Clinton "Insular," "Detached" Manager Of Campaign

NY Times:

The morning after Senator Barack Obama shook the Clinton campaign by winning five contests in one weekend, Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton's new campaign manager -- Maggie Williams, who had taken over in a shake-up the night before -- assembled the curious if demoralized staff.

"You may not like the person next to you," Ms. Williams told dozens of aides who ringed the conference room at the campaign's Virginia headquarters last month, according to participants. "But you're going to respect them. And we're going to work together."...

...Still, interviews with campaign aides, associates and friends suggest that Mrs. Clinton, at least until February, was a detached manager. Juggling the demands of being a candidate, she paid little attention to detail, delegated decisions large and small and deferred to advisers on critical questions. Mrs. Clinton accepted or seemed unaware of the intense factionalism and feuding that often paralyzed her campaign and that prevented her aides from reaching consensus on basic questions like what states to fight in and how to go after Mr. Obama, of Illinois.

Read the whole story: NY Times

Comments

[Silpat]

Will Hillary reject the support of Gov. Spizer in light of the unfolding "Prostitution Scandel"? If not, wouldn't this be considered disrespectful to women? Afterall, Gov. Spizer has admitted to using women (in this case, prostitutes) as mere sex objects.

[jessiep]

If she not, it will be the last straw. She will be looked upon as more hypocritical than Spitzer.

You can't complain over the metaphorical use of the word "pimping" in a campaign and then fail to denounce real pimping and prostitution by a politician.

We are all waiting for her to comment...prior to Spitzer's resignation, preferably...

[Silpat]

So Hillary is not only divisive, but also incompetent on multiple levels. Yeah, just what we need in a President.

[RichBixby]

How can Hillary unite the nation, if she can't even unite her campaign?

[mesuki]

The more I find out about Hillary, the more I despise her. just staring at her wrinkled face with those bags under her eyes makes my skin crawl. she radiates nothing but pure evil. She surounds herself with the most crooked governors and senators (Randell for one) and uses them to do her dirty bidding. Anyone who has an ounce of dignity would not vote for her. A vote for Hillary is a vote for the continuation of the evils of the past ! Another one of her crooked sponsers (Spitzer) has bitten the dust today. That says alot about her.

[Plank]

She can't manage a campaign and want to be president and Commander in Chief? You either have the leadership skills or you don't. Hillary, you don't have what it takes, no matter how many years of experience you pretend to have.

By the way, where are those tax returns? The world is waiting:

http://abcnews.go.com/Blotter/story?id=4421457&page=1

[terraprieto]

The incompetence and arrogance of one person, Hillary Clinton, threatens to tear the Democratic Party asunder and lead to certain defeat in the fall.

Because she couldn't even be bothered to fire up Bill's enormous database of democrats and supporters and TRY to organize and contest the caucuses, she now whines that such contests are unfair and unimportant, and she is ENTITLED to win the nomination anyway. What a selfish child.

She is most certainly NOT ready to be president.

[RichBixby]

If she can't handle the competition for delegates, how would she handle the wrangling of votes on Capitol Hill to get her programs passed?

[nellie]

The quotes in this article are devastating. She's not ready to be president.

"Ms. Williams’s demand was dismissed as wishful thinking by some in her weary audience. But in the view of many Clinton supporters, it accurately reflected the urgent need to overhaul a campaign that at that point had set itself apart for its level of disorder and dysfunction."

"She hasn’t managed anything as complex as this before; that’s the problem with senators,” said James A. Thurber, a professor of government at American University who is an expert on presidential management. “She wasn’t as decisive as she should have been. And it’s a legitimate question to ask: Under great pressure from two different factions, can she make some hard decisions and move ahead?"

"Her choice of lieutenants, and her insistence on staying with them even when friends urged her to shake things up, was blamed by some associates for the campaign’s woes. Again and again, the senator was portrayed as a manager who valued loyalty and familiarity over experience and expertise."

