Campaign call reveals Clinton debate concern - She's now trying to define *how* and why she lost

[jefferson_dem]

Campaign call reveals Clinton debate concern
By Sam Youngman
November 01, 2007

Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton’s (D-N.Y.) top advisers, doing damage control after the candidate’s debate performance Tuesday, told supporters on a conference call Wednesday that the campaign needed more money to fight back.

Mark Penn, Clinton’s senior strategist and pollster, and Jonathan Mantz, the campaign’s finance director, told the supporters on the call, which The Hill listened to in its entirety, that they expect attacks from Clinton’s rivals to continue, and she will need the financial resources to deflect their attacks.

Clinton came under withering assault in the Philadelphia debate, and some supporters on the call agreed with analysts that she stumbled.

“I wouldn’t say she lost her cool,” one caller said. “But I would say she lost her footing.”

The caller addded that Clinton’s response to questions about records from her time in the White House that have been sealed by the National Archives “made me roll my eyes.”

<SNIP>

The object of the call, and a follow-up breakfast Thursday morning with campaign chairman and former chairman of the Democratic National Committee (DNC) Terry McAuliffe, was apparently to stop whatever bleeding the senator might have sustained during a debate in which Clinton wore a bull’s-eye on her back throughout the evening.

<SNIP>

http://thehill.com/leading-the-news/campaign-call-reveals-clinton-debate-concern-2007-11-01.html

***

First thoughts: Hillary's Philly Aftermath
Posted: Thursday, November 01, 2007 9:20 AM
by Domenico Montanaro
Categories: First Glance

From Chuck Todd, Mark Murray, and Domenico Montanaro
*** Hillary’s Philly aftermath: A little less than 48 hours after the Philly Phracas, the Clinton campaign is in the midst of giving up denying they lost the debate. Instead, they’re trying to define how they lost. Strategy One: blame the media. She’s the front-runner, everyone saw her as the target, and the campaign appears intent on crediting the moderators for her problems -- since it's easier to blame the media (a trick usually reserved for the

Republican side) than see one of her opponents get any credit. Indeed, Mark Penn yesterday held a conference call with key campaign fundraisers and repeatedly talked about the moderators. Our response: what part of front-runner doesn't the campaign understand? We are two months and two days from the first round of voting, the tests are supposed to get harder -- not easier.

*** Strategy two: Don't get caught in a back-and-forth with any one foe. Lump Obama and Edwards together so that Obama, in particular, doesn't get to look like he's rising above it all. (Camp Clinton loves that Obama's negatives have been rising; they'd like to see that trend continue.) For example, the campaign yesterday released a video entitled “The Politics of Pile-On," a take off on Obama's "politics of Hope," even though it was Edwards who led the charge on Tuesday. And, of course, engaging Edwards directly can breathe life into him and benefit Obama at the same time. Just ask veterans of the ‘04 Edwards campaign.

*** Strategy three: use the debate to galvanize women so that it looks like a bunch of men ganged up on a woman, rather than simply a bunch of opponents ganging up on a front-runner. Coincidentally or not, Clinton today returns to her alma mater, Wellesley College, a liberal arts college for women. Think she’ll bring up Tuesday’s debate at the school?

<SNIP>

http://firstread.msnbc.msn.com/archive/2007/11/01/442482.aspx

[CTyankee]

1. well, six men attacking one lone female just might make some wimmin mad.

Doncha think?

Plus the fact that she openly seeks power, which is often applied to her perjoratively, but curiously, not to the men! She is no more a power grabber than the others.

Having said that, she is currently not my favorite candidate. Edwards is, altho I am beginning to warm to Biden...

[jefferson_dem]

3. Interesting.

How can you promote gender stereotypes in one sentence and dismiss them as out of line in the very next sentence?

Hint: This isn't about gender.

[CTyankee]

5. Um, I said "might make some" so I wasn't stereotyping at all.

And yes, it shouldn't be about gender, at least not in our party. But sometimes a woman's take on a situation can be very different from a man's. And women asserting themselves can be viewed differently from men being assertive.On GMA this morning they were showing a study about how negatively a female job candidate was viewed in asking for the salary she deserved as opposed to a male job candidate basically asking for the same thing.

I don't believe that this is all about gender stereotypes but let's be realistic and recognize that it still exists. I'm sorry to say that. I, too, want to believe that it is totally, completely not about gender, but I have lived to tell the tale...

;(

[sandnsea]

4. I'm a woman and that is goddamn insulting

You know, some of us women actually do know what real life discrimination looks like and when Hillary's campaign attempts to turn honest competition into sexism, it's infuriating as hell to women who have fought real sexism in their lives. I've just now figured out that's one of the things that has always pissed me off about Hillary, the way she plays on sexism when it doesn't exist.

