Kathleen Kennedy Townsend advised Hillary step down on a high note

[loveangelc]

Kathleen Kennedy Townsend, a supporter of Sen. Hillary Clinton, spoke at St. Mary's college in Maryland last week and offered a very frank assessment of the state of the Clinton campaign. A Political Wire reader emails a summary:

"Townsend said she expects Sen. Barack Obama to win the Democratic presidential nomination and that Clinton is finished. She believed that the Wisconsin results demonstrated that Clinton's coalition (voters over the age of 50 and those earning less than $50,000) had fallen apart. When asked why the Clinton campaign had failed, Ms. Townsend had plenty of opinions and she placed significant blame on Bill Clinton and his racially tinged statements in South Carolina. She also felt that Clinton made a tactical error in making "experience and inevitability" her central campaign themes. Townsend argued that Clinton had little more experience than Obama and far less than candidates such as Senators Dodd and Biden. Additionally, making the inevitability claim hurt her when she lost Iowa... Townsend then lamented Clinton's decision to go negative and question Obama's readiness. She said that she called the Clinton campaign and advised that they 'go out on a high note' but her advice was politely dismissed."

http://politicalwire.com/archives/2008/02/23/dispatch_from_maryland.html

[angie_love]

1. interesting...

[goodgd_yall]

3. Yes, very

This campaign will be undergoing much analysis, that's for sure.

[Mme. Defarge]

45. It will be used as a case study

in business and management programs for years to come.

[speedoo]

2. Another Kennedy sees the light.

Is RFK Jr. next?

[Egnever]

4. but her advice was politely dismissed

Color me shocked. She isn't going out quietly. She will do her best to try and ensure another run in 4 years before she leaves the stage.

[speedoo]

7. Another run in 4 years?

If that is Hillary's objective, she is sabotaging that objective with her own conduct.

She is burning bridges daily.

[Zachstar]

20. Agreed

She and her supporters need to accept that this is over when they started acting desperate.

Numbers do not matter anymore. The way the Clinton's and their supporters are acting indicates they are getting desperate which is a good way to destroy your future.

Keep this up yall and you can kiss her chances in 2012 and even 2016 goodbye...

Or is that some of yall's plans? Act like idiots and destroy her now so she will be easily defeated by Gore or Kerry later? I sure hope not. Such actions will help the republican win later.

[Divernan]

31. The only way she can run again in 4 yrs. is to sabotage Obama in 2008

I agree with you that even if he lost, she has burnt far too many bridges to have another shot at a presidential run. I'm also thinking that when Obama wins, there will be a number of very qualified New York Dems ready to challenge her in the next Senate primary. I wonder what ever happened to Congresswoman Nita Lowey, who was slated to run for the U.S. Senate before carpetbagger Clinton decided to run and pulled strings to knock Lowey out of the picture. On edit:
Lowey is in her 7th term in Congress. Pro-choice, pro-gun control.

[speedoo]

32. This NYer will never vote for Clinton again.

Not even for the lowest elective office in existence. Nita Lowey has been pretty low profile, as far as I know, and I live in the NYC metro area... she represents Westchester County, also in NYC metro.

[kskiska]

35. Nita Lowey was just hospitalized for a minor heart problem

CONGERS, N.Y. (AP) _ Rep. Nita Lowey said she was in "rip-roaring" health in her first public appearance after she nearly collapsed from what a spokesman called a minor heart problem.

Lowey, 70, told reporters she was "feeling great" at an appearance Thursday before a veterans' group.

"I'm rip-roaring," Lowey said, adding that she planned to return to Washington on Monday.

