Look, I am not buying into the whole ‘Hillary is over” bit (in part because I am starting to think the pundits and the Clinton haters are being disproportionately heard at the moment- I just don’t sense any real residual Hillary hate where I am), but if things are going so bad that Bob Shrum is not ashamed to give advice, you have problems:
So it’s a long shot, with one and only one possible road to recovery: Let Hillary be Hillary. Throw away the product packaging – those poll-tested small-bites of policy – and set out a big case about what she wants to do in the next four years, not what she has done for the past 35.
The pursuit of the presidency is not a résumé contest. Otherwise a one-term congressman named Lincoln never would have beaten Stephen Douglas, “the little giant” of American politics; Kennedy never would have prevailed against Nixon, and the young Bill Clinton never would have ousted the first George Bush from the White House.
The conventional caveat is that things could change. World events could refocus voters on Hillary’s strengths – or on Obama’s weaknesses. Yet as of today, it is far more likely that Hillary Clinton won’t be giving an acceptance speech at the Democratic National Convention. Maybe Obama, the unifier, will let her speak in prime time.
Yes, Virginia. That Bob Shrum (Joe Klein link replaced with someone with a better track record).
Billy K
And if she listens to this man, her candidacy is effectively over.
Zifnab
You’ve just linked to a Bob Shrum article written by Joe Klein. I’d just like to point out that while Bob Shrum is inveritably always wrong, Joe Klein’s degree of wrongness would place him neck and neck were this some sort of horse race.
demimondian
More than that, my attitude towards Joke Line is that he is literally unable to be correct. That means that if he savages somebody, his allegations are wrong.
sparky
OT, but I think Edwards comes off pretty well in that piece. I didn’t know Shrum (idot par excellance) had pushed him to vote for war in Iraq.
No, I’m not shilling for Edwards. I just think he’s getting a bit of a raw deal on the press front and this piece suggests his instincts are sound. If you don’t like his personality, fine. Just don’t rely on a lot of manufactured crapola from the idiots in the press who’ve let the public down repeatedly.
myiq2xu
An article by someone who is always wrong about someone who is always wrong – John Cole proves the maxim that “Two wrongs don’t make a right.”
Wilfred
As if we don’t already know whatever we need to know about Clinton. Good, bad or indifferent, she’s been on the scene for almost 16 years – she just doesn’t have it.
TheFountainHead
Haha, I love that all of this “sound advice” is lifted straight out of a West Wing plotline. Oh the LuLz.
Michael Sheridan
“The pursuit of the presidency is not a résumé contest. Otherwise a one-term congressman named Lincoln never would have beaten Stephen Douglas, “the little giant” of American politics….”
Lincoln lost when he competed against Douglas in a bid for a US Senate seat in 1858.
But then, we knew Shrum was an idiot….
Michael Sheridan
Possible “oops” – I actually didn’t know that Douglas ran for President in 1860 (looked it up in Wikipedia).
But Douglas came in 4th place in 1860, which doesn’t make Shrum’s point much more valid….
myiq2xu
There is a premise to the whole idea of a “political consultant” that packaging can overcome the quality of the contents.
Take a telegenic candidate with basically a blank slate for a background, give them a series of positions that polls show are popular, write some insipiring speeches and sound bytes, get some financial backing and voila!
In practice, it isn’t so easy.
And before someone says “What about G-Dub?” let me point out that he wasn’t a blank slate and virtually the entire media was complicit by design or negligence in his (s)election as President.
The job of the media is to say “The Emperor has no clothes” when he strolls naked down the street.
Tom Hilton
I hear Bob Shrum is going to get back into the consulting racket with a new slogan: “better than Mark Penn!”
Jay
Rush is taking full credit – as I type – for Hillary’s reported demise and it’s quite a stretch.
tballou
Regardless of how wrong or right Shrum has been in the past, he is making a very valid point. Clinton absolutely needs to get off this “ready to be president” shtick ASAP. Nobody is ready to be president, but somehow they all get ready when the time comes. She needs to accept that all the candidates are pretty much equally qualified and focus on what she will do, and singing “Ch-ch-ch-changes” is not enough. Tell me how you are going to defend the constitution and investigate all the evil republican abuses!
Cassidy
And this is where any candidate will ultimately fail. Laying down a policy of revenge will just perpetuate the current Washington climate.
Billy K
“W” was presented as a “caretaker” President, in the mold of Eisenhower. Someone to just watch over things and not intervene, since they were going so well. And things were going well, and judging by Bush’s record as Governor, that was a reasonable connection to make. And this is what a lot of the general public seemed to want.
myiq2xu
What color is the sky in your world?
G-Dub’s record as Governor was egregiously bad. Just read what Molly Ivins said about him back then on a weekly basis. Here’s a sample:
“Next time I tell you someone from Texas should not be president of the United States, please pay attention.”
“Everyone knows the man has no clue, but no one there has the courage to say it. I mean, good gawd, the man is as he always has been: barely adequate.”
The “caretaker” candidate would have been Gore for anyone who wanted to keep the good times of the Clinton years going.
Dreggas
But clinton’s getting all teary eyed this morning in NH while Bill claims she’s tougher than Mandela! Martyr complex anyone?
