Clinton Aides Split on How to Take On Obama

[Scurrilous]

<snip>

"When Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton meets Senator Barack Obama at a one-on-one debate in Austin on Thursday night, one of her final opportunities to change the course of the race for the Democratic presidential nomination, she will again face the challenge that has repeatedly stymied her: how to discredit her popular opponent without hurting herself.

Even now, after a string of defeats, her advisers are divided over how to proceed as they head toward what could be her last stands, in Ohio and Texas on March 4.

Some — led by Mark Penn, her chief strategist — have been pushing Mrs. Clinton to draw sharper and deeper contrasts with Mr. Obama, arguing that she has no other option, campaign officials said.

Others, particularly Mandy Grunwald, her media adviser, have pushed for a less aggressive approach, arguing that attacks would not help Mrs. Clinton’s campaign in an environment in which she is increasingly appearing to struggle, aides said.

This latest division within the campaign reflects intense frustration among Mrs. Clinton’s advisers as they look for ways to turn around their campaign against Mr. Obama, an opponent whose appeal and skills as a candidate caught them by surprise. So far, her own positive message has been outshone by his, and every line of attack on him has fallen short, fizzled or backfired."

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[Bicoastal]

1. If she goes with Penn, she'll be out by March.

If she goes with Grunwald, she could squeak it out for a few more races.

I'm guessing she'll go with Penn AGAIN...sigh

[Cha]

4. Dumpster Diving politics of hilaryland

has boomeranged but there's no there there so what's an empty, bloodthirsty, power tripper to do?

[Cha]

2. I hope they scratch their

fucking heads tryin' to come up with a solution.

[scheming daemons]

3. If their past is any guide....

...then she will follow the devil over her left shoulder instead of the angel over her right.

[crispini]

5. Man, she's really in a box now, isn't she?

Looking back, winning NH did them no favors. They should have done a major change in strategy right after Iowa.

Or, she might have pulled it out of the bag after SC, but again, a major change in direction.

She can't do much now, if she goes positive people will accuse her of sounding like Obama, if she goes negative people won't like that either. And if she totally reinvents herself she's going to get accused of being gimmicky.

[zulchzulu]

6. I hope she tries to attack Obama in the debate, because he's ready to bring it...

I also hope she is listening to Penn...it's really helped her campaign so far.

:rofl:

[Renew Deal]

8. She should be careful to not go too far with the potential nominee.

Scorched earth is a sure recipe for failure.

[Renew Deal]

7. My advice to camp Hillary

And I hope they don't use it. Play it straight. Give people a reason to vote for you instead of voting for the other guy. People don't want to vote against someone. They want to vote for someone. Hillary's entire campaign has been about "no one else is as good as me" insted of "here's why I'm the best." Big difference. Like I said, please don't listen to me.

[union_maid]

9. Early on she was very impressive

When it was still the whole bunch of them, she seemed so in control. She was able to project the image of the most competent person in the room. That's harder to do one on one. There isn't a fray to rise above, if you know what I mean.

[BenDavid]

10. well it makes no matter what hrc does, the whoremedia will

be hyper critical in the post debate....But if I were her manager I would go after his weak suit and those are the issues that hrc strongly supports and he is lacking. I would bust his ass big time, and you can bet there will be some question about obama's use of patricks words and if I were hrc I would say " what barack and the gov need to do is get their story straight as to when they both agreed it would be okay to use his words. ( from all reports deval said it was in june but there is evidence that obama was using deval's words three to four months earlier) and of course there will be something about michelle obama's stupid ass comments, and if I were HRC this would be the time and place to let the black community know that all the reports about her and bill being bigots and racists are all being reported by a select group of reporters that saw this as an opening to spread the biggest lies in this campaign......

[tabatha]

16. Why the Plagiarism card is a bad one for Hillary

http://www.dailykos.com/storyonly/2008/2/18/19495/3070/356/459330


Sometimes I have to wonder if Howard Wolfson is actually an undercover Obama supporter. Because the things he chooses to fight for are constantly re-affirming the widely held belief that Hillary is petty and negative.

Take this 'plagiarism-gate' for example. The Clinton campaign attacks Obama for borrowing from Patrick's speech. Of course they know internally that this is done all the time in politics. It's somewhat akin to making a pop song- there are only so many melodies that sound pleasing, and after that it's kind of all re-hash. So somebody at the Clinton camp thought they could get some headlines out there about Obama not really being the master orator that the world believes he is. So stupid.

....

Either words DO matter, regardless of who says them, and they can bring about change... or they don't do much to bring about actual change, as she originally stated. But with this mismanaged political stunt the Clinton camp reaffirmed Obama's point that words do matter. And people will walk away with the words he was saying, not where he got the words from.

