TNR Asks Clinton Supporters: What Went Wrong?

The New Republic:

Endings are rarely as joyous as beginnings--and in the case of a long, wearing, and ultimately disappointing campaign, they can be downright brutal. But they also have the potential to be educational, for participants and gawkers alike. So it is that we asked (begged, really) a range of Hillarylanders for their up-close and personal lists of "What Went Wrong?" Not everyone wanted to play. Many stubbornly pointed out that their candidate is not yet dead. But, on the condition of total anonymity, a fairly broad enough cross-section of her staff responded--more than a dozen members all told, from high-level advisors to grunt-level assistants, from money men to on-the-ground organizers.

Many answers fell into a handful of broad themes we've been hearing for months now. (She shouldn't have run as an incumbent. She should have paid more attention to caucus states. She should have kept Bill chained in the basement at Whitehaven with a case of cheese curls and a stack of dirty movies.) Others had a distinct score-settling flavor. One respondent sent in a list of Top 25 screw ups, the first three being...

Read the whole story: The New Republic

Comments

[XME]

"She should have kept Bill chained in the basement at Whitehaven with a case of cheese curls and a stack of dirty movies".

There were many mistakes, but NOT doing this was definitely one of her biggest!

[verlaine]

Hillary lost because she ran a gutter campaign based on race-baiting and fear-mongering. She ran a Rove/Atwater style campaign and used the rhetoric of George Wallace and Jesse Helms. Her campaign redefined the politics of personal destruction. She also has an extremely repulsive personality and is totally lacking in gravitas. Hillary lost fair and square and all her whining about unfairness (Obama did better in caucus states, red states, yadda, yadda, yadda) only makes her more pathetic.

[MsLiz]

Could you be a little more nasty, please? You are exaggerating to shore up your point of view.

[Gma11]

But that didn't begin until she thought she COULD possibly lose.

Hillary turned out to be not as good a manager as I thought she was. Excellent on policy. Excellent! But not a good manager. That has surprised me. I sincerely do feel the president MUST be a good manager.

Hillary has many strenghts - which this country badly needs. For ALL our sakes!

[olivia]

It's not all that surprising Clinton lost. The lineup at the beginning of this Democratic primary race was an embarrassment of riches. She wasn't the best candidate, or even the second best candidate, among the ten or so in the race.

The MSM and the Republican big mouths have been declaring her the nominee for at least two years. (Note that those people were not declaring her the next president - just the Democratic nominee. I think that's telling.) I don't think that Hillary the Inevitable was ever supported by the facts on the ground.

[GBecker]

TNR??? Ugh!

[MsLiz]

Got any facts to back up your conclusion?

[ThunderclapNewman]

There is a much better, and much pithier, analysis by Karen Tumulty in the last issue of Time.
It's on their website, too.

[olivia]

Does it use the words "entitled" and "arrogant?" I'll check it out, thanks.

[abouttime]

The New Republic?
"Propagnda SCREAMS obsenity!"
Bob Dylan

[Grunty1]

Everything started to go wrong a full year ago, when the media was willing to coronate her long before any votes were cast. This is the same media that provided cover and excuses for Bush since before the election. Did Hillary think it was a good idea to have the same media that christened Bush to work so hard to establish her as the only possible winner?

[NCRESIDENT]

I'll tell you what went wrong. She had a disarray of people managing her campaign which showed me that she truly wasn't in charge. You are not going to let noone sink your ship and she let them sink her ship. She was going half of the black vote until her husband said Jesse Jackson and that made blacks mad because not all blacks like Jackson and to compare Obama to Jackson set fire under their butts and brung them out of places I never seen. I worked the polls and saw young wannabe rappers at the polls at 6:30 in the morning which is a bad sign for the republicans. Hence, the mississippi turnings and if they keep running those ads you will see even more blacks. Next her problem was underestimating the power of shared principles. She tried to divide when alot of whites and blacks are joining at the hips. Biracial dating is going up to where as in 20 years whites will be the new minority. Then her major problem was speaking out of both ends. She's for one thing against the other. Supported it under her husband but now objects. Oh yeah, don't forget Bosnia. Enough said!

[SayonaraSnot]

You speak the truth.

