Politico: Bill Clinton questions Hillary's Super Tuesday plan

[Jarqui]

http://www.politico.com/story/2016/01/bill-clinton-hillary-clinton-super-tuesday-2016-election-218052

Bill Clinton is getting nervous.
With polls showing Bernie Sanders ahead in New Hampshire and barely behind, if at all, in Iowa, the former president is urging his wife to start looking toward the delegate-rich March primaries — a shift for an organizing strategy that’s been laser-focused on the early states.

Bill Clinton, according to a source with firsthand knowledge of the situation, has been phoning campaign manager Robby Mook almost daily to express concerns about the campaign’s organization in the March voting states, which includes delegate bonanzas in Florida, Illinois, Ohio and Texas.

Many Clinton allies share the president’s desire for more organization on the ground; they see enthusiasm that’s ready to be channeled, but no channel yet in place. “Iowa matters a ton but it seems to be the campaign’s only focus," said one person close to the campaign's operations in a March state — one of nearly a dozen Clinton allies POLITICO spoke with for this article. "It’s going to be a long primary, and the campaign seems less prepared for it than they were in 2008.”

The good news for Hillary is that a real president is getting involved to straighten out a campaign she apparently couldn't manage very well.

[mikehiggins]

1. Bill Clinton third term

Good God Almighty! Are they crazy? Why are they even talking anywhere anyone can hear them?

BC may be a great politician (the MSM has portrayed him as the greatest one since, well, ever) but is there a massive clamoring for his era to be revisited?

Send him home, Hillary. Let him bake some cookies or something.

'The good news for Hillary is that a real president is getting involved to straighten out a campaign she apparently couldn't manage very well."

I'm a stone cold Sandernista but I find that one sentence demeaning, insulting and sexist.

If HRC isn't running a strong campaign you can't tell it by me. What exactly is the Big Dog bringing to the table?

[Jarqui]

7. It's got zero to do with sex.

Treating women equally should mean that they can be criticized equally.

Regardless of the sex of the candidate, Hillary, even by the concerns expressed in that article by folks that support her, is not running a good campaign. Her husband, regardless of his sex, who happens to have run two national campaigns and some campaigns as governor successfully, has stepped in to help. If Hillary was doing well, he would not have to.

It's got zero to do with sex and everything to do with her performance to date.

If it's demeaning, Hillary earned it by her performance. Not because of her sex or anything else.

I find such a conclusion lamely simplistic and ignoring basic facts.

The Clinton campaign is scrambling - by many, many accounts - including some in that article. They were not prepared for the states beyond the first few primaries as that article reinforces. They have not done well making their case to Iowa and New Hampshire where they spent massive ad money and resources - so that part of the campaign has fallen short. They're behind in organization in Nevada and there's simply no good excuse for that.

"Bill Clinton, according to a source with firsthand knowledge of the situation, has been phoning campaign manager Robby Mook almost daily to express concerns about the campaign’s organization..."

Why does Bill need to do that if she's doing such a bang up job? Is Bill being sexist trying to fix his wife's campaign?

I doubt Elizabeth Warren would make the same mistake twice like Hillary has. It's got nothing to do with sex and everything to do with a candidate making similar mistakes like they did in 2008.

[InAbLuEsTaTe]

2. Guess Hillary not ready for "prime"-time. But Bernie sure is.

[HereSince1628]

3. Moving attention to upcoming contests is what campaigns do

I'm not sure that there is much story in that.

In a couple of weeks, IA's organization will take a rest until it goes all in for the GE. At the same time in a couple weeks Ohio will need to be promoting message and building enthusiasm. Not surprisingly Ohio is about to enter into the front end of that effort and people there want more attention sooner rather than later.

Bill helicoptering Mook may be annoying to Mook, but it's what hands-on owners/inner circle does to employees, including the managers they hire. There's not much news in that.

State campaign folks getting anxious and wanting more and wanting it sooner than later is, similarly, just a signal of progress in the schedule.

[ViseGrip]

4. Gee, will he be mananging her White House? Will he put the final touches on her TPP?

[berni_mccoy]

5. When campaigns start leaking shit like this, they are in trouble.

Bill Clinton, according to a source with firsthand knowledge of the situation, has been phoning campaign manager Robby Mook almost daily to express concerns about the campaign’s organization in the March voting states, which includes delegate bonanzas in Florida, Illinois, Ohio and Texas.

[tularetom]

6. So he sticks his nose in and takes over when she screws things up, huh?

Not a good omen for a Clinton presidency. And it sort of puts the kibosh on all that bullshit about her being a "strong independent woman".

You just knew he was going to try to take over. He just can't help it. And she can't stop him.

[Divernan]

8. Whatsamatta, Hill? Too tight to spend your vaunted millions from fund-raising?

How MANY times have her supporters spewed forth that Bernie couldn't possibly raise enough money to compete with her, or with the GOP? And yet here we are. Hillary has not a single paid staffer in Ohio and when pressed on the topic, her campaign replies " . . . .soon . . . .it's a fluid situation. . .", i.e., classic Clintonian non-answers.

It's just so 2008-ish, so typical that a Clinton campaign spokesman told the reporter that they had a paid staffer in each of the super Tuesday states, BUT the Hillary-supporting Ohio congressman said when people contacted him to find out who to talk to, he had no awareness of any Clinton operation in Ohio. Way to go, Clinton campaign - FUBAR just like in 2008.

Meanwhile, Bernie has hired 90 staffers in the Super Tuesday states so far, is currently interviewing to fill final spots in Ohio and will have them ALL in place, in OHIO, IN TEN DAYS - that's by February 1st, folks.

Anecdotal, I have 4 relatives and 1 friend in Ohio - all of them Dem females, all enthusiastically supporting Bernie.

(More from the OP link)

The (Hillary's) campaign's organization in Ohio is, so far, nonexistent — there are no campaign offices or staffers on the ground yet — and the Democratic front-runner needs all the support from big statewide African-American leadership that she can get, a local source said. Eight years ago, she had the backing of political powerhouse Rep. Stephanie Tubbs Jones, a close friend who served as the campaign's national co-chairman and was the first African American woman from Ohio to be elected to Congress. She died in 2008. This time, she has Rep. Marcia Fudge behind her. But at least one African-American who once backed Clinton, Ohio state senator and minority whip Nina Turner, has shifted to the Sanders camp.

“They don’t have a whole lot here,” Ryan acknowledged. “We have people calling my campaign office because they don’t know who else to call. We just track it, and when the time is right, we’ll activate those people.” (Bernie Sanders’ campaign — which says it has hired 90 staffers in Super Tuesday states so far — is currently interviewing staffers for Ohio and said it plans to have them in place in the next 10 days.)

[Nonhlanhla]

9. I don't put much stake into this kind of speculation

But if Bill is involved in the campaign, that's fine by me. He is a born campaigner. Hillary is more of a policy wonk type, and not a natural campaigner.