"But a month later, she described herself as stunned to learn the campaign was nearly broke — notwithstanding financial reports sent to her every week by e-mail — and was all but conceding the 11 contests that were to come over the next month."

[frustratedinohio]

I think the secret service should be looking into some of these posts. I have never seen so much hate. It's hard to believe that these people wouldn't be capable of violent actions towards the former first lady.

[frustratedinohio]

How credible is this? If it were about Obama, it wouldn't be in print.

[jsaak]

Wake up Hillites! She and Bill are like Bonni and Clyde - - with faustian forces their souls allied.

She is a puffed-up pol - - a bully - - a four-flusher. I hope to God the fearful females open their eyes before the next occupant of the White House is another Bush. Like Bush she is extremely secretive, loaths the press, surrounds herself with loyalists, believes the ends justify the means, incapable of admitting mistakes, absolute in her judgment of what is right and what is wrong, her use of fear to control the masses, her hawkishness, her inability to compromise and her arrogance - - extolling her excellance, her electability over Barack - - her harping that Barack will not be ready on "day one" but oh so awesome as her VP. Yes indeed! She knows damned well she needs Barack to win just as she needs Bill. She is the "empty suit", not Barack. Barack's legions will not accept her and receed into oblivion..

Her arrogance knows no bounds.

Awake, America, listen and learn:
The devil quotes scripture as freely as the saint,
But one of them is; the other ain't!

Her toughness, her certitude are contrived. She's an out and out bully - - a sinister bully. She has the ability to change her idiological slant to suit the direction of the wind's course. She was against capital punishment until Bill was elected govoner of Arkansas. In her youth, she decried corporations; now she is a corporate queen. She was for NAFTA before she heard that the Ohioans were suffering as a result of NAFTA's tragic consequences.

Beware!

And lest we forget those turbulant White House years when she was First Lady

Her modus operandi of this polished pol,
And quite remarkable in her defiance of law,
Became the talisman of her White House stay
Where yet another, would go astray:

When playing by the rules, you're apt to loose,
The alternate concept you must choose;
If by opponents you are caught,
And for questioning you're sought
Don a blush-pink suit with buttons bold,
And an innocent look in your eyes hold.

I say to you what Hillary has been touting on the stump: Beware, America! There are evil forces out there at 3:00 a.m. Be afraid; be very afraid!

[trubluelefty]

Very well put. I am a frequent reader of Huff Po and reside in Viet Nam. My beloved son is in Iraq tonight and we want him home. I have yet to forgive this woman for voting on a resolution that she knew very well would lead to war. I vowed then never to vote for. It is my son who is at Camp "Victory" who is far away from his family tonight that is paying the price for her lack of judgement. I take that 'mistake' and add it to all the rest and I know that I cannot vote for her. What shall I do. I know that we as Democrat's must remember that the Supreme Court is at stake as well but I cannot vote for her. I believe with my heart and soul that Barack Obama is the great hope of our country and that he can fire us up as well as bring us together. I hope she goes away gracefully (sigh) never happen and leaves us to govern our country. I have 13 grandchildren and none of them have been alive in a time when we did not have a Bush or a Clinton as VP or President. What kind of Democracy is this and why are people not asking more about this. Anyway the point was you wrote a good post!!

[Teri]

won't she be the exact same kind of president? wasn't her husband? isn't george bush? why do we want more politicians like this in washington?

[nepat]

Way to demonstrate leadership! Ready on Day 672 (after multiple staff shake-ups).

[Countess]

She must get her leadership skills from her mentors in chief George W. Bush and Joe Lieberman.

[OETKB]

Delegation is not the problem. It is to whom you delegate. This group is less than stellar and have dragged out of moth balled closet to run this campaign. There is no there, there. One can be judged from their ability to organize.

[nurodoc]

Just what we need, another insular individual with questionable management skills, who evades calls for transparency, and shows no capability for admitting error. Fie upon thee Clintonater!