Wheels Coming Off Clinton Campaign?
The Politico appears to believe that is precisely what is happening. According to their report, based on interviews with Clinton insiders, Hillary Clinton appears to be heading for defeat in New Hampshire and South Carolina – and the campaign has zero clue as to how to stop Obama's momentum. But they have also decided not to unleash their negative campaign just yet. They're scared to death it would backfire.
“You can’t launch a negative ad and expect that it’s going to be effective over a three-day period,” said a Democratic strategist familiar with the campaign’s thinking. “And the blowback could be significant.”
On Sunday, the Clinton team was out instead with a new game plan, sharpening points she made in Saturday night’s debate and trying to undermine Obama without going nuclear.
“Rhetoric vs. Results, Talk vs. Action,” is the new formula.
As Clinton campaigned through the snow in a Manchester neighborhood Sunday morning, her aides on the ground in New Hampshire insisted that they’re optimistic. They pointed out that New Hampshire’s traditionally high turnout leaves Obama less room to bring new voters to the polls than he had in Iowa.
“In New Hampshire, it’s a little bit easier to predict turnout” than in Iowa, said Nick Clemons, Clinton’s state director here. “I’m very confident we’ve modeled correctly.”
But Clinton advisers also fear the New Hampshire strategy is a stop-gap measure, with a harsher approach likely if she loses New Hampshire. Conversations with campaign officials make it clear they feel besieged, and unsure how to sap Obama’s momentum.
In Iowa, Clinton aides have said she drew levels of support that might have been enough to win in an ordinary year, but she was swamped in the stunning turnout produced by Obama’s popularity among young voters. While taking pains to insist in public that New Hampshire’s turnout model is very different from Iowa’s, Clinton’s aides say privately that they still fear a similar wave on Tuesday.
“It’s still possible to win or take a close second in New Hampshire, but if the turnout even begins to mirror what happened in Iowa, all bets are off,” said a Clinton adviser, who spoke on the condition of anonymity.
The adviser added that the campaign has come to accept another reality of the early process, which is that African-American voters are convinced that Obama is viable and shifting rapidly in his direction.
“We’re going to lose South Carolina,” he said.
Wow. Their internal polling must be hideous indeed. Mark Penn is mentioned by name in the article as being under fire both within the organization and from the outside as well. They say that some sort of realignment will be needed if Clinton does lose these important primaries.
Want to bet Penn "resigns" to "pursue other opportunities?"