[CTyankee]

8. "might" - conditional. "some" - not all.

Read my statement. You are obviously not one who felt that way.

Oh, and BTW, I am not a Hillary supporter in the primary.

Good lord, I was speculating on the reaction that some women might have had. Leave open a little room for a differing opinion from yours, please.

[sandnsea]

9. Why would any woman be insulted by competition?

It's sexist to even think that any woman would be insulted. ANY.

And yes you are a Hillary supporter, puhleeze.

[CTyankee]

24. Now I am a sexist and a Hillary supporter!

Curses! You have unmasked me for what I really am!

For years, my cover was not blown. Those years I labored under cover for the Great Sexist Plot while ostensibly working for the ACLU (NY and D.C. offices), the League of Women Voters (DC national office, during the ERA effort), a women's clinic in New Haven (that performed abortions) and then in the state office of Planned Parenthood of CT (total of 15 years, raising money through direct mail, special events and major donor giving). Nobody got it that I was a secret agent working for the downfall of feminism. But now you have found me out!

And now I'll probably be drummed out of the Edwards campaign and if I go over to Biden you'll "out" me there, too!

You have spoiled everything in my dastardly plot, Sandnsea! To think, you could see my true colors through the Internets.

Oh, the horror, the horror!

[rufus dog]

31. awhile back there was an article from a professional woman

that basically said she and her friends don't feel comfortable with HRC due to the premise that Hillary didn't have the experiences that they went through. I agree HRC and her supporters can't have it both ways. She is the front runner, she stumbled, and she is getting trampled by those behind her. It has nothing to do with being a woman, it has everything to do with being the front runner. By claiming that others are picking on her - piling on - she just reinforces the beliefs of some that she feels Presidency is hers by decree.

[zulchzulu]

10. Hillary Clinton's "Poor Little Me" act actually hurts woman's rights

I've talked to several women about this...first, she sticks out a marriage that most women wouldn't...then uses her husband's resume to give her cred...and now pulls the "Poor Little Me" act of being "ganged up" on by a bunch of big, sweaty men... she is saying that women need to stick by their cheating man and use his career to advance and then not be able to stand up on her own.

It's plastic robotisms based on overwrought spin and overplayed market testing...

[sandnsea]

13. It's reason #1 why I don't like her

I've not said too much about it because it's a personal attack. On that note, can you imagine what will happen if they actually do run Laura for US Senate in Texas? What will the entire Democratic Party say - Laura hasn't done anything to be qualified to be a Senator. Every single American will look squarely at Laura and compare her to Hillary and conclude Hillary isn't qualified either. That's the easiest way I can see for Republicans to beat Hillary without saying a word. She had better start standing on her own two feet in a hurry.

[PurityOfEssence]

27. Well, it's been a while since I've agreed with you...

...but you really couldn't have said it better.

There is an extreme consistency to this person: her cynical playing of every advantage for personal gain is quite a habit. What you demonstrate her doing to women in general is what she's doing to the Democratic Party at large: using the liberal initiatives and policy accomplishments of others to bolster her manufactured image of progressivism, portraying herself as the staunch ally of the weak as she enables the powerful and then hyping non-existent resistance to the Republicans as proof of her indomitable power while bleating that she's being picked on. That last one's red meat to the reactionaries; they're the ones who popularized the sneering term "whining".

It's like her stance on issues: she wants to have it both ways. What this shows is that what matters isn't policy but personal advancement; it's not so much about a road to a golden, glowing future as it is about triumphal achievement.

There's a price to be paid for one's political actions. John Edwards has painted himself into a corner where he's in a bit of trouble if he admits any more mistakes. Kucinich needs to seem upright, rational and practical at every turn after such an idealism-based record. I'll leave Obama alone for the moment; we'll meet on that field often enough in the near future.

She is an embarrassment. She is an embarrassment for those of us who are neurotically concerned about the value of our words of honor and honesty in general.

[Larkspur]

14. This woman is glad Queen Hillary was attacked

Edwards did the best job and the men attacked her they way they would do a male candidate.

[Me.]

2. President Clinton?

Has the election been held?

'He, Mantz and several supporters hinted repeatedly on the call that Clinton was unfairly targeted by Tim Russert, debate moderator and host of NBC’s “Meet the Press.”

“Russert made it appear that President Clinton had done something new or unusual,” Penn said, before adding that it “is, in fact, an extremely confusing situation … I think there will be further clarification.”


'

[Colobo]

6. Overconfident?

[Me.]

