Obama used party rules to foil Clinton

[JimGinPA]

WASHINGTON (AP) — Unlike Hillary Rodham Clinton, rival Barack Obama planned for the long haul.

Clinton hinged her whole campaign on an early knockout blow on Super Tuesday, while Obama's staff researched congressional districts in states with primaries that were months away. What they found were opportunities to win delegates, even in states they would eventually lose.

Obama's campaign mastered some of the most arcane rules in politics, and then used them to foil a front-runner who seemed to have every advantage — money, fame and a husband who had essentially run the Democratic Party for eight years as president.

"Without a doubt, their understanding of the nominating process was one of the keys to their success," said Tad Devine, a Democratic strategist not aligned with either candidate. "They understood the nuances of it and approached it at a strategic level that the Clinton campaign did not."

Careful planning is one reason why Obama is emerging as the nominee as the Democratic Party prepares for its final three primaries, Puerto Rico on Sunday and Montana and South Dakota on Tuesday. Attributing his success only to soaring speeches and prodigious fundraising ignores a critical part of contest.

Obama used the Democrats' system of awarding delegates to limit his losses in states won by Clinton while maximizing gains in states he carried. Clinton, meanwhile, conserved her resources by essentially conceding states that favored Obama, including many states that held caucuses instead of primaries.

Much more at link

http://ap.google.com/article/ALeqM5ghb-cUeWpvC77LS_S8tI4aB7ENIQD91018RO0


I thought this was a very instructive article.

[Coexist]

1. if you want to win the game, it helps to know the rules.

[mac2]

2. With help from the FL and MI Republican controlled legislative bodies?

You might be right.

[damntexdem]

11. But who would have won had there been true campaigns in MI & FL?

And even if HRC had own both, how much a delegate edge would she have gotten?

And, by the way, if the decision tomorrow is to seat half the MI/FL delegates, or to seat all with half votes, then the Dem delegates from those states will be in the same position as will the GOP delegates from those states. The GOP will have no "the Dems didn't represent FL and MI" argument, because they have already decided to sanction the state delegations by taking away half of their voting power.

[Doityourself]

12. Your girl didn't plan very well, she hired the wrong people, used the wrong strategy and ran a bad

campaign..period..end of story. She had it all at the beginning..she blew it..just admit the damn truth.

[cyndensco]

19. Her "strategy" was as ill-planned as guiliani's.

She knew she'd have it won after Super Tuesday while he banked on sleeping Iowa and New Hampshire focusing on Florida. Good thing neither of them will be pres.

[Cha]

22. You got that right, cyndensco..

"Good thing neither of them will be pres."


And, I want to thank you for Wisconsin!:P

[cyndensco]

30. You know, we were considered the "Slingshot Primary."

At his rally, his folk kept saying we needed to 'slingshot' them to Texas which was holding its primary 2 weeks later.

Oh, and I'm a transplant, soon to return to the east coast. BUT, WI has never voted for a bush, and we have FEINGOLD!!!:)

[Cha]

31. I've never even been but Wisconsin

will always hold a place in my heart. And, Slingshot 'im ya did! :bounce: :patriot: :kick: :party:

[hokies4ever]

15. Hillary's down by 200 delegates

even if FL and MI were seated in full, she would still be behind.

[ieoeja]

17. You do realize that even if FL/MI counted, she would still be well behind? n/t

[Starbucks Anarchist]

3. Damn strategy and foresight.

I don't want that in a president. :sarcasm:

[damntexdem]

4. Now who has the edge in administrative savvy?

Who shows better ability to plan how to govern?

[krispos42]

5. So his campaign is both smart and legal

And subtle. Sounds like good qualities in an Administration.

A great political victory is one where the opposition does not quite understand how they lost. He'll twist Iran and the Republicans into knots.

[BlooInBloo]

6. It's a common occurence in competitions. The favorite often doesn't prepare well...

(since they're the favorite), and the underdog, working harder to prepare, comes out ahead.

Even if you're the prohibitive favorite, you have to do more than just show up. The NCAA tournament, for example, is littered with the remains of teams who thought that just showing up was a guarantor of victory.

That's why they play the game, as they say.

[Cha]

7. Thank you, Jim..kicking for

later..can't wait!

[cliffordu]

8. What did she say about heat and kitchens??

[SoonerPride]

9. Sounds like the stronger candidate won. More money, better organized = winner.

What a shocker.

[WeDidIt]

10. Well geez. Is it any wonder she wants to change the rules

after the fact?

[PATRICK]

13. I hope those smarts translate

into the GE with its winner take all electoral college, complexities in the fraud beside the legitimate variety of methods, and preparing to challenge the system rather than use it. There are some essentially different strategies and mindsets necessary for taking on the GOP game. Also Clinton has survived and not been buried in the careful high road approach right up to Puerto Rico.

