McClatchy: Clinton's campaign woes suggest bumpy presidency

[seafan]

Clinton's campaign woes suggest bumpy presidency

BY DAVID LIGHTMAN
April 27, 2008

WASHINGTON --
Despite Hillary Clinton's big win in Pennsylvania last week, the story of her campaign is often one of mismanagement and missed opportunities, and it raises questions about how she would organize and run the White House.
''There's a certain style to the campaign, and it shows what we might expect in a Clinton presidency: a lot of viewpoints and a messiness,'' said James McCann, a political science professor at Purdue University in Indiana. ..... But her campaign tumbled from riches to rags to rebounds -- and now to hanging on for dear life. It wasn't supposed to be that way.

.....

Obama proved to be a phenomenal opponent -- that's surely one answer. But some critics see Clinton's campaign as a runaway truck that careened from primary to primary in search of a structure that works.
From the time the former first lady announced her White House bid 15 months ago, her strategy was driven by three ideas: She was the inevitable Democratic nominee so everyone should jump on her bandwagon; she had a seasoned team adept at finding and appealing to wide varieties of voters; and she could outraise and outspend all rivals.

''The bottom line is that she went in with a set of assumptions that proved to be false,'' said John Geer, editor of the Journal of Politics.
The notion that she was the inevitable winner left a lot of activists cold.
'You got the sense that her attitude was, `I'm the nominee, so what else are you going to do?' '' said Gordon Fischer, a former Iowa Democratic Party chairman.
Clinton's second stumble was trusting advisors who not only bickered openly, but also seemed to lack the strategic vision that a presidential campaign requires.

.....

As the campaign progressed in 2008, Clinton faced a third problem: Her team had expected her to sew up the nomination on Feb. 5, Super Tuesday. It burned through more than $118 million trying to make that happen, spending so furiously that Clinton even lent herself $5 million at the end of January.

But when Obama fought her to a draw that day, Clinton seemed to have no Plan B.

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Along the way Clinton presented a number of shifting personas. When she was trying to appear inevitable, she ran as the steely would-be commander in chief. After she lost to Obama in Iowa, she turned misty-eyed and emotional just before the New Hampshire primary and won. More recently, she's presented herself as the reincarnation of Rocky, the plucky prize-fighter who never gives up.

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Clinton backers dismiss the February free-fall as ancient history, citing her Pennsylvania win as evidence she's on the path to the top. While her campaign aides declined requests for comment for this story, her surrogates made her case publicly.
''It was an awesome victory, a landslide in so many different ways,'' said Pennsylvania Gov. Ed Rendell. ``You can see the dynamic changing.''

.....

Indeed, the dynamic is changing....



Look now at the inclusiveness and enthusiasm of this new nationwide voter registration and mobilization drive that the Obama campaign is undertaking:


Obama launches nationwide voter drive, By Klaus Marre, April 25, 2008

The campaign of Sen. Barack Obama (Ill.), the frontrunner for the Democratic presidential nomination, announced Friday that it would launch a countrywide voter registration and mobilization drive.
“If we’re going to push back on the special interests and finally solve the challenges we face, we’re going to need everyone to get involved,” Obama stated. “Over the next six months, Vote for Change is going to bring new participants into the process, adding scores of new voices to this critical dialogue about our future.”

The Obama campaign hopes to build on successful voter registration efforts that have already brought tens of thousands of new voters into the process over the course of the Democratic primary.
In announcing the initiative, the campaign said it would “work with grassroots volunteers and partner with local organizations to register new voters and boost engagement in our Democratic process.”

“We’ve already seen amazing new enthusiasm and involvement over the course of this campaign, and now we’re taking that excitement to the next level in all 50 states,” said deputy campaign manager Steve Hildebrand.

Meanwhile, what is the Clinton campaign doing?



The Clinton campaign is working like an army of termites, trying to eat away at Barack Obama's chances to take the Democratic nomination.



Audio: Clinton Camp Testing Attacks on Obama, By Jake Tapper, April 25, 2008

On Wednesday, Obama-backing musician in Black Mountain, North Carolina, David LaMotte, got a phone call from a pollster for Sen. Hillary Clinton, Garin-Hart-Yang, in which negative messages against Sen. Barack Obama, D-Illinois, were being tested.

The Garin in Garin-Hart-Yang, incidentally, is Geoff Garin, who has an op-ed in today's Washington Post complaining that the Obama campaign is the one that's negative, not Clinton.

Ahem.

"I'm going to read you a few criticisms opponents might make about Barack Obama," the pollster said. "For each one please tell me if they give you very major doubts, fairly major doubts, some doubts or no real doubts about supporting Barack Obama for president.

"At a time when we need leaders who are clear, strong and decisive, Obama has been inconsistent, saying he would remove all troops, but then indicating that he might not, and pledging to renegotiate NAFTA, but then sending signals that he would not actually do so as president.

'He supported George W. Bush's 2005 energy bill which paid six billion dollars in subsidies to the oil and gas industry, nine billion dollars in subsidies to the coal industry and twelve billion dollars in subsidies to the nuclear power industry. It was called 'a piñata of perks' and 'the best energy bill corporations could buy.' Would that leave you with major doubts, some doubts or no real doubts?"

You can listen to some of the call, which LaMotte record and emailed to me, HERE. (At link)

.....

LaMotte adds that "the really sad part of this is that I was excited to be a part of a poll. Unlike a lot of people that would have considered it a nuisance, I've been following the polls around the country closely, and I was thrilled to have the opportunity to weigh in on one in my own state. It was terribly disappointing to realize that I was just being manipulated. It's hard to see how these could generate any useful data either, given that most Obama supporters would simply hang up offended when the questions got so insulting. That leaves you with data that is skewed pro-Clinton."

This is not the behavior, character or temperament of an American president we so profoundly need.


These predatory, toxic attacks by the Clinton campaign against Barack Obama MUST END NOW.




The ongoing, corrosive effects on the Democratic Party can be illustrated.



Lying in wait.

[babylonsister]

1. Just what we need, another 'bumpy' presidency. Ugh. NO! nt

[nichomachus]

2. As the Clinton associate and adviser said

Hillary is smart and she's progressive, but I just don't want that circus back in town.

[sniffa]

3. The Secret Service has been notified for your threatening pic of a black widow

:kick: