Although it appears that Sen. Hillary Clinton’s campaign may be settling on a strategy of emphasizing her proposals to help the middle class and the perception that she is better qualified to be commander-in-chief than Sen. Barack Obama, two news articles further examine how disorganization has brought the Clinton campaign to the brink of oblivion.
The L.A. Times reports on how strategist Mark Penn has fought Harold Ickes and other advisors over the campaign’s message. Penn has pushed her “strength and experience,” while the others have sought to play identity politics of electing the first woman president. The internal friction reportedly persists, with some arguing that Clinton should make more of an effort to show a warmer, softer side before the Texas and Ohio primaries.
The Politico reports on the millions the campaign has spent on outside consultants like Penn, admaker Mandy Grunwald, and the firm of Howard Wolfson, Clinton’s PR flack. Some campaign insiders believe some of the cash flowing to Clinton’s DC-centric brain trust could be better spent matching Obama’s stepped-up spending in recent states. Based on how the Clinton campaign has done, it is a hard point to argue.
Their current message problem stems from a failure of imagination, or memory. In 1992, Bill Clinton was able to crusade for the forgotten middle-class, armed with his plan, and feel people’s pain.ÂÂ
Although the process has reached the point where retail politics are generally abandoned, Clinton might consider dropping a few of the big rallies (which Obama has mastered) in favor of more town-hall style “listening tour” events, where she can sympathize with stories told by the downtrodden blue-collar workers of the fading Rust Belt and talk about specific policy proposals, rather than just saying she is “in the solutions business” as a slogan. Hold the events in union halls or someplace similarly working-class. She could look more human in this context while stressing her strong suit — and get free media coverage in Ohio doing it. If such events played well, she could turn them into an ad.
She’s such a loser.
Karl – That would require her to connect with people on a personal level, a skill that she has proven repeatedly, that she simply does not possess.
It’s embarrassing cause I thought she was inevitable. But nope. Turns out she and her herpetic husband are just pitiful arkie losers. And they made me look stupid. Made a lot of people look stupid really. I’m used to it, but a lot of people what have kissed her ass for like decades now must feel just awful.
It must be that state, because betwixt the Clintons and Fuckabee and Houston Nutt, there just has not been a whole lot of good come out of there. I blame Kyoto.
Right. Last I checked Hick still didn’t have as many delegates as Romney. I guess they don’t do math in divinity school. They didn’t have math really at my college either cause you could substitute all these math-like classes but what weren’t really. Also he was morbidly obese when he was in college. At this one town hall thing this lady asked him how he met his wife and he just sort of shrugged and said gravity I guess.
Cause they were both so goddamn fat, see?
You are not right, happy. Amp hurts when it comes out your nose.
I guess I just don’t understand how the middle-age porn strategy is gonna work. Their campaign really is in shambles.
Feets – How do two morbidly obese people have sex, apart from carefully, I mean?
daleyrocks – Just picture Rosie, Mikey Moore, a coupe cranes, and a 1/4 ton of lard.
Not coupe … a couple cranes.
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A hardened veteran backed by outclassed amateurs can take many guises. This is one. The Clinton ’08 campaign is another.
I saw it demonstrated once on The Discovery Channel. They kind of revolve around one another, and material from one gets kind of pulled into the other, and…
Oh, wait — that’s binary stars.
Probably still works, though.
hf, you crack me up.
How do two morbidly obese people have sex, apart from carefully, I mean?
Dust her with flour and aim for the wet spots.
JD,
HRC has proven to be good at pretending to listen to people. And it keeps her mouth shut more of the time. Win-win.
B Moe – You gotta get those shelves of fat away from the operating parts on two people at once – could be tricky.
I figure strap the guy to an inch thick sheet of plywood, get it tilted at aroud 45 degrees, feet up, head down, to shift the fat shelf away from the pronger. Use the crane to lower the check on top. Bouncy, bouncy.
This is from the NYT article today about her finances:
For all the outrage about lobbyists’ role in politics, where is the outrage about stuff like this. Spending almost a million dollars on some sort of shake-down outfit? That’s outrageous to me.
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