Clinton Camp: Winning Primaries Is Not "A Sign Of Who Can Win" General

Penn's words sound like words of desperation and qualify as utter nonsense. Of course a measure of how strong a candidate will do in the general election is determined by the overall reception he or she gets during the primaries. To say otherwise is to be disingenuous.

If winning primaries isn't a key to winning the general election, we should nominate Biden or Dodd.


Hell, I nominate myself. I haven't won a single primary or caucus and I'm ready to lead from day 1!

And loosing them is a better indicator?

Be careful what you say, for it will come back to haunt you later. Hillary has marginalized many states, all the Red States including Minn. Missouri and Virginia. Could you see John McCain going into these states and saying that Hillary a few months ago said that your states are not important to the Democratic party, only California, Mass, New York and NJ are.

Let's take the worst case scenario that the Democratic not win any of these states, think what happens when Obama affects these states with increase voting that would direct support congressional candidates. Hillary Clinton is essentially saying damn the congressional and Governors races, I'm think of me, Hillary.

Hillary Clinton is very much like Bill Clinton, damn the party, I'm in it to win it. Say goodbye to all the little states like your campaign describes them. Incidentally if Al Gore had won a little state he would be president today.

Oh Yeah, you can prove that you're a winner--by losing? wow, that's a different view, I bet Penn was great in football.

Penn is correct. We need to start really looking at where these wins really were. He lost soundly in CA and FL. Excuses or not, Florida is important to Democrats to win. He has not united the Latino vote. That is very important to wins in November.

He has won in some states that will never go Democrat in the Fall. The wins are not equal in reality. You can say, 10 or 11 or whatever you wish, but in Alaska, we're talking about 400 people. That state is simply not as significant as Pennsyvania and New York.

So Penn is right to start moving people along to discuss this seriously.

Greeting from the home of Jefferson, Madison, and Monroe, John Marshall and, oh yeah, George Washington. And Douglas Wilder, the first black Governor elected in this country since Reconstruction. And the Statute for Religious Freedom. And even Patsy Kline.

Imagine my shock to find out our opinion doesn't count, and we can not be trusted to vote for a nominee. Thank you, Mr. Penn, for setting the record straight.

I think we're all familiar with the concept that in the general election, one of the primary winners always has to lose. But we already know that Clinton doesn't have a lot of support among Republicans or Independents - no shocker there. To win the general election, she'd have to rely on massive turnout among Democrats, but she's clearly lacking in support among them as well - hence the losing. So how exactly does this line of thinking prove that she's more likely to win the general election than Obama ?

And I wouldn't compare Obama with Gore or Kerry, except inasmuch as they're all Democrats. Very different candidates with different campaigns that unfortunately didn't inspire the level of enthusiasm that he does. Just because they lost doesn't mean he will.

Mr.Penn, it is your arrogance lack of class and dishonesty that has your candidate staring defeat in the eye.

I notice your made sure you got your $5 million fee before the ship sank.

hahahahahahahah.. the Clintons and their henchmen truly think that the public is stupid and will believe anything they spew out.... it would be funny if it weren't so true... Why our party puts up with the Clinton scums has been a mystery to me for years and it looks like the Clintons are convinced we are STILL stupid enough to buy the garbage they spew out. I blame my party for putting up with these scum. If we let them win we deserve to lose.

i think we're at the point in the game where hillary should seriously consider telling mark penn to stfu.

his being part of her campaign, alone, is enough to make me question her leadership skills and judgement.

The Argument is which candidate if more ready to lead on day One, Hillary Clinton or Barack Obama:

At the inception Hillary presided over a campaign that had been planned for four years plus.

Hillary started out with the most experienced staffers and was able to attract the best talent available.

Hillary started out with $20m from her own senatorial campaign and had lobbies lining up to support her with pools of money.

Hillary started out the campaign with over 200 super delegates, a daunting advantage for any other candidate to overcome.

Barack Obama built an organization from the ground up with no seed money. He had a few short months to introduce himself to the country and suffered from name recognition with all but the educated and politically aware public.

With no experience to draw on, Obama ended up with the largest campaign pool of money ever experienced.

Obama structured a campaign staff that gained in efficiency and has gone scandal free and with firings of staff.

Hillary Clinton has managed her staff and money with her experience. Result: The Clinton campaign has suffered mismanagement, firings and spending itself to the bring of being broke to the point of being unable to properly advertise.

Which candidate demonstrated the ability to lead and manage from Day One, Hillary Clinton of Barack Obama.

Losing actual primaries and caucuses is an indicator that you are actually the best bet to win the election? Quick, someone call Edwards, Giuliani and Romney because appartently there is still hope for them.

What an impressive chunk of their 'status-quo' brain-trust there, who makes a statement implying that LOSING so many PRIMARIES somehow still makes Hillary a better choice for the general election.

One more example of the rovian-style 180-speak that's been used continuously by the campaign's supporters.

NO the primaries don't mean a thing especially when you have rigged voting machines in your corner, as evident in his campaign.