickly than many of her senior staff by going to work for Obama as secretary of state. She refuses to acknowledge the 2016 speculation but has privately suggested that the obstacles to running arent exactly insurmountable. She did tell me once that she was really thinking about Chelsea and [son-in-law] Marc, said Susie Tompkins Buell, a Democratic donor and friend of Clinton, and how she didnt want to disrupt their lives.
The 2008 campaign did precisely that to many of Hillarylands denizens. It was a campaign structure that pitted an A team of advisers against one another and created a climate of anxiety as a B team of potential outside replacements from the Clintons White House and Senate orbits hovered.
Now, as Clinton repositions on issues such as gay marriage, reconnects with donors and crowds out potential rivals, the nearly two dozen veterans interviewed for this article debated who among them could or would come back. That spotlights an overlooked consideration for Clinton: With the former core team apparently intent on staying out, can Clinton rebuild an inner circle capable of running and winning a presidential campaign? Will she reach into the tightknit Obama machine for talent, again borrow from her husbands brain trust or elevate the understudies?
Read more: http://www.washingtonpost.com/lifestyle/style/four-key-hillary-clinton-staffers-from-2008-unlikely-to-sign-on-for-2016-bid/2013/05/19/c9e43908-be4a-11e2-89c9-3be8095fe767_story.html?hpid=z3
"noone4anything8020"
graham4anything
(11,464 posts)Penn and Wolfson stunk big time (almost as bad as Shrum).
Working for the continuation of President Obama's agenda for 8 years after the first 8.
madinmaryland
(64,933 posts)it will be for Martin O'Malley.
Beacool
(30,247 posts)graham4anything
(11,464 posts)and it may be unofficial.
But if 100% of the solid core of both President Obama and Hillary Clinton come out to vote,
it will be the biggest landslide ever.
Talking huge.
Talking 100-120 million popular votes (when the record is 69 million).
Talking 500 plus electoral votes.
huge.
BainsBane
(53,032 posts)graham4anything
(11,464 posts)HooptieWagon
(17,064 posts)msongs
(67,405 posts)Beacool
(30,247 posts)DonCoquixote
(13,616 posts)Mark Penn was responsible for Hillary trying to move right.
pearl
(1,302 posts)Ed Rendell comes to mind, almost all of the ones who failed her last time. She needs to get new people and some new material as well.