Clinton Leadership a Study in Missteps

[Political Heretic]

Source: Politico

Clinton leadership a study in missteps
By: Jim VandeHei and David Paul Kuhn
April 9, 2008 10:23 AM EST

Hillary Rodham Clinton wants voters to decide the nomination based on who can coolly and competently run the country. She had better hope they don’t study her recent campaign too closely for the answer.

Clinton has overseen two major staff shake-ups in two months. She has left a trail of unpaid bills and unhappy vendors and had to loan her own campaign $5 million to keep it afloat in January. Her campaign badly underestimated her main adversary, Barack Obama, miscalculated the importance of organizing caucus states and was caught flat-footed after failing to lock up the nomination on Super Tuesday.

It would be easy to dismiss all of this as fairly conventional political stumbling — if she hadn’t made her supreme readiness and managerial competence the central issue of her presidential campaign.

...

“In every campaign, the strategy is important and the day-to-day management is important. And in Obama’s case, it’s hard not to argue that they have run a great campaign,” said Steve Elmendorf, deputy campaign manager for Kerry’s 2004 bid and a Clinton supporter. “It’s been one of the best-run presidential campaigns in the last 20 years. I think they are focused and disciplined and on message. … The test of a good campaign is having a plan and keeping an operation on track to execute a plan.”

Put simply, Obama has shown he can offer a compelling vision, execute a complicated strategy to convey it and, all the while, keep the ledger in the black. That’s not a bad first step to becoming a strong leader.

(more)
http://dyn.politico.com/printstory.cfm?uuid=307AC4F4-3048-5C12-00601BDE2DDB440A

I post this specifically because it relates to my criticism of Senator Clinton. I have not bought into her message that she has the best experience to lead, or that she is ready to lead. In fact her campaign has been executed in much the same way has the Iraq war has been executed - with overconfidence, lack of planning and gross mismanagement. In contrast, the Obama campaign has been stellar, one of the best organized most professional campaigns in recent memory. He doesn't have to just "claim" good leadership ability or good judgment, he demonstrates it every day he steps on the campaign field and breaks records.

Leadership. Judgment. Competence. That's Obama.

EDIT - RELEATED STORY:

Obama's happy, drama-free appeal
By: Roger Simon
April 8, 2008 06:40 AM EST

In the days and weeks ahead, the Barack Obama campaign is going to pose a simple question to the undecided voters and undeclared superdelegates who will decide the Democratic nomination for president: If Hillary Clinton can’t run a good primary campaign, how is she ever going to run a good campaign against the Republicans?

And while she says she is ready from Day One to be president, she is at something like Day 430 into being a presidential candidate and her campaign seems to be going from bad to worse to train wreck.

(more)
http://dyn.politico.com/printstory.cfm?uuid=2B1AEBEF-3048-5C12-0074D4AF8CF7B8BB

[wowimthere]

1. Her goliath got beat by his David. All that clout too. And she's run a horrible campaign

[MadAndy]

4. It all comes down to 1 word, "likeability". On a scale of 1-10, Hellary is a 3 at best. BO is a 9

[uponit7771]

2. Having interviewed mulitple people for jobs I would NEVER hire Hillary for upper management because

...her ability to delegate and verify hasn't been shown nor has her ability to address issues of her base.

Bottom line it sounds like she's not run a campaign where she's involved the day to day enough (doesn't have to be granular) to make decisions that work

[redqueen]

3. "It would be easy to dismiss all of this

as fairly conventional political stumbling — if she hadn’t made her supreme readiness and managerial competence the central issue of her presidential campaign."

The way she's handled stumbling blocks like being called out on her Bosnia claims sure didn't help.

[DefenseLawyer]

5. The great Clinton Machine has always been a myth

Bill Clinton beating Paul Tsongas and Jerry Brown in order to run against an unpopular president in the middle of a recession with Ross Perot thrown in to take 19% and still ending up with only 43%; less about political genius and more about being in the right place at the right time.

[Perry Logan]

6. Just about everything said about the Clintons--including this thread--is bullshit.

[DearAbby]

7. Excellent observation

I have not bought into her message that she has the best experience to lead, or that she is ready to lead. In fact her campaign has been executed in much the same way has the Iraq war has been executed - with overconfidence, lack of planning and gross mismanagement.

I agree totally, as always an informative post. K&R

[FrenchieCat]

8. word!