I have no clever wisdom to substitute but I think we all wonder what the future will bring that is different from the past two sandbaggings of our presidential nominees. You always look smart when it works. Sometimes it is a mistake to worship the methods when in this case the man has been the biggest element and the most necessary. Bill Clinton's success empowering the disastrous DLC models still crawls to mind. It is more important and more a beginning to not impede or hobble the man behind the strategies.

Sometimes Obama has been awkward or not especially victorious in verbal exchanges. The planning has been more impeccable. Yet when the usual crowd of loser advisers begin to flock in with their great GE "experience" to themselves in turn look brilliant because of Obama's success I'd rather that Obama not be shoved behind. He will have enough stolen from him in the GOP machinery.

[truedelphi]

14. This statement of yours "He will have enough stolen from him in the GOP machinery."

That is exactly what everyone who is for Obama needs to keep in mind.

And someone needs to explain to him or Michelle the wolf in sheep's clothing approach that
provided very bad advice to Kerry via the Carville route

[JimGinPA]

16. That's The Reason Hillary's Hanging On Is Hurting The Party...

While I'm sure his team has been working on the GE strategy, her campaign distracts their attention.

[sofa king]

18. He said his campaign was to be a demonstration of his organization and financial management skills.

It was one of the ways he deflected cries of inexperience. He said in effect, watch my superior organization and financial management, and let that speak for my ability.

And so it has.

Having spent a little bit of time in DC, I well know that the underpinning of effective politics isn't the high-paid front people, it's the nameless underlings who do all the hard work and lay the options out for those front people. Looks to me like the Obama campaign started there to create their organization, while the Clinton campaign targeted the old warhorses and expected them to bring along their own brilliant underlings.

(Edit: I should also add that this is what saved the American Republic, as the Bush Administration placed a much higher value on mindless loyalty rather than experience or ability. Both foreign and domestic policy were run in a top-down fashion, and the Bush Administration consistently chose to break the law rather than work the system. They were consistently confounded by their own ignorance and incompetence, and that's what saved us from total disaster.)

[aaronbees]

26. Getting people at the grass roots involved....

not only paid dividends in the nuts-and-bolts strategy of running a long-term campaign (as seen in his money management, organization, etc.), but it also defined his vision for the country, a place where change starts because of the will of the people. He's absolutely true to that vision on so many levels. What a remarkable campaign.

[Cha]

20. I love critical analysis like this..learning a lot more about

Obama since I wasn't on board at the very inception.

"Clinton hinged her whole campaign on an early knockout blow on Super Tuesday, while Obama's staff researched congressional districts in states with primaries that were months away. What they found were opportunities to win delegates, even in states they would eventually lose."

Yep, there's no denying that.


"Obama's campaign mastered some of the most arcane rules in politics, and then used them to foil a front-runner who seemed to have every advantage — money, fame and a husband who had essentially run the Democratic Party for eight years as president."

I don't know why they didn't hire the brightest and the best like Obama instead of that ol' Blackwater guy.

"In a stark example, Obama's victory in Kansas wiped out the gains made by Clinton for winning New Jersey, even though New Jersey had three times as many delegates at stake. Obama did it by winning big in Kansas while keeping the vote relatively close in New Jersey."

Any savvy campaign strategist could have figured this out but Obama's actually did it.

"Once you had a black candidate you knew that he would be winning large numbers of delegates because of this phenomenon," said Kamarck, who is also a superdelegate supporting Clinton."

Oh Snap..hilary had the majority of Black voters until bil startin' race baitin' and "fairy tale" talkin'. Victims to the end, those hilary twisters of words.


"If that same strategy and that same effort had been used with a different candidate, a less charismatic candidate, a less attractive candidate, it wouldn't have worked," Fowler said. "The reason they look so good is because Obama was so good."

And, then surprise.. a along comes Don Fowler, who gets it perfectly.

[sfam]

21. All this proves is that careful planning is sexist!

Damn those sexist jerks. How DARE they plan carefully when running against a woman!

[Cha]

24. And, all those Grassyhead roots..how dare they?

Work from the ground up?!!

[Tierra_y_Libertad]

23. The Clintons used to praise those who "work hard and play by the rules".

I guess that slogan only applies to the proletariat...if they vote for the Clinton Dynasty.

[Cha]

25. Now, we know that was just some more

of their Orwellian code speak.

[mudesi]

27. McCain is going to be CRUSHED (nm)

[madrchsod]

28. she knows what axlerod can do but she under estimated barack

she over estimated penn and the rest of her staff.

she screwed up her campaign and she wants to take no responsibility for it. that is not the sign of true leadership.

[Blondiegrrl]

29. I want someone that brilliant and shrewd running my country.

GOBAMA!