The Other Steve
Man, I hope George doesn’t trash the Whitehouse on his way out.
Billy K
Actually, he barely did anything as Governor. Most Texas Governors don’t. It’s a largely ceremonial position. And that’s what I meant when I said his record matched the “caretaker” mold. I think people thought he wouldn’t do anything, and they liked that idea.
borehole
I just hope Hillary and Barack lose sight of the general election and put everything into destroying each other. My vote’s for Chron Doddwards.
4tehlulz
Given the Right’s penchant for projecting its juvenile mindset onto Democrats, I suspect there may be a few “w”s missing from keyboards come Jan. 2009.
Chris
On topic, Sully posts this from an internal Clinton Campaign memo:
I also found this on Kos/GOS/Whatever, where Penn knowingly putting out false publications
It’s ok to feel they’re going down, John. Because they are unless they significantly correct course. They’re trying to treat politics like a perfectly discrete computer system.
“Correct platitudes in, votes out” is not how this system works; it shifts values much faster than that. The other guys kicking ass are doing so simply by asking the voters to vote for them. It works a lot.
Yeah, she’s sinking rapidly. Cutting loose the anchor that is Mark Penn might help.
Zifnab
The current Washington Climate is “lie, cheat, steal, not necessarily in that order”. Ergo, actively prosecuting those people who lie, cheat, and steal, rather than just rolling over and letting the good ole boys have their way, will encourage people to continue the racket.
Accountability Bad!
Washington Club Politics Good!
You’re giving David Broder wood right now, Cassidy. I want you to know that.
4tehlulz
Hillary might have just become Ed Muskie 2.0.
Dreggas
4tehlulz:
I wonder if the tears were focus tested?
Sorry but I don’t trust a crocodile when it cries either. Hillary somehow believes she can fool everyone and it was bullshit. She went out believing she was some heir apparent. Her announcement speech even said she was in it to win it. This is about her plain and simple. She’s now learning that people don’t worship her and it’s making ol’ queeny upset.
David
Chris: Clinton campaign staff are complaining that the caucus process is too insular, and gives too much power to established insiders?
Excuse me, I have to go laugh myself to death.
Chris
I didn’t read it that way.
They were saying that the Iowa Caucus was designed to take power away from the voter and into the hands of the party (HRC), and apparently this utility failed on them.
Either that, or they were saying that the caucus is in the hands of the state Dem party, not the national Dem party, and Hillary was supposed to be supported by an insurgence of students. I’m sorry, but I can’t imagine that students idealistic enough to get involved in a caucus would be so soul-dead to pitch in with HRC. So I’m going with my italics.
David
That works too. I just figured that nobody could be insane enough to say that an electoral system has “failed” by assigning more power to the voters than the party mechanism. Call me naive.
Dreggas
It makes sense that they would bitch that the power of the “insiders” was dilluted this time by all the damn dirty heathens that are tired of the same old shit and voted for change.
myiq2xu
Anyone who thinks Hillary is “calculating” while Obama is “natural” is living in a dream world. At that level, there is a certain amount of calculation in all the candidates, but their true personalities can’t be completely hidden either. It’s a mix of both in all candidates.
Lines like “There you go again” or “You’re no Jack Kennedy” are planned ahead, and awaiting the opportunity to use.
Hillary doesn’t have the warm fuzzy “I feel your pain” personality of her husband, but she’s not a cold unfeeling bitch either. They obviously share the same values and ideals though.
After everything she’s been through, is it any wonder that the woman keeps her guard up all the time?
But I’m still not voting for her in the primary.
Spider97
At long last, Mr. Shrum offers some advice that is worth what the recipient paid for it.
Chris
Well, in this case, maybe Shrummy is on to something.
The fact of the matter is, in trying to play the system, they’ve tightened up all the sphincters. You do it in poker. You do it in project planning. You do it in running a company.
So, in trying to play the system, they appear to be losing it. That’s pretty much the definition of “ironic”.
Singularity
The fact that she hired a scumbag like Mark Penn is reason enough for me not to vote for her. Every time I hear him speak, I become less likely to vote for Hillary.
Johnny Pez
The trouble with that idea is that Penn’s likely replacement is going to be Shrum. Or Chris LeHane.
myiq2xu
Maybe the old family retainer – James “The Ragin’ Cajun” Carville
Phoenix Woman
Hillary’s not my candidate either, but Christ on a snowboard with a mimosa, this is stupid. If I want to go after Hillary, it’s not going to be because my voice got quavery when somebody said something sympathetic to me.
Phoenix Woman
And crap, I was trying to meld two sentences into one in that last post and got Campaign Dada instead. Oh, well. I think you know what I meant, even if I didn’t.
Chuck Butcher
The Iowa caucus system is not designed for “insiders” beyond the reserved delegates, which I believe all states have at the Dem Convention. It is designed for those who care enough to come out and spend a couple public hours doing and have registered. It’s not that much comitment to do, but too much for many – obviously.
I’m not enamored of the current system of Primaries (I’m in OR – 5/5) but the replacement needs to address many needs and most ideas I’ve seen have significant draw backs.