D.C. Shuffle
So the
New Republic's
Michelle Cottle surveyed a dozen anonymous low- and high-level
Hillary Clinton campaign staffers and came up with a laundry list of reasons why they believe the New York Senator's campaign hit the wall. Most people place the blame squarely on the shoulders of her "inner sanctum": Ousted pollster
Mark Penn was "out of touch" and way too corporate. Ejected original campaign manager
Patti Solis Doyle was "out of her element." Communications director and
rumored memoirist Howard Wolfson "had no real presidential campaign experience, and no primary experience whatsoever." And then there are the macro problems: Hillary wasn't hungry enough for it early on. She shouldn't have run as an incumbent. She should have attacked
Barack Obama earlier. Smooth
Bill Clinton went totally crazy and imploded. The campaign's financial mismanagement was akin to "fraud." Voters felt like they didn't know her! Voters felt like she would say anything to win. Her smarts came off as "wonky" in speeches. Her team had a terrible rapport with the media.
We'll keep it simple and say it's probably a case of all of the above.
By
Neel Shah
05/16/08 4:54 PM
Related:
Barack Obama, D.C. Shuffle, Hillary Clinton, Politics