Folks, it was part of her strategy. Seriously.
And that has a lot of people wondering if her lead campaign strategist, Mark Penn, should be put out to pasture.
“There are two people who have come up with this strategy — one Hillary Clinton and one Mark Penn,” said a top Clinton ally, speaking on condition of anonymity. “Mark wanted to run her, basically, for re-election, and we are seeing what happened.”
Said another Clinton camper: “The heat’s on Mark. … He’s got a lot of enemies.”
Wow, re-election? As if she had the job of President already? That’s, um, ballsy. But I guess you can feel that way if you have a former President in your corner who’s the only reason you’re leading in the polls anyway. Seriously, would this many people want to vote for Hillary if she were just some random Senator from New York? We’ve all seen her speak and she’s far from charismatic. And have we really seen any big ideas out of her campaign yet? So here’s what voters are left with…the hopes that Bill would step in a work behind the scenes to craft policy. But is that really a good thing? After 8 years of people thinking that Cheney was actually running the show? I think not.
Here’s more…
Clinton’s Iowa swoon has also revived the internal campaign debate over whether she should have staked so much on Iowa — a mercurial state her husband bypassed in 1992. In addition, some insiders have complained about a lack of communication between campaign manager Patti Solis Doyle and the campaign’s Iowa guru Teresa Valmain — one reason Solis Doyle relocated to Des Moines last week.
“The top officials on the campaign have never had a real understanding of Iowa,” said a Clinton operative.
I think I remember that early on a Clinton aide floated the idea that she might skip Iowa. That put her in the position of saying she was going to be very involved in the state, even if she didn’t want to be.
These little slips have really hurt the campaign because they backed her into a corner where people would have the chance to call her a liar if she switched positions. And with a husband like Bill, the last thing Hillary wants to be seen as is a liar.
20 days and counting…
(cross posted at Donklephant)