What Went Wrong Inside The Clinton Campaign

New York Times:

By the time the campaign tracked down the small-city Indiana mayor, Bill Clinton was in a lather. Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton had lost the North Carolina primary that evening and was eager to offset it with a win in Indiana. But a vote-counting delay in one county threatened to rob her of a prime-time victory speech.

The Clinton campaign called a supporter for help. "I've got an angry president here and a candidate who wants to know whether or not she won," a local campaign representative told the mayor, Thomas McDermott Jr. of Hammond, Ind. Mr. McDermott could hear Mr. Clinton railing in the background. "It's not very often you basically have a former president yelling at you to get the numbers out," he recalled.

The yelling was for naught. Mr. McDermott said he had no control over the vote count and, in the end, the late results cemented a negative narrative for an evening dominated by the North Carolina defeat with little attention focused on the eventual Indiana victory. The night of May 6 became the moment that Mrs. Clinton's desperate comeback bid for the Democratic presidential nomination finally crashed against the reality of delegate math. All she had left was the perception of momentum, and suddenly, that was gone.

Hers was a campaign of destiny that fell achingly short, garnering nearly 18 million votes in her quest to become the first woman to hold the presidency. "Although we weren't able to shatter that highest, hardest ceiling this time, thanks to you, it's got about 18 million cracks in it," Mrs. Clinton said as she ended her campaign on Saturday.

Read the whole story: New York Times

Comments

[murz]

Ok 44 comments pending. Is that the Huffington Post way of censoring.

[Topfeeder]

Hillary lost because she voted for the Iraq War. It's just that simple and that profound.

[Nonamnesiac]

I absolutely agree with this, although I'd add that the sum of all of her comments on peace and war, in light of her Iraq vote, demonstrated her to be a warmongerer, and a dishonest one at that, even as she made an effort to sound as if she were anti-Iraq occupation. Many of my friends and I were very strong Hillary supporters and became strong opponents after her vote and subsequent comments.

[murz]

I don't believe it was "What went wrong inside Clinton's campaign" The fault lies with the media, web sites (this one among them), and liberal radio talk show hosts that bashed Senator Clinton.

[XME]

One more HRC supporter who blames everyone but the candidate for running a bad campaign that mismanaged funds, changed messages every five minutes, and became less trustworthy to many as her campaign went on.

The fault lies in HRC's ASSUMPTION that she had it wrapped up from day one, for not having any long-range plans since she assumed she'd have the nomination by February 5th, for understimating the intelligence of the American people (inconsistent messages, Bonia, gas tax "holiday", etc.) and most of all, for understimating her opponent's ability to beat "a Clinton".

It's no one's "fault" that she lost other than hers and her campaign, and her bad luck of running against someone that people prefered over her.

[Ping]

The long and short of it is that, she was an unattractive candidate. She started with very high negatives and she did nothing to try to appeal to a major segment of the voting public MEN. Once Bill pissed off the African Americans all she had were bitter old women and racists. Also I disagree with the notion that she ran a competitive or historic race. She got most of her points in "garbage time". A close race would have been if she was able to keep it within 5-20 delegates throughout the campaign. But once she got behind by 120 it was all over.

[eugenegerard]

The answer to the Headline----Hi--llary.

[gevan]

Illustrative of a big part of the problem was the whole idea of the BOGO experience theme. Hillary could or would not separate herself from the Billary "bridge to the twentieth century" feel of the campaign. After seven years of the deep doo-doo that Bu[l]sh has inflicted on the body politic the nation is looking to move on and out from our sorry past. The future must start pretty soon, dontcha think?

[timetorevolt]

Can you beleive Bill don't send emails? He and Hillary are stuck in the 90s..and this is coming from a baby boomer..

[rroy]

Well,this is as good a format as any to voice an opinion or statement that I have totaly lost interest in American Politics!Why?For many reasons,not the least of which it has turned poitical campaigning especialy presidential primary and electoral campaining into a ridculous,meaningless ongoing popularity contest with little,if any real substance!It has very little difference from a Junior High beauty contest,other than the fact it is time and money consuming beyond any sense of reality!
The idea that any populace comprised of ordinary citizens with little or no knowledge of economics,beyond their own front door and little or no knowledge of military and foreign affairs and history beyond what they see or hear from a limited Corporate run media and PACs ,can elect a meaninful architect of our foreign policy,our domestic economic policies and be commander in cheif of our military,borders on utter lunacy!
It probably won't happen 'till long after I'm gone,and after some gut wrenching political upheaval but,I long for the day that America can give up it's ludicrous two party system,it's Electoral College ,and become a Parliamentary Democracy like the rest of the "civilized" world

[jpshotwheels]

The one thing that bothered me with HIllary this week, is she took Obama's moment of breaking History, away from him, and gave a speech all about her? She should have suceeded Tuesday night and endorsed him then. Sorry, but that is the way I feel about. Instead we got four more days about Hillary, Hillary, Hillary for VP. It was over Tuesday night and she decided to wallow a victory in a basement. All said and done.

Why are we still talking about this? Its over, Barak won fair and square, and we are still analyzing Hillary and what went wrong. Its time to refocus and be concerned about how to beat McCain, beat him to the pulp, where Barak makes another historical victory winning in November. Not just by being the first Black/White POTUS, but lets do it by a landmark victory. Whats most important for our Country is beating McCain, PERIOD. We can't afford 4 more years of a Bushie, Period.

Lets look forward, stop the analyzing, think positive, get our brain gears on, lets get out and volunteer, make donations, and win in November. Forgive, Forget, Move on, Win, Victory, and look for solutions to Conquer our problems. This is imperative for our children, Grand Children, our Planet, our Country.

[waynesmyer]

Never , ever! Say "With me, you get "Two For The Price of One"
":Oh! where have you been Billy-Boy, Billy-Boy?
Oh! Where you been , Charming Billy?

Why! I have been to see my wife!
She's the idol of my life!
She's a young thing! and cannot leave her mother!

[naschkatze]

This NYT article takes the Clintons' position of it's all someone else's fault. What turned many away from her were a series of "gaffes" starting with her promoting the Republican nominee over a fellow Democrat and went on to the big Tuzla lie, the "obliteration" of Iran remark, and a bull-headedness over the gas tax holiday. She appeared stronger towards the end because Obama was wearying fighting three people (Clinton, her husband, and McCain) and because the demographics of the last contests favored her, e.g., an older population in PA, white racists in WV. Tne NYT makes no mention of how many Democrats and others who were able to vote in the Democratic primaries were turned off by her fight to reverse most of the rules of the primary to which she and her team agreed. Someday someone is going to write a very good book about the 2008 Democratic primary, but it won't be anyone from the NYT.

[fignozzle]

she is not change.

[JiminNC]

Excellent article. I think I can wait a few decades for the movie though.

[Kalima]

Too many cooks, spoil the broth. Clashing egos, anyone?

[MyThought]

Ican't believe the media are so lazy they can't move on. Absolutely pathetic.

Hey guys "it's over" - let it go.

You media people were more of a problem for Hillary than the destruction you're still trying to carry out.

No wonder people don't trust the media anymore - keep it up and eventually your papers will go under.