Clinton: The post-mortems?
Posted: Thursday, May 08, 2008 9:13 AM by Mark Murray
Time’s Tumulty has the first big post-mortem. She lists five major mistakes made by the Clinton campaign, “each of which compounded the others”:
1 . She misjudged the mood: “Clinton completely misread the mood of Democratic primary voters, who were desperate to turn the page.”
2 . She didn’t master the rules: “Clinton picked her team primarily for their loyalty to her, instead of their mastery of the game.”
3 . She underestimated the caucus states: “While Clinton based her strategy on the big contests, she seemed to virtually overlook states like Minnesota, Nebraska and Kansas, which chose their delegates through caucuses.”
4 . She relied on old money: “Something had happened to fund-raising that Team Clinton didn’t fully grasp: the Internet.” Tumulty writes that Clinton tapped out big donors early on and had trouble recruiting new ones, while Obama encouraged his donors to give in small increments over the web.
5 . She never counted on a long haul: “Clinton’s strategy had been premised on delivering a knockout blow early … What surprised the Obama forces was how long it took her campaign to retool” after Iowa.
The New York Times: “After 16 years, the Clinton era may be coming to an end, presenting Democrats with a historic but potentially wrenching transition and a challenge to Senator Barack Obama as he seeks to reconcile a deeply divided party.”
The Wall Street Journal looks at Obama's financial prowess and notes that one of the reasons he apparently pulled this off.
Clinton "met privately with uncommitted superdelegates in Washington, including Reps. Chris Carney of Pennsylvania and Tim Mahoney of Florida."
NBC/NJ’s Mike Memoli reports that Clinton got a double dose of support last night as she spoke to an enthusiastic crowd of women at a fundraiser that netted more than $1 million for her campaign. Building on a mostly warm reception (there were some Code Pink shenanigans), she swore that there “is no cause for nervousness” in seeing the nomination fight play out. “We will bring our party together because anybody who voted for Sen. Obama or who voted for me has hardly anything in common with Sen. McCain,” she said. “But too many people have fought too hard to see a woman continue in this race, this history making race, and I want everybody to understand that. There is no cause for alarm. Sometimes you gotta calm people down a little bit.”
“When I was counted out in New Hampshire, it was the women of New Hampshire who came back and said no, she’s not finished yet,” Clinton also said. “When I was counted out before Super Tuesday, it was women from California to Massachusetts who came and said no, we’re not finished yet… We have always come back, and it is not so much about my comeback it is about our comeback and more importantly it is about America’s comeback.”
Clinton seemed energized by the crowd, Memoli adds. She came out to “I’m Every Woman,” as many in the audience waved their napkins as if they were Terrible Towels. “I heard it several dozen times as I came in: keep going, keep fighting, don’t quit, stand up for us, be there for us, let's make sure that we have a real opportunity for everyone's voices to be heard, and everyone's votes to be counted,” she said. “And that is what I am doing and I intend to do.”
