One of the main rationales you hear for Hillary staying in the race is her campaign hoping/wishing/waiting for Obama to stumble:
She needs large victorious margins in the remaining primaries, no more major stumbles such as the Bosnia debacle which undermined her credibility and has likely inspired the press to check her every future assertion, and/or a major Obama stumble or development.
But what if the Clintons themselves are the ones who are stumbling?
First it's her trying to pad her resume with imaginary heroics trying to avoid sniper fire in Bosnia.
Then it's stories about a campaign in debt, running on fumes, not paying bills.
Then it's another tall tale about a woman who died because she was denied hospital care, but who in fact had had hospital care.
Then, after beating Obama over the head with NAFTA in Ohio, it turns out she herself not only held pro-NAFTA cheerleading meetings when she was First Lady, but her chief strategist was hired by Colombia's government to lobby Congress passage of a trade deal Hillary says she opposes.
Now, within a few months of firing her campaign manager, Patti Solis Doyle, she is rearranging the chairs on the Titanic called her campaign and trying to hide Jabba the Mark Penn.
What would the Clintons and the MSM be saying about Barack Obama if a series of stumbles like this happen to him? In fact, Obama has run a relatively smooth, if not flawless campaign. He even used a crisis like the Wright controversy to his advantage by using it as an opportunity to start a dialogue on race and in the process showed what a person of principle he is.
Marc Andreessen, co-founder of Netscape, once wrote about a meeting he had early on with Obama. Before he and his wife invested in Obama's campaign, he had a few questions, one of which was quite important:
Before I close, let me share two specific things he said at the time -- early 2007 -- on the topic of whether he's ready.
We asked him directly, how concerned should we be that you haven't had meaningful experience as an executive -- as a manager and leader of people?
He said, watch how I run my campaign -- you'll see my leadership skills in action.
At the time, I wasn't sure what to make of his answer -- political campaigns are often very messy and chaotic, with a lot of turnover and flux; what conclusions could we possibly draw from one of those?
Well, as any political expert will tell you, it turns out that the Obama campaign has been one of the best organized and executed presidential campaigns in memory. Even Obama's opponents concede that his campaign has been disciplined, methodical, and effective across the full spectrum of activities required to win -- and with a minimum of the negative campaigning and attack ads that normally characterize a race like this, and with almost no staff turnover. By almost any measure, the Obama campaign has simply out-executed both the Clinton and McCain campaigns.
This speaks well to the Senator's ability to run a campaign, but speaks even more to his ability to recruit and manage a top-notch group of campaign professionals and volunteers -- another key leadership characteristic. When you compare this to the awe-inspiring discord, infighting, and staff turnover within both the Clinton and McCain campaigns up to this point -- well, let's just say it's a very interesting data point.
The media, voters, and super-delegates have to ask themselves: if one of the main rationales for Hillary to stay in the race is her waiting for Obama to stumble, to show himself not competent to manage a campaign and by extension an administration, what does it mean that Hillary has shown she herself cannot manage her own campaign? If she is waiting to swoop in once Obama proves himself not capable, what should be done once her own campaign fails at the very criteria by which she is waiting for her opponent to fail at?