Obama's spending advantage was blown away by Clinton's use of free media

[BeyondGeography]

Attack ads that re-ran on all the channels.

The turban photo.

SNL and Comedy Central appearances.

The "shame on you" episode.

Milking NAFTAgate for all it was worth, etc.

The Obama campaign's media strategy in the face of all that was, what, exactly? HRC has often been guilty of political malpractice in this campaign; in the period between Feb. 19 and March 4, that title goes to Obama, even if I find much of what Clinton did to be vile. She's in it to win it, after all. You can't be passive in the face of a principle-free competitor who is throwing the kitchen sink at you.

Good to see they have absorbed the lesson by creating some free media play of their own today by pushing for Clinton's tax returns. I hope this is part of a larger strategy that they stick to through April 22. Better surrogates would help, too.

[KittyWampus]

1. I totally agree, however. Winning Texas and Ohio were not in Axelsrod's game plan, IIRC.

Yes, it's time to scrutinize Hillary now.

[keep_it_real]

2. All last weekend the MSM kept saying, What Hil has to do to win?

It was like they were prompting the people of what they had to do to make her win.

[FrenchieCat]

3. and there's more where that came from.

But yes, the media played it as I imagined they would.

See: http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_topic&forum=132&topic_id=4854874

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/paul-jenkins/clinton-and-the-vast-medi_b_89465.html

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_topic&forum=132&topic_id=4756128

[hfojvt]

4. wasn't the SNL endorsement GIVEN to her?

Didn't CBS do a puff piece profile of her, while they did a positive (with questions) profile of Obama? That was given to her as well.

Also NAFTAgate was created - by a Conservative in Canada.

[bleowheels]

5. I wholeheartedly agree with you. Starting Friday with the 3 a.m. ad...

and then with Hillary's SNL (ad) appearence, the fake NAFTA memo and hounding of Obama regarding Rezko, Hillary's campaign couldn't have asked for better advertising. But the truth is, her campaign did infact ask for this. Everyday, her advisors Penn, Ickes and Wolfson have a conference call where they don't just suggest reporters to follow their lines of attack, they tell the reporters what to write. Remember when reporters and journalists actually wrote their own stories? Now, they are just a bunch of lazy hacks.

[StevieM]

6. Nope. His money advantage was huge and it made a difference. Money is the only reason

he's ahead. Barack isn't winning this contest, he's buying it.

Steve

[DJ13]

7. The entire slate of cable news channels became an arm of the Clinton campaign last week

There was no escaping the non-stop pro-Hillary 24 hours per day coverage.

It was so over the top it became a shameful display of corporate bias that was only done to interefere with our nomination process in order to keep the process dragging out for at least another 7 weeks.

[Skwmom]

8. Campaign finance reform is mute when you have free media

cheer-leading.

I'm surprised he did as well as he did. The barrage was relentless.