Thursday, May 15, 2008

Clinton’s Biggest Mistake

She has made so many. Could you pick the one you think is her biggest?

Tom Bevan co-hosts Realclearpolitics.com and he just made his pick:

,,,Most prominent among [those citing Sen. Clinton’s mistakes] at least thus far, is Karen Tumulty of Time Magazine who in last week's issue recounted Clinton's "five big mistakes, each of which compounded the others."

According to Tumulty those mistakes, in order, were: 1. She misjudged the mood, 2. She didn't master the rules, 3. She underestimated the caucus states, 4. She relied on old money, and 5. She never counted on a long haul.

All of these points are no doubt true, but miss the mark. Clinton's first and biggest mistake, which eventually led to her undoing, can be summed up in a single question: how and why did her campaign miss Obama's association with Reverend Wright?

Put simply, had Reverend Wright been introduced to voters a few days before the Iowa caucuses, odds are Barack Obama would not be a hair's breadth away from clinching the Democratic nomination for President of the United States.

And even if we assume Obama could have managed to hang on and win Iowa after the appearance of his good reverend, which is debatable, it's a near certainty he would not have won as many primaries and caucuses by as many votes around the country as he did in January and February.

In other words, it would be a totally different ballgame. …
Bevan’s entire column is here.

Bevan asks how Hillary could have made such a big mistake and offers an answer.

He also leaves no doubt, at least as far as I'm concerned, that the Clinton campaign's failure to give Dem primary voters a good look at Rev. Jeremiah (“God damn America’) Wright ‘early and often” was its biggest and fatal mistake.

Bevan’s column is a don’t miss. I’d like to hear if you agree with Bevan.

4 comments:

SouthernGirl2 said...

Hillary's biggest mistake was underestimating Barack Obama! And she race-baited and lost the Black vote! That was her downfall!

Anonymous said...

For myself John, I would have liked to see HRC outline what she will do different from what her husband did. Perhaps if she focused on the good things of the Bill Clinton years but still talked about the failures (in terms of policies or goals-not morals) and showed that she would approach those goals in a different way, I might be more of a HRC fan.

As it stands now, I just have the feeling we would be getting more Bill in the person of Hillary.

Anonymous said...

Perhaps the reason the Rodham-Clinton campaign made no mention of Pastor Wright was because they were blinded by their leftwing ideology and didn't see anything remarkable in Wright's statements. In the dreamworld of today's leftists, the statements that shocked normal Americans are just routine chit-chat. When Wright's loony "sermons" were aired, they were met with shock and disgust and it was only then that the Rodham-Clinton staff took note.
Tarheel Hawkeye

Anonymous said...

Duke Law 72
Ok I'll take a stab. Certainly B. Hussain was and is vulnerable in regard to his association with the Rev. but I think Hillary's problem is more fundamental.

First we need to acknowledge that she is totally blinded by her arrogant sense of entitlement. She cannot even dream that anyone actually doubts its HER TURN.

I think her bigger problem is her lack of character. She hasn't got a character and doesn't understand what one is. Hillary is in her own mind whatever role she happens to be playing at any given moment.She actually believes she is whatever she thinks will sell today. Tomorrow is another day and another persona. When yesterday's act becomes inconvenient it is just to be spun away and forgotten. She sat there smiling and nodding as Frau Arafat spewed her venom. She dismissed her conduct the next day saying she hadn't been paying attention and didn't really hear it. That works once. What she misses is that to some of us character is defined by how we act over long periods of time. We all screw up at times but how do we do in the long run?

B. Hussain says he spent 20YEARS not paying attention enough to hear the Rev. Wright's filth.(Smiling and nodding at the time no doubt)
Now that he suddenly knows what was said he is against it for sure. New day new persona. To Hillary this makes such perfect sense that she doesn't even see it as a flaw to be exploited. Since she doesn't understand the concept of character at all she can't possibly understand that to a few of us at least character counts more than anything else. She has no idea that character matters enough to bring it up.