Inside the Clinton Shake-Up

The Atlantic Monthly ^ | February 17, 2008 | Joshua Green

[Arec Barrwin]

February 2008 Unbound Atlantic Monthly

How Hillary's campaign managed itself into a ditch—and how it might get itself out

by Joshua Green Inside the Clinton Shake-Up

Like so much involving Hillary Clinton, Sunday’s departure of her campaign manager, Patti Solis Doyle, has gotten tons of attention, but its larger significance has been somewhat misunderstood.

For the many people in and around Washington who obsess over the latest machinations in Hillaryland, the firing of Solis Doyle—and she was fired, several insiders confirm—is a big deal, but for reasons somewhat different from what the media coverage has suggested.

[Arec Barrwin]

Good read

[the invisib1e hand]

from shake-down to shake-up like that!

[ncfool]

Does Hilary have a PR person named Roshann Paris working for her?

[USS Alaska]

The bitch has spent $175M in about one year and still is losing to osamaobama. She should have just sent $10 to each demonRAT primary voter and she would have doubled her total.

[chainsaw]

The Clinton camp is starting to panic.

[ricks_place]

Hillary should have sent each super-political-boss-delegate $220,000. Her nomination would be in the bag!

[1rudeboy]

It’s important to put all this in the context of the time and to remember how strikingly different the political landscape appeared then. Going through my reporting notes yesterday, I came across a quote that was given to me at the time by a close friend of the Clintons that seems comically misguided today but nicely captures the attitude that prevailed in Hillaryland in 2006, and suggests why Clinton might have been unwilling to move against her loyal servitor. “She is piggybacking the only black president the United States has ever known,” the Clinton friend piously lectured to me. “Given African Americans’ prominence in the Democratic Party, people who talk up other candidates don’t understand the impact that her husband will have. He won’t passively sit back in this election. He is going to be an activist and he will get on the phone to black ministers and they will be there for her.” (He had an impact, all right.)

[bob_esb]

Not at all - the counterattack started a couple of hours ago with the plagerism discusison (to wipe off the BC gaffs).

[Migraine]

She should have just sent $10 to each demonRAT primary voter and she would have doubled her total.

...either that, or throw them candy off the back of a flatbed truck.

[stan_sipple]

where do they come with Mark Penn as a “right-winger” though?

[TCats]

" "I've never seen a campaign where everyone feels so bad about themselves."

This seems to sum it up fairly well. The Clintons have a habit of building these types of organizations and populating them with unhappiness. Does anyone know if this type of scuttlebutt is out about the Obama Organization? I've not heard or read anything about the morale or about other friction from that quarter.

[Senator Goldwater]

Going through my reporting notes yesterday, I came across a quote that was given to me at the time by a close friend of the Clintons that seems comically misguided today but nicely captures the attitude that prevailed in Hillaryland in 2006, and suggests why Clinton might have been unwilling to move against her loyal servitor. “She is piggybacking the only black president the United States has ever known,” the Clinton friend piously lectured to me. “Given African Americans’ prominence in the Democratic Party, people who talk up other candidates don’t understand the impact that her husband will have. He won’t passively sit back in this election. He is going to be an activist and he will get on the phone to black ministers and they will be there for her.” (He had an impact, all right.)

---

Priceless.

Arrogant, pious fools. Looks good on them.

Ohio and Texas, bury the Beeotch. Let the House of Clinton fall.

[Phlap]

From the New Republic referenced article:As the leadership regrouped in the wake of Iowa, Hillary loyalists both inside and outside the campaign began contacting the candidate, offering opinions on What Next. "I've never seen such a sense of empowerment and excitement," recalls the Clinton White House veteran. "The Five disappeared, and it was like the fence that had been stopping ideas from flowing disappeared." Once that "overarching power structure was gone," the person adds, the rest of the team "went into overdrive." So strong was the desire for change that the Granite State miracle, while obviously a godsend, left some staffers deflated as it became clear that the planned overhaul had been derailed.

Hopeful and then crest fallen? I bet.

The fact is that Obama has dictated this race from the beginning. He forced her into announcing far earlier than she had planed and cut her off at the fund raising trail. The one part of the strategy that didn't change was that on Super Tuesday it would be over. But he snookered her there too. Waste money in NY or California? Check his spending. He put his money in states he could win and stayed with her. Now it is scramble time. Texas and Ohio to the rescue? Now even if she wins she loses.

[ghost of nixon]

The first public sign of this came just after Clinton’s reelection to the Senate. Even though Clinton had faced no serious opponent, it turned out that Solis Doyle, as campaign manager, had burned through more than $30 million.

very interesting...first, Solis-Doyle wastes tons of money on the '06 Senate race that could have jump-started the pres campaign, then she manages the presidential campaign money so badly that Hillary was running short at a critical point in the campaign. Hillary doesn't come close to measuring up to GWB in the management arena.

[Claud]

Does anyone know if this type of scuttlebutt is out about the Obama Organization? I've not heard or read anything about the morale or about other friction from that quarter.

Everything I've seen makes me think that the people in Obama's campaign are upbeat and really enthused about the guy--some of the articles I've been reading contrast his grass-roots support on the internet and elsewhere against Hillary's big-donor party coronation.

[Liz]

They're b-a-a-a-c-c-k----Maggie Williams, Harold Ickes, James Carville, Terry McAuliffe are all onboard (gag)----all Hillary needs is Janet Reno and Monica Lewinsky to complete the retro-picture.

Hill's brother, Hughie (golfing here with Bill), will also be moving back into
the White House.

After the Clintons left, one WH steward said when Hughie visited,
his sole occupation was ordering food from the WH kitchen.

[Liz]

LA Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa--Hillary's 2008 national co-chair---and Bill Clinton.

"Psst! Antonio. You know Hillary HAD to fire Patti Solis to protect
The Clinton Legacy. You still gonna fix me up with hot latina babes, right?"

"Ai dunno, Beeley. Ai dun't theenk hot mamasitas wanna tango wit chu undah
da sheets, enymore, Beeley. But chu can still have da name of my denteesta."

[tom paine 2]

Yeah, the arrogance of Doyle clearly reflects Hillary, and Hillary’s inability to fire this incompetant idiot really points out the candidates weakness in assessing people. A weakness we don’t need in the White House.