The Clinton Campaign's Final Chapter

Washington Post: Among Insiders, The Night Of May 6 Will Be Remembered As The Moment It Really Ended

(Washingtonpost.com)  This story was written by Anne E. Kornblut and Dan Balz.

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In a campaign of near-deaths and premature obituaries, the night of May 6 will be remembered inside Hillary Rodham Clinton's campaign as the moment it really ended.

The staff had settled into the war room at the campaign's Arlington headquarters. Mexican food, as always, had been ordered. The candidate was in Indianapolis. All anticipated another good night in a campaign that had put together an impressive streak of big-state primary victories in Ohio, Texas and Pennsylvania over the previous two months.

But whatever slim hopes Clinton had for an improbable comeback died with the disappointing results in the last two big primaries of the campaign -- a narrower-than-hoped-for victory in Indiana and a double-digit loss in North Carolina -- and the commentary that accompanied them. When NBC's Tim Russert flatly declared the Democratic race over around midnight, one adviser recalled, "the air came out of the room."

In subsequent days, a debate that had raged throughout the long nomination battle -- whether to attack Barack Obama or present Clinton positively -- virtually disappeared. What negative ads had been run were removed. The senator from New York, save for two notable slips, stopped criticizing Obama and focused on making the case for herself. Other defeats and other victories, including a win in West Virginia by 41 points, followed.

But there was a sense of resignation within the campaign. She would carry on, but the outcome was inevitable. "She could accept losing," one adviser said. "She could not accept quitting."

In many respects, the final chapter of the Clinton campaign was the best of times for a candidacy that began with Clinton seen as an almost-inevitable nominee and ended with the former first lady fighting off calls to quit. Aides look back at a campaign that, as it finished, functioned effectively and mostly collegially after months of turmoil and bitter internecine warfare. Clinton found her voice, liberated by the reality of the hill she had to climb and by her ability to focus on rising economic concerns among voters.

"Over the last four months we've won more states, more delegates, more votes," communications director Howard Wolfson said yesterday. "We won two states that we started out behind in and were not supposed to win. I'm proud of the way we closed and wish that that level of success had been the case throughout."

In reality, Clinton lost the nomination long before May 6. The early mistakes have been well documented: a flawed message that focused too much on inevitability and not enough on change; a failure to make Clinton more appealing to Iowa voters; a strategic miscalculation about the importance of caucus states; a spouse, former president Bill Clinton, who intruded as much as he aided his wife; a campaign that was at times dysfunctional.

Her success came mostly when it was too late. Clinton's strategy was predicated by necessity on convincing uncommitted superdelegates that she would be a stronger nominee than Obama. Despite victories in key states over the past few months, she and her advisers found those party leaders and elected officials impervious to events.

Asked why the campaign could never crack the superdelegates, who had started out predisposed toward her candidacy, Geoff Garin, one of the top strategists, said yesterday, "I think it's a mystery and an irony, and an irony in the sense that Hillary was seen as inevitable when it didn't matter and Obama was seen as inevitable when it did."

Clinton's victories in the Ohio and Texas primaries on March 4 revived her candidacy, and a series of mistakes by Obama gave it hope.

The first came on March 14, when an explosive video of Obama's former pastor, the Rev. Jeremiah A. Wright Jr., came to light. Clinton and her team saw the Wright controversy for what it was, a major challenge to Obama's candidacy and a potentially significant problem in a general election.

But they also knew that the topic was radioactive, particularly for a team that had been accused of injecting race into the nomination battle. "Our track record of dealing with race vis-à-vis his campaign is dismal," one official said.

Raising the issue publicly was so sensitive that when Harold Ickes, a senior strategist overseeing the delegate operation, mentioned in one interview that Wright had been raised in conversations by superdelegates, he was admonished by Maggie Williams, the campaign's new manager.