12. They Should Be Careful With That Sort Of Thing

Claiming something which doesn't belong to you, yet, is like spitting in the eyes of the Gods. But maybe they're not superstitious.

[Basileus Basileon]

18. Is this a joke?

We're talking about the records of President Bill Clinton there, who was actually elected President, and thus calling him President Clinton is entirely proper.

[Me.]

19. The Subject Being Discussed Is She

Not He

[Basileus Basileon]

22. Incorrect.

They were talking about the National Archives records of President Bill Clinton, and Russert attempted to compare President Clinton's behavior with President Bush's.

[Me.]

26. My Eyes Are Rolling

What they were discussing was the pummeling SHE took at the debate.

[Basileus Basileon]

29. They were, yes. But look at that sentence again.

“Russert made it appear that President Clinton had done something new or unusual.”

Here we're saying that President Clinton's handing of his records was being used to smear Hillary. Don't you remember that business during the debate where Russert tried to imply that President Clinton had hidden documents the same way Bush did?

[Me.]

35. You May Be Right, Though I Read It Differently

Read consecutively the conversation is about her, and her performance, her being unfairly targeted by the debate moderator. Further, throughout Senator Clinton's campaign they have been presumptive about the office being hers for the asking.

'The criticisms followed Penn’s assertion that Clinton was “unflappable.” He also said criticisms from Sen. Barack Obama (D-Ill.) and former Sen. John Edwards (D-N.C.) would backfire and that he was already “detecting some backlash,” particularly among female voters.

Those female voters are saying, “Sen. Clinton needs our support now more than ever if we’re going to see this six-on-one to try to bring her down,” Penn told those on the campaign call.

He, Mantz and several supporters hinted repeatedly on the call that Clinton was unfairly targeted by Tim Russert, debate moderator and host of NBC’s “Meet the Press.”

“Russert made it appear that President Clinton had done something new or unusual,” Penn said, before adding that it “is, in fact, an extremely confusing situation … I think there will be further clarification.”

[zulchzulu]

7. Clinton's Iowa ground game is minimal and underfunded

That was mentioned in the conference call too. I've seen it firsthand. Nobody wants to canvass for Clinton in Iowa. Meanwhile, the Obama team has almost too many volunteers and the list of people wanting to caucus is getting very large.

[DemocratSinceBirth]

11. Congratulations-It Is The Shrillness That Is Pushing Obama's Negatives Into Clinton Territory

I fully expect the same dynamic to occur with Edwards...

Obama is now viewed favorably by 48%, unfavorably by 50%—including 31% who view him very unfavorably. That's not quite the level of dislike accorded the former First Lady, viewed very unfavorably by 37%. It surpasses that of both Giuliani and Thompson.


http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=132x3671515

[zulchzulu]

32. A lot of Republicans think Obama is a Muslim...

....hence high negatives from that crowd.

Who cares. The same people who won't for a black man are equally never going to vote for a woman...

[hedgehog]

15. Will more money help the National Archives move faster to release

the Clinton papers?

[AtomicKitten]

16. Her spin on this is spectacular proving once again she is above all a political animal.

And, in my opinion, the union endorsement the very next day was orchestrated for timing.

Look, America, a shiny penny!

[rinsd]

23. Many things in campaigning are about timing.

Take for instance Hillary releasing her fundraising coup the day Obama was to kick off a major campaign tour centered around the anniversary of his speech in 2002.

[Lord Helmet]

34. yep that's the same kind of cheesy timing meant to distract

[More Than A Feeling]

17. K+R for the Clinton camp's faux outrage and "poor little me" act.

She's been on cruise control for so long, then she loses a debate and all of a sudden its armageddon.

[Lerkfish]

20. needs more money? I'm confused

all along I've heard she's outfundraised all the other candidates.

is that no longer the case?

[TeamJordan23]

21. Just like Bush, her camp is blaming the media for tough questions (ones she couldn't even answer) nm

[PurityOfEssence]

25. I guess that must be why the "natural" laugh is gone...

Serious business here

[jmp]

28. The laugh didn't poll well ...

So it had to go. ;)

[PurityOfEssence]

36. As Foghorn Leghorn would say:

Ah say son, ah say ah say that's a JOKE son.

Hell yes, she polls more than a Venetian gondolier.

[bunkerbuster1]

30. Nice truth-in-advertising use of "Concern" in headline!

Kudos.

[jefferson_dem]

33. Take it up with the folks at The Hill.

Gee...perhaps they are really just freepers whose purpose is to post troll-like *concern* messages on DU... :tinfoil:

[bunkerbuster1]

37. Eh. there are all manner of concern-trollers.

Not calling you (personally) one.

For the record, I love Obama, would gladly cast a vote for him for President.