Clinton’s Campaign Shows Stress Before Primary

[RedEarth]

Source: NYT

Key campaign officials may be replaced. She may start calling herself the underdog. Donors would receive pleas that it is do-or-die time. And her political strategy could begin mirroring that of Rudolph W. Giuliani, a Republican rival, by focusing on populous states like California and New York whose primaries are Feb. 5.

......

If Mrs. Clinton loses badly on Tuesday, campaign officials say she may shake up her team and replace one or more of her senior aides, such as her campaign manager, Patti Solis Doyle; her chief strategist, Mark Penn; her advertising adviser, Mandy Grunwald; and her communications director, Howard Wolfson.

Officials stressed that any signs of upheaval might weaken her further, and that decisions would be made about her staff after the New Hampshire primary. They also noted that her personal loyalties to members of her team leaned against a major shakeup: Ms. Solis Doyle and Ms. Grunwald have been by Mrs. Clinton’s side since her husband’s 1992 campaign, and Mr. Penn for more than a decade. She is also close to Mr. Wolfson, a veteran of her first Senate campaign in 2000.

It is also unclear who could come in this late to right the ship, especially if Mrs. Clinton is 0 for 2 in the first nominating contests. She faces a four-week calendar of primaries through Feb. 5, when she believes the Democratic nomination will be decided. Two former aides to President Clinton, James Carville and John Podesta, have been mentioned by her allies as potential hires, but neither man has been formally asked, said people with knowledge of internal campaign conversations.



Read more: http://www.nytimes.com/2008/01/08/us/politics/08clinton.html?_r=1&hp&oref=slogin

[xultar]

1. Good. Don't count her out. Better yet. Do. PLEASE DO!

[gaiilonfong]

2. so many leaks!

geeezzz

[appal_jack]

3. dumping Penn is ALWAYS a good idea

Mark Penn is sleaze incarnate. Dumping him mid-campaign is a sign of late-blooming common sense, not weakness.

-app

[Evergreen Emerald]

4. I honestly think she has great instincts: she has taken over her campaign

and is doing great: answering questions, meeting people, talking to anyone who will listen. She is showing her real self and it is working.

[Infinite Hope]

5. I don't think it'd weaken her further. In that scenario, she'd have nowhere to go but up.

And it could make her look like her organization has accountability.

[WCGreen]

6. Penn and Grumwald are running the last election....

These consultants get a victory under their belt usually because of unique circumstance not raw talent...

They live off a reputation that is so ephemeral as to be almost non existent...

[Voltaire99]

7. It's heartwarming seeing this wretch in tears.

Her eyes visibly wet, in perhaps the most public display of emotion of her year-old campaign, Mrs. Clinton added: “I have so many opportunities from this country, I just don’t want to see us fall backwards. This is very personal for me — it’s not just political, it’s not just public.”

Sheesh -- wotta crybaby!

If she's going to boohoo over her delayed coronation, what kind of emotional-mental shape is she in for being POTUS?

Running the empire requires a heart of stone and a soul the consistency of a New Jersey sewer (particularly if you intend to carry out Hillary's imperialist policies in the Middle East and further her pro-corporate outsourcing economy). Tear-stained wretches need not apply.

[Cha]

8. I tend to think so too because

all I see when I see hillary are those Soldiers' lives she helped ruin but her politically expedient votes.

She doesn't fool me a damn second.