Clinton's team showed no such reluctance to engage after the next Obama misstep, after the Huffington Post Web site reported in April that Obama, at a San Francisco fundraiser, had described small-town Pennsylvanians as "bitter" over their economic situation and said that, as a result, they tend to "cling" to religion and guns.

"We thought that this was a legitimate and important conversation about who the Democratic Party stands for and how it stands for them," Garin said.

The Clinton high command treated the "bitter comment" as, in the words of one adviser, a "full-court, full-throated, no-holds-barred" opportunity. "It was a moment tied to the particular state where we were competing and where we needed a big victory. There was a recognition that it was something we needed to drive very hard, and we did."

Five days later, in the final debate of the primaries, ABC News moderators Charles Gibson and George Stephanopoulos grilled Obama relentlessly over Wright, his association with 1960s radical William Ayers and even why he did not wear an American-flag pin on his lapel.

Clinton emerged from Pennsylvania with a victory that nearly matched her 10-point margin in Ohio. Her campaign responded with the message "The tide is turning."

Lifting spirits further still was a new campaign apparatus. Gone was Patti Solis Doyle, the less-experienced loyalist, replaced by the older and firmer Williams -- a professional management consultant who knew, in the words of one adviser, "how to say no."

Williams and another longtime confidante, Cheryl Mills, closed ranks around the candidate -- demanding an end to the backstabbing that had poisoned the campaign early on, returning phone calls and running meetings on time, making decisions that had lingered. Not everyone was happy. But for the first time, the office seemed to run relatively smoothly.

Gone, too -- or at least moved to the side -- was Mark Penn, the irascible chief strategist who had provoked so much ire during the early days of the race. Replaced by Garin, an affable and well-liked pollster, Penn took on a new role as the outside consigliore advising the Clintons to remain aggressive in the face of doubts about the campaign.

With Penn out of the top leadership, staff members felt that some of the dysfunction had been removed. Some even expressed warm feelings toward Penn, saying they could hear his advice in a more neutral way. "He is still sending in edits, but we can ignore them" was how one adviser put it.

The Clinton team still split along familiar lines, with some (including Wolfson and Mandy Grunwald) arguing for softer, more positive rhetoric, and others (including Penn) taking a hard line, encouraging the candidate to attack Obama. Penn also thought a far more aggressive strategy was needed in the effort to corral superdelegates. "Brute force" was his recommendation.

But the yelling matches were less frequent. "It's not a bad place to work anymore," one senior adviser said in late May, adding, with a wry smile: "Except we're losing."

What happened in Indiana and North Carolina was a classic case of expectations getting away from the campaign. Obama had always been heavily favored in North Carolina because of the size of the state's African American vote. Indiana appeared to be more of a tossup, although the campaign's early polls showed Obama leading by eight or nine points.

Ace Smith had been sent to North Carolina after pulling off important victories in California and Texas. Robby Mook, who had earned the respect of the campaign for his work in Nevada and Ohio, was put in charge of Indiana.

In late March, the Clinton team gathered at the candidate's home in Northwest Washington, and there, according to several present, Smith offered an optimistic assessment of North Carolina. Smith declined to comment about what he said was a private meeting. But, he said, "we were cornered and we had to fight that battle, and when you go into fight a battle you'd better be optimistic or you're doomed to failure from the beginning."

[rufisgufis]

IN HILLARY''S SICK WORLD IT''S ALL ABOUT HER. SHE STILL WANTS TO HOG THE LIMELIGHT WITH HER UGLY MUG. SHE NEEDS TO GET OVER HERSELF. THIS IS OBAMA''S MOMENT- NOT HERS.

[rufisgufis]

I will NEVER vote for any ticket with Obama on it.

Posted by nanging3 at 06:49 PM : Jun 05, 2008
___________________________

Who cares? No one expects racists to vote for Obama.

[rufisgufis]

IN HILLARY''S SICK WORLD IT''S ALL HER. SHE STILL WANTS TO HOG THE LIMELIGHT WITH HER UGLY MUG. SHE NEEDS TO GET OVER HERSELF. THIS IS OBAMA''S MOMENT- NOT HERS.

