Clinton's Supporters Question Her Strategy

[DeepModem Mom]

WP: Clinton's Supporters Question Her Strategy
By Anne E. Kornblut, Jonathan Weisman and Paul Kane
Washington Post Staff Writers
Saturday, January 5, 2008; Page A07

MANCHESTER, N.H., Jan. 4 -- After an unexpectedly thorough defeat in Iowa, Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton faced a barrage of second-guessing Friday from supporters worried that her campaign strategy could cost her the Democratic nomination.

In a flurry of conference calls throughout the day, described by several participants, anxious Clinton advisers agreed to stick to her original message -- that only the former first lady has the experience to bring about change. And while they decided to increase the pressure on Sen. Barack Obama (D-Ill.) here, campaign officials were debating how hard to hit him on his experience level in the few short days until the New Hampshire primary.

So far, no senior Clinton advisers have been ousted for failing to produce a victory in Iowa, despite their spending many months and millions of dollars there only to see the candidate's status as the Democratic front-runner vanish. But supporters outside the campaign were quick to question Mark Penn, the chief strategist, whose polling data suggested she could win in Iowa; Patti Solis Doyle, the campaign manager, who moved to Iowa to try to eke out a win; and an inner circle of operatives whose "inevitability" strategy failed to blunt the message of "change" that swept Obama into first place Thursday night....

***

Outsiders continued to question whether Clinton should have run on a message of inevitability, and some said they had privately urged the campaign to take a more humble approach. "It's the inevitability thing that's hurt her so much. There's an arrogance that comes from the message that 'I'm inevitable,' " said a Clinton supporter and White House veteran, speaking on the condition of anonymity.

Just as the Clinton team sought to reassure staff members Thursday night, top campaign advisers -- including former president Bill Clinton -- convened a conference call Friday morning to soothe members of Congress who have endorsed her campaign. The message to the lawmakers was that the campaign will tweak the message to focus on equal parts experience and how to effect change. "It requires experience to bring change," Howard Wolfson, Clinton's top communications adviser, told the lawmakers, according to one participant in the call....

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/01/04/AR2008010404002_pf.html

[calteacherguy]

1. Too little, too late. nt

[snowbear]

2. She's starting to remind me of Lieberman when Lamont started to win..

She's acting JUST LIKE HIM.




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[Quixote1818]

3. LOL! Good comparison! nt

[ingac70]

6. Reckon she'd run third party...

if (when) she loses the nom?

I hope she isn't just like Joe! :scared:

[sandnsea]

10. Clinton/Bloomberg ??

My son mentioned that earlier.

[Nailzberg]

19. NY would only be able to vote for one in the electoral college.

So one wouldn't get the New York votes. The electors from a state may only vote for one person from their state. Cheney changed his residency from TX to OK prior to the 2000 race to avoid this. However, Hillary and Bloomberg are both elected officials in NY, so they won't be changing residency.

[sandnsea]

20. You're right, that's good

Because when my son said it, I got a little panicky. I don't think she'd actually do that anyway, but you never know anymore.

[Bullet1987]

18. You know those DLC Dems act the same way...

[Forkboy]

4. Penn has been the perfect fit for them.

Who could have seen that coming?

[BenDavid]

5. gee obama folks you are ahead by 2 delegates and you al-

ready measuring drapes at 1600 penn. ave. Silly....

but i will share something with ya..... obama 18 edwards 17 hrc 16...

now lets say obama wins nh and sc. (i say no to nh and maybe in sc) with iowa obama has 85 delegates...now in this same month of january lets say hrc wins nevada, michigan and flordia..(she should have no problem) now hrc has with iowa 354 votes....

now lets go to feb 5th.....other then illinois tell me some more states obama might win? Going to be tough....

So, you see the race really has just started....

Ben David

[Joe the Revelator]

9. I'll respond to this all night. The question is, why won't you respond to me??

If Obama wins NH and SC he has all the momentum going into Super Tuesday.

After each loss, nationally, people begin to take notice that Hillary is a loser. They also start to see Obama as a winner. Hillary's soft support in super tuesday states (which lets face it, is what she mainly has, there has been no campaigning in those states yet)begin to break off for Obama. Undecideds break for him.

The entire house of cards that Hillary thinks she has built falls apart.

Now for the question that you refuse to answer. If Obama has all the momentum going into Super Tuesday, how does he lose all those states??

[tammywammy]

11. Michigan and Florida Don't Count

[loveangelc]

13. Ben David..you continue to be made of FAIL

FL and MI do not have delegates. So now...?

[lvx35]

7. She's running against an INCREDIBLE politician in Obama.

Nobody takes into account how freaking good that guy is. Her campaign has been bad mostly in comparison, he kicks unprecedented ass.

Also wiith her campaign, but I was expecting this "rosy the riveter" thing that didn't come, where she cuts the crap and gets all nuts and bolts about the environment/war/energy crunch thing and how she was going to fix it. Instead she stayed with the politics of personality, where Obama is an unprecedented master. Thus I know there is SOME reason to support Hillary, I just don't know what it is.

[ButterflyBlood]

8. Come move away from the dark side! Join us! n/t

[Sulawesi]

21. I support Obama...

but I think the red X through Hillary does more harm than good...

[OHdem10]

12. There is something to Media not liking arrogance.

3 different TV Media types cited Obama for arrogance just sicne
yesterday.

Apparently in speeches he must have said something about a win
in NH and they would be on their way to the WH.

Not so fast say reporters. "He should not be saying that"

[loveangelc]

14. who?

[Bullet1987]

17. I can almost gurantee you...those "outside supporters"

are not only Congressman, but Super Delegates as well. If Hillary goes worse-case scenario and goes 0-4 or something, you'll begin to see those people jump ship like flies. All of a sudden, all of those Clinton supporters will magically have supported Obama from the beginning (which we know will be B.S.).

[loveangelc]

15. so now that Obama and everyone knows that Hillary plans to do this,

he can now be prepared to punch back at any punches she'll throw. great.

[Eurobabe]

16. This paragraph I found especially damning

"Outsiders continued to question whether Clinton should have run on a message of inevitability, and some said they had privately urged the campaign to take a more humble approach. "It's the inevitability thing that's hurt her so much. There's an arrogance that comes from the message that 'I'm inevitable,' " said a Clinton supporter and White House veteran, speaking on the condition of anonymity."

It was this gloaty, cockiness that I found so off-putting, and I was willing to listen to her message. I still think she has some good ideas and plans.

[antigop]

22. Wow! you, you, you mean people objected to having her shoved down their throats? n/t

[Sparkly]

23. I don't understand this "inevitability" thing.

I keep hearing about an "aura" or "attitude" -- terms so nebulous I'm not sure they actually point to anything.

I'm not getting this "aura." I haven't heard Clinton claim to be "inevitable" or act "arrogant." I see her working her ass off on the campaign trail, and saying what they ALL say -- "When I'm president..." They always express that kind of confidence! Why is it different when she does it?

The only way the media has "shoved her down out throats," as I keep hearing, is that they salivated over the prospect of her running (remember 2003?) because they want the story, and THEY keep telling us how unlikeable, arrogant, polarizing, triangulating, evasive, and "inevitable" she is. In response, her campaign has sought to DOWNplay expectations -- another typical, not surprising thing. ("We're taking nothing for granted," or "I'm just going to keep focused on telling the voters -insert campaign theme here--"...)

The non-frontrunners then claim the frontrunner is trying to get into office (already measuring the drapes etc.) before the elections are finished, and forgets it's the voters who decide.

This has all happened again and again. It's just that with Clinton, there's a heightened level of negative hype and character attacks about it.