Clinton weighs staff shake-up after New Hampshire

[Jarqui]

Source: Politico

Hillary and Bill Clinton are so dissatisfied with their campaign’s messaging and digital operations they are considering staffing and strategy changes after what’s expected to be a loss in Tuesday’s primary here, according to a half-dozen people with direct knowledge of the situation.

The Clintons -- stung by her narrow victory in Iowa -- had been planning to reassess staffing at the campaign’s Brooklyn headquarters after the first four primaries, but the Clintons have become increasingly caustic in their criticism of aides and demanded the reassessment sooner, a source told POLITICO.
...
“There’s nobody sitting in the middle of this empowered to create a message and implement it,” said one former Obama 2008 aide. “They are kind of rudderless… occasionally Hillary grabs the rudder, but until recently she was not that interested in [working on messaging]… Look, she going to be the nominee, but she’s not going to get any style points and if she isn’t careful she is going to be a wounded nominee. And they better worked this shit out fast because who ever the Republicans pick is going to be 29 times tougher than Bernie.”
...
But from the beginning, there have been deeper issues simmering within the cheerfully-decorated Brooklyn headquarters -- and much of that had to do with a disconnect between the candidate and her campaign. Over the summer while her campaign was bogged down in the email controversy, Clinton was deeply frustrated with her own staff, and vice versa. The candidate blamed her team for not getting her out of the mess quickly, and her team blamed Clinton for being stubbornly unwilling to take the advice of campaign chairman John Podesta and others to apologize, turn over her server, and move on. The entire experience made her a deeply vulnerable frontrunner out of the gate, and underscored a lack of trust between Clinton and her operatives, many of whom were former Obama staffers that she didn't consider part of her inner circle of trust.




Read more: http://www.politico.com/story/2016/02/hillary-clinton-staff-shakeup-218955

---

Worth a read - the four paragraphs do not do it justice but you get the gist

Sounds like they're in a mess.

[winter is coming]

1. Sounds a bit like 2008.

There were conflicting camps of advisers within the Clinton campaign and Hillary had a tendency to put off making decisions. Why wasn't this sorted months ago?

[HooptieWagon]

5. I think that's exactly what's going on now.

Also like 2008 she values loyalty and yes-people among her staff, aides, and entourage, rather than competence.

[winter is coming]

7. I find it interesting that her "message" is purportedly that she's fighting for us.

Given all the money she's taken from big corporations, why on Earth should I believe that?

[Dragonfli]

19. It's obvious, she released a couple dozen million of her multi million dollar fortune

To hire people to at least get a start on replacing lead pipes, installing home filtration systems and supplying some temporary bottled water to the people in Flint.

Oh wait, she forget to do it, must be a staffer's screw up (fired now I am sure) she did hire a photographer for a photo OP, that should help them much more than giving them drinkable water which is far less tangible, especially with the harsh words added during the photo op.

Giving them water would be like forcing people to receive welfare rather than the dignity of extreme poverty, remember the 90's? She knows how to help those in need by NOT helping them, she is a Zen master that way.

[NCjack]

23. Believe it. The big corporations collectively love us. /nt/sarcasm/

[winter is coming]

44. Yeah. They love us to death. n/t

[Yo_Mama]

48. This is part of a larger crisis of trust in the American people.

On the left and right, a very common perception is that the people can elect whomever they wish, but it will not change policies. This has led to a desperate search for "authenticity" in candidates.

As for the internal issues in the campaign, I know nothing and so any comment would be worthless.

[TipTok]

34. The Clintons have had a lot of success just waiting for the storm to pass...

... but this turned into a slow bleed.

[HooptieWagon]

2. Infighting aboard a rudderless ship...

Works for me!

[californiabernin]

3. Caustic in their criticism of aides...

I feel sorry for the aides.

It's no their fault.

[sarge43]

17. It's not the troops; it's the leadership

She had eight years to define mission objectives, strategy and tactics. The emails?! She should have been ready and set to deal with the problem before she even announced. Did she think there wouldn't be blowback?

If the troops don't have positive, clear eyed leadership, they can't get it done.

[Wibly]

4. Candidate issue

She can change her crew as much as she likes, but until she stops pandering and changing her story to appease those who she thinks are listening, her campaign is going to continue to tank.
The problem is the candidate, the the campaign staff.

[roguevalley]

26. fish rot from the head down. they can only do what they're told.