....

Obama came out quickly and said, basically, 'yeah, I probably should have given Deval the credit, but it's no big deal. Oh and by the way, Hillary uses my words too.' So, the story is dismissed instantly by Obama as petty, the tables are turned, and he comes out remaining above the fray.

[rocktivity]

20. But all Obama would have to do is point out that she's used HIS words

(link) and ask when they agreed to THAT!

:rofl:
rocknation

[GoldieAZ49]

25. yeah, that will end her campaign in Feb instead of March

no need to even wait for TX and OH to vote. They know it, read the article:

Some of the attacks that her campaign has used — including criticizing Mr. Obama for lifting language from the speech of a friend, Gov. Deval Patrick of Massachusetts — do not appear to be the kind of things upon which big elections turn.

...

The deployment of Bill Clinton to raise questions about Mr. Obama’s qualifications opened Mrs. Clinton to attacks of running a racially tinged campaign. That was particularly unwelcome considering the extent to which this campaign had looked to Mr. Clinton to keep Mrs. Clinton competitive among African-American voters.

Lines that Mrs. Clinton’s advisers thought would be effective after testing them with focus groups, like reminding voters that just a few years ago Mr. Obama was a mere Illinois state senator, fell flat. The argument that Mrs. Clinton would bring far more experience to the White House, a selling point her aides once thought would decide this campaign, has taken her only so far.

Other attacks drew ridicule, like when the Clinton campaign tried to build a case that Mr. Obama was being disingenuous about his ambition, presenting evidence that he had dreamed of becoming president when he was in kindergarten.

[THUNDER HANDS]

11. she's choosing which fork to eat her soup with

either way, she'll be starving by the time her soup gets cold.

[rocktivity]

12. Her problem is that she's tried on campaign strategies like Condi has tried on shoes.

Inevitability, race-baiting, the crying game, jealously of his oratory, plagiarism, negativity. Anything she says now will carry the undercurrent that she'll say anything to win.

I suggest more talk about how good SHE is and less about how bad Obama is.

:headbang:
rocknation

[Thrill]

13. Heres an idea. Focus on yourself. What will YOU do for the country

not every other sentence be a jab at Obama. People don't like that crap

[LadyVT]

14. Excuse me?? What thread are you reading...these are attacks on CLINTON

[Colobo]

18. Exactly. The only way she can come back is by focusing on herself.

[anigbrowl]

15. Penn and Grunwald hate each other

I'm with Grunwald - she should focus on the positive and make herself someone to vote for. Doin something dramatic like saying she was wron on Iraq but now she's going to fix it would help.

On the other hand, seeing as I'm an Obama supporter, I'm not going to cry if she goes the Penn route and gets tough.

[Johnny__Motown]

17. Clearly her Executive skills are.................

[CorpGovActivist]

19. Oh, to be a fly on Mark Penn's lunch. n/t

[Apollo11]

21. That's a good one!

:rofl:

[BigDaddy44]

22. Here is her dilemma

Obama's campaign is built on hope, change, optimism and a belief in a new kind of body politic. Hillary will not "out hope" him; not gonna happen. He is too charismatic, and much better at framing the hope debate than she is. She's viewed as old guard.

Therefore, if she's to stay positive, she has to focus on competence......she has to draw a distinction that says she's more competent and will be able to execute better. Quite frankly, thats a boring message, and not something people respond to. They want a leader for president, not a manager. (Anyone remember Dukakis saying the election of '88 was about competence, not ideology? See how well that worked for him?).

If these two don't work, then she's got to go negative. Hit him hard. She tried that, and it didn't work (yet). BUT, negative campaigning can work; its been shown time and time again to be effective if done correctly. We're now down to desperate times, and desperate measures. There are no silver medals in politics....it's all about winning.

Therefore, I think she's sharpening the long knives as we speak.

[paperbag_ princess]

23. I think you are right

Imo she is a great candidate and she would make a great president....but sometimes the tide is just against you.

We will have to see about the long knives though.....part of me thinks she will just do her best at the debate and see what happens ....no fireworks.

[workinclasszero]

24. Hillary will dive into the cesspool tonight

at the debates I bet.

Her lousy campaign team is clueless as to why the American public prefer Obama. All they got left is smear, smear, smear with wild accusations and innuendo.

Obama better be wearing a hazmat suit tonight cause Hillary's bringing a truckload of bullshit to throw at him!

Hillary might even go off the deep-end and show the public the real person behind the mask and end her political career once and for all.


Should be an...interesting night.:hide: