Her campaign has been brilliant. It is great at small stuff like bracket scheduling -- making sure she or a surrogate appears right before and after a major appearance by an opponent. It is equally good on big stuff. Eight months ago, Clinton, 59, was bedeviled by the party's antiwar base for her initial support of the Iraq conflict; today it's practically a non-issue.
The Clinton campaign is efficient, effective, disciplined and tough.
It also seems to be joyless, humorless and lacking in heart and soul.
A take-no-prisoners, us vs. them mindset has served her well. She has widened her lead in the race for the Democratic presidential nomination; most polls show her defeating any Republican in the general election.
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No Sense of Mission
He has an unsurpassed grasp of the many parts of the American electorate; not as clear is whether he understands the whole. And that's the way he's directing the campaign. It is unequaled for 14-point programs. Yet other than offering voters a Clinton restoration, there's little sense of mission. The Penn political model isn't Bill Clinton's successful 1992 challenge for the presidency. It is more Karl Rove, who masterminded George W. Bush's victories. Devise a comprehensive game plan replete with exhaustive numbers and historical context, and execute it with iron discipline.
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The hunch from other political experts is that Penn, a public relations man when he isn't directing the Clinton campaign, has the same weakness. He is the best at data and demographics, not so great at understanding people. That's fine as long as you control the agenda; political campaigns have a way, however, of spiraling out of control.
Campaigns, it is said, are a reflection of the candidate. Senator Clinton herself is often a control freak. That trait was honed during the Clinton administration controversies -- some really were attributable to what she called the ``vast right- wing conspiracy'' -- but she came to the White House with much of that state of mind.
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Clinton has conquered the liability that many thought would doom the first serious female candidate -- softness, especially in a security-conscious era. That gives her the chance to be a bit less controlled, to reveal a few more real emotions. That might produce a gaffe or two. It might also reveal a Hillary Clinton who's better and more attractive than her campaign.
http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=washingtonstory&sid=aOOcRBgoYXPw
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