[dixiegrrrrl]

33. This shows one of her major problems, for me at least.

"Hillary and Bill Clinton are so dissatisfied"

"The Clintons" (plural)
and yesterday Bill served as an attack dog on someone for her.


Billary is not what I want................

[CentralMass]

6. Leadership starts at the top and the buck stops here.

[FlatBaroque]

8. You know I get bloated and farty when there's too much milk in my latte

[mikehiggins]

9. Uhhh, is this SUPPOSED to be the Bill and Hillary campaign? eom

[dixiegrrrrl]

35. Exactly. And, despite known negative backlash about it. n/t

[Senator Tankerbell]

10. Maybe they should bring back Mark Penn.

[jeff47]

31. There are reports he has started advising the campaign. (nt)

[Z_California]

11. I was wondering when this was going to happen

This has been the most inept, tone-deaf, and history blind campaign I've ever seen for a candidate who is the front-runner for ANY national office.

There may or may not be enough time to save her nomination, but the damage has been done.

[thereismore]

12. Why? She is doing so well.

I heard around here that she is closing the gap in NH and has an insurmountable firewall just waiting for her in SC.

[kath]

13. Are they going to try again to train her to seem "authentic"?? LOL.

[SoLeftIAmRight]

14. Here comes Kissinger

Albright - Steinem

[Jarqui]

15. Her policy positions have been rudderless ... all the flip-flops

which makes her more of a follower - not a real leader. She follows the lead to a policy position that will get her the most votes. If that position wanes, then she flip-flops to the new policy position.

Her last campaign suffered similarly.

She doesn't communicate a vision. She's more of a policy wonk. Her vision is "I'm going to tweak these laws with these add ons" It rings hollow.

If she can't fix that, she's not going to win a general election.

[jwirr]

25. I remember when this happened in 08 I thought that if she

cannot run a campaign how is she going to run a country. And this OP still does not get the real problem. People are not interested in a candidate who has a ton of corporate and Wall Street money and no really progressive issues that we can believe.

That is her message - "cut that out" and "trust me". And we do not believe either of them.

[Blus4u]

36. You forgot, "no we can't"

"cut that out", "no we can't", and trust me".


Peace

[jwirr]

38. Well to be honest I do believe she can't!

[Sunlei]

16. sounds like a good idea to get rid of those, "half-dozen people with direct knowledge"

I don't think anyone running a campaign or in a political leadership position tolerates their staff speaking to the press.

[Plucketeer]

18. Maybe new packaging, eh?

When you're having trouble selling your shit sandwiches, maybe you need to devise more attractive packaging!

[CharlotteVale]

39. ROFL. New and improved!

[thereismore]

20. Oooh, so now we learn that she does not consider Obama's people her inner circle. It's not happening

for Clinton.

[ProfessorGAC]

21. They're Planning It Before The Vote Even Happens?

What if it turns out closer than currently predicted? Wouldn't this move look ridiculous?

[4139]

28. Just planning 'spin' for the loss. Blame someone anyone to deflect the real problem....

The real problem is Hillary!

[jeff47]

32. They spend a fortune on internal polling.

I'm pretty sure they know what's coming.

[bluedigger]

22. If she can't lead her campaign more effectively, why would I want her to lead my country?

[Myrina]

47. "... nobody sitting in the middle of this empowered to create a message and implement it"

Yeah, isn't that sorta the job of the candidate? The (implied) LEADER of the Party, (campaigning to be) LEADER of the Free World?
To LEAD?

OMFG..

[Divernan]

24. Stubborn HRC ignores Podesta's advice to turn over the server & apologize!

She is incapable of learning from her mistakes, no matter how costly they were. If she had timely turned over her Rose law firm billing records pursuant to a subpoena from Ken Starr in the Whitewater land deal investigation, AS SHE WAS ADVISED TO DO by top-ranking Democrats, his investigation would have been wrapped up years before Monica Lewinsky set foot in the oval office. But, oh no! That sorry excuse for a lawyer, Hillary Clinton, defied complying with a subpoena, LIED TO THE COURT, and "lost" those records for two whole years, until they mysteriously appeared in the Clinton's White House family quarters. In other words, but for Hillary's refusal to take sound legal advice and comply with the subpoena, Bill wouldn't have been in the position of lying under oath and the nation wouldn't have been subjected to the whole impeachment mess. She has no respect for the rule of law.

Well, here she is again, ignoring the advice of her campaign manager, Podesta, and causing the email mess to be dragged out for months and, according to her own campaign staff, causing much damage to her campaign.