[MsLiz]

You have a humorous writing style. The image of aspiring rappers getting up early in the morning to be the first at the polls makes my day.

[DinOhio]

These campaigns work extremely hard to get ANY media coverage. The covet it. Hillary got her share - more than her share perhaps. IF you get this much coverage, you have to make sure you have something to say - not something stupid, by the way. The media is not to blame for Hillary's demise - it's all on Hillary.

[olivia]

This agonizing analysis blames the campaign, and not the candidate, for her loss.

Obama is simply a better candidate. People believe and trust him.

The writer says she should have pulled out Rev. Wright sooner. That just shows how clueless they are. That sort of behavior is what put the nail in her coffin, and not just for this race.

[MsLiz]

Rev. Wright inspires me to go back to church. But then, I always admired the revolutionary in Jesus.

[Gma11]

People like Rev. Wright inspire me as well. I am white, in my 60's. But some of my favorite churches to visit when I'm traveling are churches such as Wright's. The are ALIVE and not afraid to deal with issues of hypocrisy within our nation and within Christianity as it is often practiced today.

My very favorite is Glide Memorial Methodist in the Tenderloin District of San Francisco. If you EVER have the opportunity, attend a Sunday morning service there. No matter what religion you are or even if you aren't religious.

[ProfessorDuh]

Hillary Clinton is a serial liar who cynically voted FOR the Iraq war disaster to advance her political ambitions. She might as well drink blood on camera, instead of whisky.

[Grunty1]

She probably would have, if she thought she needed the vampire demographic to win.

[Barky]

In a nutshell for me...too cocky in the beginning (sense of entitlement) and just plain bad selection of the top underlings.

These are exactly the areas that Obama excelled in....plus he had the message that resonated...CHANGE. Anyway you want to slice it and dice it...thats what the electorate wants in these days...more than anything else.

Thats why the Repubs are toast in Nov. not just for the presidency but Congress as well.

[adept2u]

She should have told Geraldine Ferraro and her husband to STFU, and she should have never, not ever gone to Richard (i'm still sick over this one) Mellon Scaife.

[SayonaraSnot]

Me too. My eyes nearly popped out of my skull when I saw that. I was a Hillary supporter until that moment. I would never meet with a person who spent millions of dollars trying to ruin my and my husband's careers and accused us of murder, just for the chance at a few votes.

[YvonneH]

She lost because she is just too phony - and after eight years of Bush phoniness, people see through that shit. I'm gonna miss hating her...

[olivia]

Isn't it odd this analysis does not mention her lies about sniper fire and her vote for Iraq.

People did not like her character or her record. Don't you bean counters in her campaign get it?

[RoSull]

She should not have run a campaigned based on the fact (and foundation) that she is "Bill Clinton's Wife". I think she would have had a better chance of showing who she was if she ran as "Senator Hillary Clinton".

Also, I think it is interesting that one of the points made was about having these key people in her inner circle, but no CEO... shouldn't she be the CEO? Why wasn't she on top of her senior staff? I think the mismanagement of her campaign speaks volumes to how ill prepared she would be to be in the white house. It is a shame because I truly felt she was a strong contender, but she never gave herself the chance to grow beyond being a former first lady, and that being her key component of her "experience".

You certainly are not hearing these stories from the Obama camp.

[08politicaljunkie]

; )

I like this comment too -- especially when I was one who believed Hillary was capable when Bill was President.

[Grunty1]

Senator Clinton is a good point, but it would have made it impossible to campaign on "35 years of experience", when a great deal of that experience comes from Bill's resume. She constantly railed against Obama's lack of experience, but he has spent more time in elected office that she has.

[MsLiz]

"You certainly are not hearing these stories from the Obama camp."

Republicans have been great at controlling their messengers these last fourteen years, unlike most Democrats, since Democrats are more diverse. I hope to have a Democrat in the White House and to have the president's staff all support him/her, not go their separate ways sniping at each other to the press. It was up to each candidate to select a team which was unified, and Obama did a better job than Clinton. I hate to think what her White House team would be saying about each other, if this is what her campaign staff is doing before their candidate has conceded.

