Hillary Clinton Hires The Strategist Who Broke Her 2008 Campaign

[brooklynite]

BuzzFeed:

Hillary Clinton has hired the key tactician behind her stunning 2008 primary defeat, a sign both of her campaign’s intense focus on a Democratic Primary that is shaping up as a joke, and of her team’s obsession with avoiding the mistakes of her last campaign.

A campaign official confirmed to BuzzFeed News that Jeff Berman has joined the campaign as a consultant, and has quietly been working for Clinton since her launch earlier this month.

Berman’s name may not ring bells even for fairly obsessive political junkies — he’s not an MSNBC regular, doesn’t much talk to reporters, and has spent most of his professional life in private legal practice.

But reporters who covered the hallucinatory December and January of Clinton’s collapse will remember him, first, as a tense and reedy voice on a conference call the night of January 19, 2008. Clinton had just won Nevada, we thought, because she won about 500 more delegates through a caucus process that was more like a melee than a vote. I had filed my story and was walking to my gate at McCarran International Airport when Obama’s campaign manager, David Plouffe, convened a conference call on what seemed at first a technical, even absurd, premise: That by virtue of some obscure rule, Obama had actually won.

A number of anti-Hillary people suggest that she'll lose in 2016 because she lost in 2008. I think it's clear she knows WHY she lost and is changing strategies where necessary.

Here's a prior reference: http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=132x5925397

[Xipe Totec]

1. Smart move. nt

[-Bernie-]

2. Um, that's not why she lost......

But, whatever makes her feel comfortable. And more reason why she has to raise SO much money.

Do you know why Bernie doesn't need advisors - because he knows exactly what he is talking about and does not need to talk to advisors, or focus group to get to the correct position, and the $15 million he raised will be used appropriately as he sees fit.

How much of that Clinton's $45 million goes to paying their advisors or their "interns"?

[brooklynite]

7. Actually it is...

Both Obama and Clinton got about 18 million votes. But Obama got a lot more of his in caucus states that Clinton didn't strongly contest where he was able to pick up large shares of delegates.

Obama: 17.6 M votes, 2,286 delegates
Clinton: 17.8 M votes, 1,973 delegates

[mythology]

8. Are you really saying that you think Bernie Sanders doesn't have campaign advisers?

That would be news to his campaign given that he has campaign advisers from Obama, Kerry, Gore and Dukakis on his staff.

Everybody seriously running for president has advisers to hone messages, to monitor polling and campaign enthusiasm. Given that Sanders is getting such significant crowds and raised a substantial amount last quarter, I'd say his advisers are doing their jobs in helping Sanders get his message across.

[brooklynite]

9. Most political advisors don't focus on what the candidate's message should be...

...they focus on HOW to get the message out and WHERE to commit the campaign's resources on a national battleground

[zappaman]

12. "Do you know why Bernie doesn't need advisors"

[Divernan]

15. HRC does not pay interns or many more experienced campaign workers.

The Guardian has reported that professionals are working for free on the Clinton campaign as ‘interns’ in hopes of a future job. This is yet another example of how unpaid internships promote inequality. What makes it worse is that those with enough privilege to quit their job to work for free are getting a leg up as a Washington DC ‘insider’ down the road. This is exactly how the political establishment stays richer, whiter, and more corporate friendly.

Join me (a former campaign professional) in asking Hillary Clinton not to staff positions that ought to be paid with ‘fellowships’ and ‘internships’ that helps drive the concentration of wealth and power in this country towards those who already have the most.

http://petitions.moveon.org/sign/hillary-clinton-dont.fb47?source=s.fb&r_by=5482506

And what's really SLICK about HRC's campaign strategy of hiring rich kids is that their daddies foot the bill for cost of living, thereby enabling interns to contribute services AND over the course of 12-18 months, interns rich parents to contribute, via subsidizing their kids, far in excess of campaign limitations on donations. I repeat, is that SLICK or what!?!?

[jeff47]

3. Clinton is setting up an excellent strategy to fight the previous war.

Too bad for the "previous" part.

[The Velveteen Ocelot]

4. Hope she doesn't hire that awful Mark Penn.

[virtualobserver]

5. I always felt that Mark Penn was the problem in 2008

Is he associated with her campaign this time?

[brooklynite]

10. No

[virtualobserver]

13. Berman does look like a great hire n/t

[Divernan]

6. Wow! a Clinton-tied KXL lobbyist. HRC, 1; Environment- 0

Great job confirming Berman's hire, Ben! I wonder if any of the other Clinton-tied KXL lobbyists first exposed by DeSmogBlog will also join the campaign? Berman was one of seven lobbyists with ties to Clinton and Obama that we identified in 2011.

The presence of so many former Clinton associates on the lobbying roster for polluter clients on a high-profile controversy suggests a clash with the repeated campaign pledges of greater transparency and tougher dealings with lobbyists by Secretary Clinton’s boss, President Obama. http://www.desmogblog.com/hillary-clinton-keystone-xl-lobbyists

Hillary Clinton and the State Department have the final word on whether to approve the Keystone XL tar sands pipeline, unless President Obama intervenes. The influence of tar sands industry lobbyists connected to Hillary Clinton is finally getting some media attention, but there is still more to this story.

Clinton's State Department is finally complying with a FOIA request for documents, after a lawsuit filed in May by three watchdog groups over an alleged lack of transparency regarding contacts with TransCanada lobbyist Paul Elliott, a former staffer on Hillary Clinton's presidential run. Elliott has earned at least $310,000 as TransCanada Pipelines' in-house lobbyist to influence Congress and several federal agencies, including the State Department, on the Keystone XL pipeline.

However, the tar sands industry's use of former Clinton associates to lobby on the controversial project extends beyond Mr. Elliott. DeSmogBlog has uncovered seven other influencers or lobbyists with ties to Clinton and Obama who have lobbied on behalf of tar sands interests for approval of the Keystone XL pipeline.

Jeff Berman is listed as another Bryan Cave lobbyist on the Keystone XL account who reports lobbying the State Department and the President's office. Berman, a friend of David Plouffe, has been referred to as the "unsung hero" of Barack Obama's 2008 primary victory over Hillary Clinton.
Bryan Cave LLP reported earnings of $1.08 million between 2009-2011 lobbying on behalf of TransCanada, according to the Center for Responsive Politics. Bryan Cave

staff reported lobbying the State Department directly about the Keystone XL Pipeline.
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/brendan-demelle/hillary-clintons-keystone_b_997523.html

[paulkienitz]

11. "knows why she lost?" I don't think she does.

Her primary loss was about her record, not her campaigning. Her only problems in the coming election will be from her record.

[CanadaexPat]

14. Ready to fight yesterday's war.