But from the beginning, there have been deeper issues simmering within the cheerfully-decorated Brooklyn headquarters -- and much of that had to do with a disconnect between the candidate and her campaign. Over the summer while her campaign was bogged down in the email controversy, Clinton was deeply frustrated with her own staff, and vice versa. The candidate blamed her team for not getting her out of the mess quickly, and her team blamed Clinton for being stubbornly unwilling to take the advice of campaign chairman John Podesta and others to apologize, turn over her server, and move on. The entire experience made her a deeply vulnerable frontrunner out of the gate, and underscored a lack of trust between Clinton and her operatives, many of whom were former Obama staffers that she didn't consider part of her inner circle of trust.

Her advisers were also frustrated by having to play roles they hadn’t been hired for and were ill-suited for. From the beginning, Benenson was frustrated that he was forced to split his time between defending his boss on emails and defining a path for her candidacy. Clinton, meanwhile, longed for a chief strategist in the Mark Penn mold who could take on a more expansive role than playing pollster.

http://www.politico.com/story/2016/02/hillary-clinton-staff-shakeup-218955

[jwirr]

30. I wonder how many decisions she made as Secretary of State

using this method?

[ChairmanAgnostic]

29. Can they start at the top? With the candidate?

[Blus4u]

37. ^^^^THREAD WINNER^^^^

Peace

[SoapBox]

42. I believe you are correct.

[Odin2005]

40. Rearranging chairs on a sinking ship,

[Rosa Luxemburg]

50. yes

the Titanic hit the Bernie iceberg

[SoapBox]

41. "...increasingly caustic..."

Oh, I'll bet that makes the staff in the crumbling Tower of Power, wanna work real hard.

It's over Hill and Slick Willie...it was fucked up from the start...add all the baggage from 30+ years...

Over.

[MisterP]

43. hm, usually I hear that she has very good relations with staffers

so either it's a crisis, or she's less pleasant with the volunteers

[awoke_in_2003]

45. Still with the email thing?

She did nothing illegal.

[Jarqui]

46. We do not know that yet

Last edited Tue Feb 9, 2016, 05:05 PM - Edit history (1)

The State Department admitted last week that they (folks on Clinton's server) sent emails with information that was classified at the time of transmission. That does not mean emails classified after the fact. The CIA has submitted at least two declarations confirming that.
http://www.state.gov/r/pa/prs/dpb/2016/02/252161.htm

QUESTION: Right. So are you challenging sworn declarations from the CIA that they were top secret at the time of transmission?

MR KIRBY: As I said last week, it was at the request of the intelligence community that we specifically upgraded that traffic to top secret.

QUESTION: Okay, so you don’t dispute that.

MR KIRBY: If we had disputed it, we wouldn’t have upgraded it --

Information on Clinton's server that was classified at the time of transmission was emailed. That is now a fact admitted by everyone except Hillary. And it's against the law.

The FBI is still reviewing. The CIA still seems involved.

Like I said, we don't know what is going to happen.

[awoke_in_2003]

51. Just so you know

Putting "nt" at the end of your title line implies you have no text in the message box. This saves people clicks when they are checking responses to their posts.

[Yo_Mama]

49. It's hard to say that. She sent an email instructing someone to remove

a security heading and transmit. That's a crime.

There was information on the server that was supposed to be automatically classified. And then that email, which is a smoking gun showing that she didn't have any intention of operating under the regs. That ties it to her so very directly.

And then there are hundreds of emails classified after review, with the classifying agencies saying some of them were classified at the time.

There should be a special counsel on this matter. As Secretary of State, she had the responsibility to ensure that this information was properly handled. The server was set up at her behest and was wholly under her control. Then the email saying to copy the communication, remove the security notification and transmit unsecured. Then the hundreds of classified emails. Lastly, the failure to comply with the records statutes, which now looks to be more than just oversight.

For most people, that would be an evidential chain which would stand in court and more than warrant a serious criminal investigation.

As it stands, the "presumptive" nominee treated highly confidential information more casually than a secretary at a doctor's office is mandated by federal law to treat your blood test results. Every health care worker receives HIPAA training requiring that they don't do what Hillary did. There are millions of people in this country who understand the seriousness of the situation. Simply repeating a lie is not going to quash this.

Because of who she is, I do not expect charges. But if there is not a special counsel, a real possibility exists that information could be exposed after an election which would form the basis for impeachment.

Further, the rest of the party should not be tarred with this. That's why we need a special counsel.