Considering the startling disorganization of Hillary Clinton's campaign, her management skills are not sufficient to make an effective Chief Executive
PDXMike said 02/28, 01:14 PM
The Clinton Campaign is in startling disarray. Their 10 state losing streak is in large measure due to the fact that she has been out-organized by a former community organizer. Wherever real nuts and bolts management have been at a premium (as in caucus states), the Clinton Campaign has been thrashed. Her campaign finances are in frightful disarray, her messaging has been inconsistent to the point of being schizophrenic, and her leadership vision is often clouded with negativity. With regard to the latter, you might be able to win a primary election with a negative campaign, but you cannot govern with one.
B-man said 02/28, 03:03 PM
I don't believe her 10-state losing streak is to blame on her her managing skills. Firstly,she doesn't choose the entire campaign staff herself. Every candidate has some trustees that he/she wants to organize the campaign (including staff) & advice them. The Campaign leader and campaign strategists manage her campaign, the speech writers write the speeches, etc. She has her own views and ideas but the people around her tell her how to convey it and are specialists when it comes to choosing a certain strategy. Therefore, the campaign manager is at fault for the "chaos". Secondly, I don't believe that the loosing streak is entirely to blame on the Clinton campaign. I believe Obama has a momentum going which is strengthened by his likability and the fact that he is an outsider who wants change and is not associated with establishments. Obama is campaigning on a philosophy (Change) that many Americans want to hear after 8 years of Bush. Furthermore, Clinton just has a fairly bad reputation. People don't particularly like her personality and tie her to "old politics", just the thing they want to get rid of. Looking purely at substance, both candidates don't differ in substance that much
PDXMike said 02/28, 03:37 PM
I'm sorry, but to blame her underlings for the obvious failings of her campaign is to ignore the person whose name is on all the posters and lawn signs. Where does the buck stop? Top-down organizations, like hers, require a strong, able manager at the very top in order to be successful. Compound that with the way that she botched the whole "health care initiative" fiasco while she was First Lady and I'm not sure how we can evaluate her managerial performance as anything but sub-standard.
B-man said 02/28, 04:47 PM
I'm not saying we can't blame Clinton at all but I am saying the problems with her campaign are not because of her management skills. Of course her name is on the posters but that doesn't mean she takes all the crucial decions concerning strategies. If president Bush gives a great speech, do you really think he wrote it or even had any input?! You have to trust the people that are experts in running campaigns like any leader has to trust his advisors, why else would you need them? If you're are arguing that her health care initiative is a fiasco, that's fine by me but it doesn't have anthing to do with how her campaign is managed and why the campaign itself is a fiasco. The campaign is about conveying your ideas to the American people, let them know what they can expect from you when they elect you as president. Implementing those ideas once you are commander in chief is a totally diferent ball game which we are not debating here. If you solely look at her campaign and how it's carried out, it is impossible to blame Clinton's managerial skills for the failure. She has to trust her experts, they have experience and they know what to say, how and when.
PDXMike said 02/28, 05:21 PM
Why is the way Hillary manages her campaign is an important issue? Hillary constantly rails about how Barack Obama is simply a good orator, but his words are empty. She, on the other hand, claims that she is all about actions and solutions. The "contrast" that she is trying to draw is that he is somehow an incompetent blow hard, she is a hard working, results oriented do-er. If you are a do-er, lets see what you have done. We can look at your resume and see what you have been in charge of. In the case of Sen. Clinton, the only organizations that she truly been in charge of have been her political campaigns. The first two went well enough, though each were waged against what amounted to token opposition. The current campaign is the largest, highest stakes organization that she has ever lead. She is not just the CEO, she is the brand. Yet, to date, this has not been a well run effort. You can blame her underlings if you would like, but do the decisions that she made in hiring and enabling the team that she currently has reflect well on how she would put together an administration?
B-man said 02/28, 06:04 PM
Fact is she is a senator. Fact is she has more experience than Obama. Fact is that candidates don't pick their entire campaign staff (except for one or two trustees that they have been working for in politics for many years). The rest of the strategies chosen are the responsibility of her campaign manager. Clinton simply doesn't have time to plan all the strategies and attacks on Obama. She's leaving that to the experts who do that for a living. Just because her campaign doesn't go so well doesn't mean Clinton doesn't make a good president. G.W. Bush ran (relatively) great campaigns, and after 8 years have gone by can we really say he was a great president who made all the right decisions and chose all the best people to surround him??? no way!!! One plus one isn't two here. Therefore, how can we say for sure that her campaign is the reason she lost 10 states in a row? Don't you think Obama and his campaign have a big advantage over Clinton. People generally don't like her, people see her as "old politics" which is exactly what they don't want. Obama is young, fresh, "NEW" and the media loves him. It's nearly impossible to beat that and that's why Clinton's campaign is suffering.
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This campaign is about likability and they like Obama better than Clinton.
B-man | 02/28/08
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I don't remember the Obama campaign branding Hillary a racist? That would seem to be absurd on the face of it, no pun intended.
PDXMike | 02/28/08
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Then you were not paying attention. He has been doing it at every turn through the use of his campaign members. For instance, Jesse Jackson was on Obamas comity when he called Hillary racist for crying, because she did not cry for Katrina victims. He did not mince words. He flat out called her a racist. For the next 2 days every single thing that came out of the Clintons mouths was branded as racist. Historically correct comments about LBJ and MLK? Racist. Bill Clinton saying the press wasn't scrutinizing Obamas record like it should? Racist. Suddenly Hillary went from leading in the black vote to being unable to even get 10%. Obama did this all through his surrogates to keep his face out of it, but they were all on his campaigns payroll.
Eveas | 02/28/08
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Hmmm. And the 60%+ of white males in Wisconsin (a white dominated state)were also swayed by this nifty race trick? 50%+ of women in Virginia too? Like many of the people who run and support Hillary's campaign, Eveas, you are grasping. There is more to Barack Obama and the movement that he seems to be inspiring than his race, or any reference to it.
PDXMike | 02/28/08
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Once the other campaign manages to brand you a racist there is really no amount of organization that will save you. The Obama did an amazing job playing the race card for things as stupid as Hillary crying. Explain to me how her showing some tiers is a sign of racism. Somehow, the people bought it.
Eveas | 02/28/08
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