[frustratedinohio]

It's amazing that with all this campaign's flaws, and there were many, she did so well. The math is so close. She did such a great job and with so much against her and with so little in dollars, in talent, and in reciprocated loyalty. Really with all Obama had going for him, he should have crushed her.

I think also our society needs to do some soul searching. I know we think we're ready for a female president, but we aren't. We need some of the psychology behind that to filter into the mainstream consciousness. We'll all be better off for it.

[DinOhio]

"...with all Obama had going for him, he should have crushed her." Really? I would have thought that having run for President for at least seven years, being the presumptive nominee, lining up nearly every political machine in every state, having millions upon millions in contributions in the bank with an experience campaign staff on board, having been in front of the public for nearly twenty years through Bill's campaigns and tenure in the White House and on and on and on...that Hillary had the advantage. I guess I'm wrong...? Obama had what going for him....being a black man running for President? A fledgling campaign organization? Very low name recognition? Not accepting PAC money? An odd name for these times? Or was it his gravitas, charisma, and support of millions of people that got his message of ending the dynasty and dramas of the past? What I don't get is all the conjecture about voters not ready for a female President (with no evidence to support that contention) instead of the acceptance that voters sought a better candidate? I think the analysis that sexism is the cause of Hillary's demise overlooks one important facet of credibility and integrity that voters didn't find in Hillary. Analyze that, instead.

[Mesaywar]

Thanks for this reply.

[bongogirl]

NICE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[V4Vigilance]

"I know we think we're ready for a female president, but we aren't."

You display a problem with the Clinton campaign that I didn't notice in the article and that is their penchant for insulting anybody that didn't support them. The list of states or voters that REALLY matter, according to the Clinton campaign, goes beyond absurd as evidenced by Keith Olbermann's segment here: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2008/05/06/olbermann-slams-clinton-c_n_100336.html .

I think the number of people, especially Democrats, that would vote based on a person's gender or race is a small and shrinking percentage of the electorate and I find insulting your blanket assertion that her failure as a candidate is somehow the result of national/party misogyny, rather than the litany of mistakes and miscalculations made by her and the people she tapped to run her campaign.

[chriss0114]

She had it all going in - PLENTY of money!

She should have blown the junior senator from Illinois out of the water but she didn't.

It has nothing to do with her gender.

it has everything to do with how she ran her campaign, conducted herself, votes such as for the Iraq war to show she was "manly" enough to be president, her campaign forwearding things like the "secret muslim" emeail (two of her staff were fired for that one), etc.

There are indicators that, all things being equal, she would have a much better chance as a woman being elected in November than a black person of either gender.

Obama having overcome her campaign and conducting himself as he is has (hopefully) been enough to overcome the prejudice.

I am a former Hillary supporter.

[olivia]

Hillary had more money than anyone, and early in the race. She didn't think she'd need any more after Super Tuesday, so she didn't budget it well.

Hillary's loss has nothing to do with her gender. Nothing.

[HopeGirl]

She shouldn't have played old political games of slice and dice.

She should not have used Rovian tactics to discredit Obama and enhance racism.

She shouldn't have lost her emotional capacity when she Obama did better than she did.

She should not have lied.

She should not have egged on rumors of Obama being a Muslim.

She should not have hired political hacks with questionable ethics to guide her and represent her.

She should have not have endorsed McCain over Obama.

She should not have had the former President in the roll of hit man.

She should not have spent her campaign money to line the pockets of her political hack croonies and 5 Star hotels.

She should not have embarrassed all of us, especially women, by crying, screaming and whining.

She should not have tried to cheat the rules of the Primary.

She should not have gone back on her word in MI and FL.

She should have not gone into it thinking she had already won.

Mostly...she should not have misunderstood the mood of the nation.

[Felicty]

She SHOULD have just gone away.

[MsLiz]

She should start imploring her supporters to support Obama. We need the Hillary Ladies Brigade.

[DinOhio]

Well done.

[RoSull]

Right on. She took for granted the collective intelligence of the nation.

[MsLiz]

Don't overestimate the collective intelligence of the nation yet. I've lived in Alabama too long to have faith in voters. The voters of this nation would have rejected W in 2000 and 2004 had they been paying attention and thinking. The lack of sophistication and gullibility is still there, as evidenced by the Republican trolls who have been posting here lately.