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Clinton Strategists a Hot Mess

By Tommy Christopher
May 9th 2008 12:15PM

Filed Under:eHillary Clinton, Democrats, 2008 President, Media

The Clinton braintrust has been making news the past few days, and not in a good way. First, there was the revelation that I was righter about Mark Penn than I knew. From Time Magazine:
As aides looked over the campaign calendar (last year), chief strategist Mark Penn confidently predicted that an early win in California would put her over the top because she would pick up all the state's 370 delegates. It sounded smart, but as every high school civics student now knows, Penn was wrong: Democrats, unlike the Republicans, apportion their delegates according to vote totals, rather than allowing any state to award them winner-take-all. Sitting nearby, veteran Democratic insider Harold M. Ickes, who had helped write those rules, was horrified - and let Penn know it. "How can it possibly be," Ickes asked, "that the much vaunted chief strategist doesn't understand proportional allocation?" And yet the strategy remained the same, with the campaign making its bet on big-state victories.
Ouch! Then, last night on Countdown, Keith Olbermann reported from an "unimpeachable source" (pun intended?) that Howard Wolfson is in talks to write a book, tough to do if you plan on going all the way to the White House. (Wolfson denies it.)

Dismissed campaign manager Patti Solis-Doyle is also purportedly working on a book deal. Aside from the fascination of comparing the Rashomon-like accounts of various insiders, these books will serve as a primer on how to run a wildly entertaining campaign.



Whatever you think of the Clinton team's strategy, there is no denying that they are a helluva lot of fun, much more fun than their counterparts in other campaigns. If Wolfson writes a book, I will be first in line to snap that puppy up, even if he leaves me out of it. Some tantalizing details from Radaronline:
The rumor says that Wolfson is shopping the "what went wrong" story about the Clinton campaign, and has already approached at least one leading New York agent about the possibility of a deal for the book. It could be true, but it's precisely the sort of nasty rumor Clinton's enemies-or Wolfson's-might float to bury her dying campaign or his reputation.
"What went wrong?" Well, from a strategy standpoint, that's easy. They didn't trust their candidate. If I could paraphrase an earlier Clinton campaign, "It's the Hillary, Stupid!"

They had everything they needed packed into those famous pantsuits, and they did everything they could to distract attention away from her. I said it a long time ago, they just needed to let Hillary be Hillary, instead of scripting one-liners for her to toss out during the debates or at press conferences, launching political attacks that would give Karl Rove a feeling up his leg, and amplifying gaffes by refusing to give ground.

The Penn anecdote is instructive here, in that this was a very ego-driven strategy team. I can say this, in the close-quarters combat of press conferences, these guys have dazzling skills, but I think that's what hampered their long game. They remained overconfident for far too long, so when panic set in a little bit, they veered too sharply. Going negative at Obama had measurable short-term benefits, to be sure, but took an equal toll on Hillary's credibility. If they had listened to me and went after McCain in March, by now the talk would be about how strong Hillary is against McCain.

I hope Wolfson is writing a book. The stories that come out of the Clinton campaign now are awesome. I can only imagine the stuff Wolfson's seen. I will pledge right now to buy a stack of them as gifts for all of my friends.

I contacted MSNBC for comment on Wolfson's denial, I will let you know what I find out. Here's the video of the Penn story from Countdown:

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