Lowey, a Democrat who represents parts of Westchester and Rockland counties, felt faint after standing for nearly 90 minutes to deliver a speech at a Hillary Rodham Clinton rally in White Plains on Feb. 2. Lowey was hospitalized for a few days, and a spokesman said she had suffered a "minor coronary incident."

more…
http://www.newsday.com/news/local/wire/newyork/ny-bc-ny--congresswomanill0222feb22,0,352021.storyhttp://www.newsday.com/news/local/wire/newyork/ny-bc-ny--congresswomanill0222feb22,0,352021.story

[hell-bent]

43. How could that be possible?

Your nominee will win in November and will be re-elected for another 4 years, right? No? I thought you guys "own the night",eh.

[Raine]

21. Townsend is lucky the dismissal was "polite"

seems like lately politeness has been in short supply with the Clinton campaign.

[Johnny__Motown]

5. Politely dismissed, so she was told, No I won't go out on a high note?

Wow, now I dislike the Clintons even more.

I can only hope that she speaks out in a more public manner about her concerns.

[loveangelc]

6. they probably meant she wouldn't be dropping out right now.

[Johnny__Motown]

17. I don't see anything in the post that suggested when she should drop out, only how

[TwilightGardener]

8. I think the big fear, in the Dem Party higher echelons, is that Hillary might

win Ohio, however narrowly, and then she is going to declare herself the comeback kid once again--and then it's a month and a half of primary drought (and fundraising, and expense, and attacks, and counterattacks, etc.) until PA on April 22, and then it's to the convention. That is a bad scenario. McCain will have all this time to strategize, develop policy, etc, while we are still fighting.

[loveangelc]

10. You're right. In between Ohio/Tx and Pennsylvania there's 2 favorable Obama states?

am I right? I agree, the upper echelons do not want this going on until almost May. I think she has to win Ohio and Texas decisively or she's pretty much done.

[Drunken Irishman]

18. Yes there is. Wyoming and Mississippi.

But even if she wins Ohio by 5%, she'll be pressured to drop out and I think she will.

[Window]

28. I cringe every time I hear her say, "My husband didn't wrap up his primary until June."

Oh, horrors!



Peace:thumbsup:

[anamandujano]

14. A little common sense says that if the party elites were fearful of

primaries continuing until April 22, they might have planned the dates somewhat differently.

[cali]

16. no. history shows us that most years the nomination is

decided early and they front loaded it this year to make the odds of that happening much greater. Most years late primaries are meaningless. This schedule was designed with a strong candidate in mind, one who would clean up on Super Tuesday. Didn't happen.

[Window]

27. Dear Lord.

I don't think we, as a party, could withstand months and months of this mess.



Peace:thumbsup:

[TexasObserver]

9. Sound advice from Kathleen Kennedy.

If I were advising Hillary, here is what I would tell her:

1. Keep it clean from now through March 4th. Don't end on ugly notes.

2. When the results of March 4th roll in, accept the will of the people and bow out gracefully.

3. Work hard to get Obama and Democrats elected this fall.

4. Divorce Bill as soon as the election is over.

5. Rebuild herself as a real, progressive Democrat in the next few years.

6. Re invent herself as an independent person from Bill and his presidency.

7. Abandon the DLC and all lobby entanglements.

8. Get a whole new team, built around competence, not blind loyalty.

9. Be ready in 2012 (in the event Obama loses in '08)

That ought to do it.

[speedoo]

11. She must renounce her IWR vote before she can hope ....

to get any significant increase in support.

[TexasObserver]

12. AGREED. And change her ways on votes like the cluster bombs.

She has to come home to the progressive wing of the party and stop trying to me Miss DLC.

[anamandujano]

15. Keep it clean while Obama continues his mud-slinging. Sound advise.

[Voice for Peace]

26. good advice

I think she might have had a better chance if she'd divorced Bill a long time ago.

[TexasObserver]

29. I've said it before. I'd have voted for Hillary version 1993.

I thought she would go LEFT, not RIGHT, when she became the junior senator from New York. I thought she would use that safe seat to be a senator in the cut of RFK.

