http://thecaucus.blogs.nytimes.com/2008/02/20/a-clinton-strategy/?_r=0
A Clinton Strategy?
By Katharine Q. Seelye February 20, 2008 2:17 pm February 20, 2008 2:17 pm
Hillary Rodham Clinton - The Caucus - Politics - New York Times Blog
If you listened in on a nearly hour-long conference call with Senator Hillary Clinton’s campaign officials this morning, you could see at least an eight-point strategy for trying to bounce back after 10 straight losses to Senator Barack Obama:
1. Use two upcoming debates between now and March 4 to draw a strong contrast with Mr. Obama. “We’ve seen dramatic changes when that’s happened,” said Mark Penn, her chief strategist and pollster. (Translation: expect her to unload everything she has on him.)
2. Hope “new information” about Mr. Obama will emerge and discourage voters from supporting him. (Translation: see above.)
3. Repeat those bits of “new information” that have already emerged: that Mr. Obama has “lifted” portions of his inspirational speeches from other politicians; that he backed out of a promise to take public financing for his campaign; that after a year of not remembering the details, Mr. Obama did recall that before he bought his home in Chicago, he toured it with Tony Rezko, a fund-raiser who was known to be the subject of a grand jury investigation, to get his opinion of the property.
4. Replay repeatedly an embarrassing television clip
of a supporter of Mr. Obama being unable to name any legislative achievements by Mr. Obama.
5. Hope that Senator John McCain, the all-but-certain Republican presidential nominee, can raise serious doubts about Mr. Obama’s experience and readiness to be commander-in-chief.
6. Have Mrs. Clinton focus intensely on the economy and drive home her plans to create jobs and jump-start the economy in an attempt to retrieve the blue-collar voters who form her natural constituency but who have been deserting her in the last few contests.
7. Explain previous losses by saying the Obama campaign outspent them and use this as a plea for more money — even $5, which she asked for today.
8. Not be drawn into the Obama camp’s assessment that Mrs. Clinton needs to win 65 percent of the vote in Ohio, and not even saying that they have to win Ohio, only that it is “critically, critically important.”
Several questioners noted that the campaign has already been doing a number of these things and that they haven’t worked. The campaign officials brushed past that idea.
Harold Ickes, a top adviser who is rounding up delegates for Mrs. Clinton, said that — by their estimation — she trailed Mr. Obama by about 75 delegates now but predicted that strong showings in Ohio and Texas on March 4 would help her “close the gap substantially” by the time Puerto Rico votes in June. At that point, he said, neither candidate would be able to clinch the nomination without superdelegates, or, as he calls them, automatic delegates.
He was not asked about a report in Politico in which Roger Simon said the Clinton campaign was planning to raid delegates already pledged to Mr. Obama. (Reporters asked about it repeatedly during Tuesday’s conference call and the campaign spokesmen denied it – to wit, “We have not, are not, and will not pursue the pledged delegates of Barack Obama,” Howard Wolfson said. Though as of late yesterday, Mr. Simon was sticking to his account about their intent to go after the so-called pledged delegates — not the superdelegates — who in reality are not pledged at all.)
Summing up the forthcoming strategy, Howard Wolfson, Mrs. Clinton’s spokesman, put it this way:
“Senator Obama is not running on legislative achievements, he’s not running on his preparedness to be commander-in-chief, he’s not running on his experience in government. He’s running on the power of his oratory and the strength of his promises. And then voters see his oratory being lifted, his promises being broken and surrogates being unable to name any legislative accomplishments.”
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