First thoughts: Hillary delivers

[ProSense]

First thoughts: Hillary delivers

Posted: Wednesday, August 27, 2008 9:42 AM by Domenico Montanaro

From Chuck Todd, Mark Murray, and Domenico Montanaro
DENVER, Colo. -- With a backdrop of PUMAs on the prowl here, Clinton donors upset they’re not staying at the Ritz-Carlton (as the New York Times wrote), and word that Bill Clinton won’t attend Obama’s speech tomorrow night, Hillary Clinton last night delivered on two fronts: 1) she gave a full-throated endorsement of Obama, and 2) she made it clear to her troops that voting for McCain was unacceptable. “No way. No how. No McCain,” she said. As some Hillary watchers told us, it was her finest speech. It was an impressive balance of anti-McCain sound bites and the case for the Democratic way of governing. She really did strike a Goldilocks balance of preserving her own political future and being for Obama. Yet even better than her speech were the pictures on TV. For all the tension and hard feelings that exist here in Denver, you couldn’t tell when you watched her speech. It looked like a unified party. To be sure, last night’s speech won’t end some of the tension and hard feelings. But both ObamaNation and Hillaryland got what they wanted out of last night’s speech. (PUMAs, for those that don't know, are the "Party Unity My A--" crowd -- ardent Hillary backers, refusing to vote for Obama.)

*** When your staff doesn’t do you any favors: All that said, who in Hillaryland thought it was a good idea to step on the best speech of her political career by giving blind quotes about a future presidential campaign? She got tremendous accolades from Team Obama, but some Clinton staffer had to spill beans about the speech's motivation to the New York Times. “Mrs. Clinton is almost certain to run for president in 2012 if Mr. Obama fails this time, several Clinton advisers said Tuesday, and any such plan could possibly founder if the Clintons’ negative feelings show through this year.” It's actually a good example of how no good deed goes unpunished by her staff, and it’s another reminder of how undisciplined her campaign would be right now had she won the Dem nomination. It's no wonder there's so little trust between the candidates when staff -- particularly hers, in this case -- undermines her unity efforts.

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Who the hell are these so-called advisers?