[rufisgufis]

IN HILLARY''S SICK WORLD IT''S ALL HER. SHE STILL WANTS TO HOG THE LIMELIGHT WITH HER UGLY MUG. SHE NEEDS TO GET OVER HERSELF. THIS IS OBAMA''S MOMENT- NOT HERS.

[boycot-china]

Facing criticism, Obama CHANGES his Jerusalem stance last night. How many other issues is he going to CHANGE for the election? I am still very hurt and shocked that it took so long for Senator Obama to finally quit his Church and he only did so in response to quieting the complaints. Here''''s another example of Senator Obama''''s hypocritical CHANGE stance. He complained openly about a white Imus, but was very careful not to apply the same intense scrutiny to his black pastor. What''''s the beef? Senator Obama tried to mend the racial barrier that he has created, but in reality he created more of a CHANGE and divide instead of a healing. Why is Senator Obama lying to America? He lost my vote, because he''''s trying to pull another con job just like the dirty land developer that Senator Obama still accepts money from. Yes, the same developer that was in court this week for illegal money laundering. The same guy who gave the Obama family special rates on the Obama''''s multi-million dollar home. I wonder if Senator Obama is going to CHANGE his story on that one too?

[craigh9]

If Obama loses and Hillary is shown to have worked hard to secure his win she will be vindicated and will win the 2012 nomination because she will be seen as having been the one who should have been chosen.
Either way it''''''''s win win for Hillary if she and her supporters support Obama, either way it''''''''s lose lose if she and her supporters do not support Obama.
Posted by taddles2 at 06:32 PM : Jun 05, 2008

I disagree, I believe that if Obama loses, no matter what the circumstances, I think Hillary will be looked at as the primary cause as she has robbed him of 2 months worth of time to unify the party and to take McCain on directly.
Hillary lost her one and only opportunity for the presidency - the party will never embrace her again as they have in the past - the torch has been past to a newer younger group within the democratic party and they will not retrest from that.

[fuzzybear9]

Hello Woman Democrat Voters

Fuzzy Bear can you give us gals something to smile about ?

well lets just say that Hillary made a good showing, if she had been able to put her best foot forward earlier in the race things may have been different,
the trouble was, we all knew Hillary very well,
we only later confirmed our suspicions about Obama when it was far too late.

But the nation as a whole wants CHANGE, change to what we don`t know,
and where do Women voters find a party that stands for their Ideas?
there is none.

the Old Kennedy Womanizer Molesting Black Caccuss Party ?

or the Toe Tapping Airport Restroom closet **** Party ?

not much choice is there ?

I guess we just hate to see all those soccer moms revert back to the Kennedy Era of using woman like a piece of cheap meat (Marilyn Monroe and Mary Joe Kapichnik) and then discarding them in Chapaquitic Bay? Yes the old Black Caccus of The Kennedy Mob has won again, The Chicago Bosses have come out on top.

who will you vote for ?

Fuzzy Has no clue, we have run out of options.

sincerely Fuzzy Bear

[ptsdveteran]

PUMA democrat? What a joke!!!! Your letters should be PUKES for Clinton. You are not a TruAmerican. Clinton lost!!!!!! Booooooo, Hooooooo, Hooooooo, Waaaaaaaa, Waaaaaaaaaa, Waaaaaaaaaaaaa, sniff, sniff!!!!!!!! Now she can go back to the senate and do nothing. Just like before!!!!

[zavatchen]

Hillary will forever be a winner. What an incredible human being.

[clovisbuford]

"I will NEVER vote for any ticket with Obama on it. I feel betrayed that Hillary would ask us to support him."nanging3 errr take your ball and go home then I was an Edwards supporter and when he lost i moved on.more likely you are a troll,whatever there is not a gnats difference in the democrats position , so you either vote democrat or for a third Bush term ..good luck with that one it has been so successful.. do you need cheese with that whine?