It dawned late on the MSM that Senator Obama's eleven-contest winning streak is what made the difference for him in securing the Democratic nomination for president in 2008. During that blitz--in fact the day after Obama won in Louisiana, Nebraska, Washington, and the Virgin Islands--Clinton's campaign manager, Patti Solis Doyle, resigned. Again, RESIGNED, no matter how much tele-journalists would like to stir up dust by saying that Solis Doyle was "fired." The Clinton camp knew they had to do something to curb Obama's momentum. They knew Obama would sweep Maryland, Virginia, and Washington, DC, two days later.
Clinton and her leadership team decided to try to show the electorate that Clinton's campaign was re-directing itself in hopes of finding a winning strategy. With this diversion, Clinton might elbow her way back into the 24x7 coverage of the Democratic race that was being overwhelmingly dominated by coverage of the Obama campaign's winning streak. Winning streaks plus dominant media coverage make momentum in this business.
The easiest way to acknowledge voters voting against you and to try to re-market yourself as a candidate to them in hopes of eliciting electoral majorities--wins--is to have your campaign manager resign. It is so standard a stratagem that I would bet a case of Bud that Patti Solis Doyle suggested it, if not offered it. It is so stock a maneuver that you could have caught it on network television in the seventh season of The West Wing. Here's the money excerpt from Episode 13, "The Cold," which was originally aired on March 12, 2006:
Campaign Manager: ...they're right. A little campaign shake-up might
create enough of a diversion to get us past...
Candidate: [Their lead strategist] has worked hard for us. He's not
the reason we're in the toilet. I think firing him will get
us a whole lot of nothing, but if you want to do it, do it.
Campaign Manager: I'm not talking about [their lead strategist]. [He]
doesn't have the visibility to be a viable scapegoat.
I'm the public face of your campaign staff. If we
want this to work, it's gotta be me.
[Yes, I am currently writing a diary on just how prescient The West Wing's sixth and seventh seasons were in regard to our current race for the presidency. Please don't steal my thunder.]
Mike Henry, Clinton's deputy campaign manager had resigned a day earlier, and it would be a few days before Clinton's lead strategist, Mark Penn, resigned. Perhaps team Clinton wanted to see if sacrificing Henry would suffice to change the campaign narrative solidifying Obama's momentum. It didn't. Penn, on the other hand, tuvo sus propios problemas, as one might say in Columbia, "he had his own problems."
Solis Doyle's resignation helped to change the media narrative about Clinton's losing strategy, cut into the endless loop of pundits talking about Obama's momentum, and introduced Democratic voters to "Hillary the Fighter" who had now replaced "Hillary the Inevitable."
But, here's the take-away on Patti Solis Doyle. It is not a slap in the face to Senator Clinton, nor to her former supporters, for team Obama to make Solis Doyle the COS for the Democratic vice presidential nominee. Solis Doyle's employment as VP COS could mean that team Obama in fact would like to offer the VP spot to Senator Clinton just as easily as it could mean the opposite or neither [that they're going to wait and, when the time comes, analyze polling data to determine which running-mate would contribute the most electorally].
What is clear is that Senator Obama's could not have offered the VP slot to Senator Clinton after she tried to force his hand on the matter on television. Imagine how trade negotiations would be hampered if our President [Obama] were believed to cave in after televised pressure from his opposition. Now imagine how devastating this would be if it's not a trade war we're talking about, but a real war. If our President cannot make our trade opponents and military adversaries back down, he will be left no other recourse but force.
So, Senator Clinton hobbled her own chances to be named Senator Obama's running-mate through her own words. This is a transparent fact that begs another question: Why did Senator Clinton do this, knowing her posturing would make it all but impossible for the victor to offer her the position?
Team Obama is nimble though, and surely nimble enough to get out of this box. The only way Senator Clinton can now be named Obama's running-mate is for an objective group [other than Senator Obama personally] to vet all possible candidates for several weeks. This will allow for enough time to have passed before Senator Obama names his running-mate and not to be seen as having been forced by Senator Clinton to name her. But, political memories are short for voters. Every day Senator Obama campaigns in Michigan or Florida or Ohio, he binds voters to himself and needs Senator Clinton less and less on the ticket to carry these states. If the VP vetting process goes six weeks, the polls will not be kind to Senator Clinton--she becomes less and less necessary on the ticket every day and every campaign swing Obama makes.
Naming Patti Solis Doyle to the position of COS of Obama's VP--whichever person is chosen several weeks from now--doesn't tell us that Senator Obama will choose Senator Clinton to run with him or that he will not choose her. It does tell us that Senator Obama is consolidating two demographics that he needs: Latinos and women.