[hell-bent]

46. "re-invent herself"

as an independent person from Bill and his presidency? Hey, I sort of liked those Billary years. Weren't they good for you? Oh, that's unfortunate! Obama loses in '08? That can't be possible, can it? Divorce Bill so some lawyer can feed at the trough? Not a good idea at all.

[cali]

13. uh oh. this is actually a big deal

when high profile supporters start saying PUBLICALLY that it's all over, that's real trouble.

[Tarheel_Dem]

19. yup. sorta like her hispanic supporter, a US House Rep, who took his family to an

Obama rally, and came away undecided. :rofl: He said publically that after attending that rally, he was convinced of who was going to win this thing.

I agree with you, she's in deep DOO-DOO when they start going on the record like this.

[WolverineDG]

41. Actually, Pena's son is an Obama supporter

as are most of the sons & daughters of the South Texas politicos supporting Hillary.

dg

[Tarheel_Dem]

48. that's just amazing to me....

i can't tell you how many parents have told me that it was their kids that got them to take a second look at Obama. I'm still trying to figure out how the kids heard about him in the first place? Simply amazing.....

[WolverineDG]

49. the internets?

;)

dg

[Tarheel_Dem]

50. oh.. that's right

old geezers like myself and Ted Stevens don't know much about all them tubes & such. LOL. The My Space, and the FaceBook, etc.

I'm just amazed....;-)

[WolverineDG]

52. I think that's why this primary season has been so nuts

people can get their information from more than just the local media, msm, etc.

dg

[Robert Oak]

22. with friends like this...

who needs enemies...now it's clear there is some media campaign going on trying to crown Prince Obama and if you look at the delegate count, that is absolutely insane.

It's also insane from the current polling numbers.

But of course they were ready to declare it over in Iowa too.

[cali]

24. it'snot about a "coronation"- funny as that is considering Hill

crowned herself months ago. It's not about the delegate count. And K. Townsend is not the media. It's about 11 straight blow outs for her. It's about a campaign in such disarray that they had to replace the campaign manager at a critical time. It's about a campaign deeply in dept. It's about her firewalls crumbling. The signs are all there. And this is not a duplicate of Iowa. It's much later in the game. The polls in Wisconsin had her up 10 days out too. And she was within 4 pts on the day of voting. That was a state demographically similar to Ohio. TX should be very favorable to her and it's tied. She's at the end of her run and hanging by a thread. A miracle could occur, but how likely is that really?

[Wizard777]

23. Too late for that! I think I have just lost all respect for Hillary as a human being.

[totodeinhere]

39. If Hillary bows out gracefully after she loses Texas then perhaps we can regain our respect for her.

[Warren DeMontague]

25. I've been saying that for a long time: "I'm going to be the nominee" isn't a convincing argument

to get the nomination.

[FrenchieCat]

30. Some news!

Shit. Even Kathleen must have gone to a rally or something. Or maybe, she just watched the debates. :wow:

[goldcanyonaz]

33. blah, blah, blah, blah...

ABK or me, can't stand the Kennedy's.

[rodeodance]

34. Demographics say most Obamafolks are't churchgoer's. They have their

little orgy here on DU on Sunday morning (and most other days)--talking amongst themselves on most threads. they live in the Obamabubble.

[loveangelc]

36. how did you know

[Recursion]

37. We read daily from the Obamanomicon

Once you have that, church is superfluous...

[LostInAnomie]

38. That ship set sail a long time ago.

Now, she's set on doing damage before she's booted out.

[Kahuna]

40. And Hillary responded, 'fat fuggin' chance.' nt

[wndycty]

42. Just weeks ago the Clinton folks were bragging about Kennedy Townsend's endorsement

:kick:

[Mme. Defarge]

44. "but her advice was politely dismissed."

The old "thank you for sharing" technique for handling difficult team members.

[Infinite Hope]

47. If that quote is accurate, I would say Townsend is right on every point she made. n/t

[NDambi]

51. She's not the only supporter seeing the end..

NJ Gov. Corzine too.