Mistakes of the Clinton campaign
Tue Jan 08, 2008 at 11:21:51 AM PDT
As a formerly elected member of the school board and long time member of DailyKos, I am fully qualified to analyze and critique the incredible (but ultimately fixable) blunders of the Clinton campaign. (/snark)
So, Hillary, pay attention because I will only give this advice once (a day).
The NUMERO UNO mistake that Clinton made in this primary season was this:
She completely ignored her internet director's insight into the nexus between internet- traditional press and politician. She made no use of the Daou triangle.
I think this quote from Peter is illustrative if you just replace "establishment forces" for Bush Administration:
This, then, is the reality: progressive bloggers and online activists - positioned on the front lines of a cold civil war - face a thankless and daunting task: battle the Bush administration and its legions of online and offline apologists, battle the so-called liberal media and its tireless weaving of pro-GOP narratives, battle the ineffectual Democratic leadership, and battle the demoralization and frustration that comes with a long, steep uphill struggle.
This mistake happened early when Hillary selected Mark Penn as her PR consultant. Now, I think Penn is a pretty smart guy. He got a lot of mileage early on using her built in assets. But natural selection says that an organism that fails to adapt to its environment will not survive. Mark Penn would tend to have a conflict of interest wher Peter Dauo is concerned. Because the internet is a rough and tumble place and it's difficult to control. But that's also the beauty of it. We've seen how a candidate who is able to channel the left blogosphere is able to start a movement and get loyal grassroots support. Edwards was able to do this here and elsewhere in the sphere. The problem for Edwards is that low info voters do not use the internet. They still rely on TV. But in a way, this just illustrates how perceptive Daou is. He knows that there's a synergistic effect when the messanger, the internet and the media are working together.
But in this respect, Hillary was almost totally absent from the blogosphere. Imagine how much good it would have done her if she had engaged with us sooner and talked to us about her thought process behind her IWR vote or Kyl-Lieberman. I think she could have persuaded a lot of people that she isn't a hawk. She could have used us as collaborators. But instead, her campaign acted like they feared to get too close in case we burned her. That's why her straw poll numbers never got so high here. She had an opportunity to appeal to us after YK07 and we would have been better able to provide a buffer to the media attacks but the campaign acted like it didn't need us.
Mistake #2- She was micromanaged.
Again, I have to dump a lot of this on Penn. I think I laid it out pretty accurately in one of my diaries what The Givens of this campaign yearwere going to be and the biggest one of them all is: The media is not our friend. There are a couple of reasons for this. Some of it has to do with corporate ownership, some of it has to do with their inflated sense of themselves and their ability to create news. Some of it has to do with their desire for a horse race.
Given that, there was no way that a carefully scripted campaign was ever going to work. The media is going to invent things to get all pissy about. I'm not saying don't use them but never let the media dictate what your message is and how you are going to run a campaign. You simply have to shut your ears. They are full of concern trolls and nasty misogynists.
So, Hillary kept a protective shell around her and people found her unapproachable. That's a shame. She should have whipped out that headband and just been herself. We want to see the daring, progressive side of Hillary. Learn how to snark. I saw traces of this in NH. Keep it up. Humor is a great tool. That is what the netroots want. It would have helped her transcend generations.
Mistake #3- She should have played the gender card.
Yep. The media said she shouldn't but I've already said why you should never let the media dictate the terms under which you will run your campaign.
That is not to say that she should have said, "Vote for me because I'm a woman". It would have been better to say, "I have all of the qualifications that these men up here have and more. AND I'm a woman. Creatures like me don't come along very often so if you ever wanted to see what it's like to have a woman run the country, vote for me."
So what if Tweety gives her Hell about it and screams "Gender Card!" Scheduls some time on Hardball and take him on. Hillary could run circles around Tweety. He's just an middle aged white guy with a generational worldview.
And when the general election comes around, mobilizing womwn to vote for you could have been very powerful because it's not easy to suppress half the population like it is to suppress African-Americans. Someone might notice.
Mistake #4- No inspirational sound bites
Jeez Louise. This was the easiet one to fix. I saw Hillary's campaign appearances on C-Span and as much as I love her, they were rambling affairs with no narrative arc. I can write some inspirational rhetoric. Here's a couple I thought of yesterday:
* A Democrat in the White House
is change. The current crew is nothing like a status quo. They are radicals. Competence and good government in the White House isn’t the status quo. It’s just a damn good idea.
* Yes, I’m down now. The whole country is down now. Our reputation has been destroyed. I know what that’s like. But we can’t just hope things will get better. We have to pick ourselves up, dust ourselves off and start over again.
* Anyone can talk the talk. We’ve had cocky George Bush in the White House for 8 years. What do they say about him in Texas? All hat and no cattle? Do we want to put another inexperienced, charismatic figure in the White House or do we want to say, "Thanks, George, but you’ve done enough,
I’ll take it from here."
* It’s hard to tell the family that is losing their house or losing a job or losing their health insurance to just hope. It’s hard to tell our states that are deep in debt and cutting back on services to use words to make it happen. It’s hard to tell families whose sons and daughters are in a war zone to hold on while we learn on the job. I am not in the business of ecstasy and fairy tales and mind over matter. I am here to lead us back to living in the real world, where we regain our self-respect, dignity and entrepreneurial spirit.
I am rehab.
It looks like Democrats are just like regular human beings after all. They won't listen to a thing you say unless they are moved by it. That's why the choked up reason for running incident was so effective. People need to feel a connection with the deliverer. (I especially like the rehab one because that's what it feels like the country needs.)
So, there you have it. There's lots more, I'm sure but I'll let my 145,000 kossacks give more advice. (Er, except the Edwards and Obama hooligans. We know where you're coming from so please sit on your hands and let others have a crack at it)
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