WhatFinger


It's not the staff, it's the candidate

Hillary's 'campaign staff shake-up' can't alter the fact that the candidate's a known lemon



For the last week, we've been bombarded with stories about an impending shake-up inside the Hillary Clinton presidential campaign. Virtually every source says the same things. Clinton knows she's in trouble, she blames the people around her, and the powers that be have decided that she'll do better if she re-jiggers her staff. That means hiring, firing, and shuffling are imminent - particularly after an embarrassing defeat in New Hampshire.
As the Politico reported Monday:
Hillary and Bill Clinton are so dissatisfied with their campaign’s messaging and digital operations they are considering staffing and strategy changes after what’s expected to be a loss in Tuesday’s primary in New Hampshire, according to a half-dozen people with direct knowledge of the situation. The Clintons -- stung by her narrow victory in Iowa and shocked by polls showing her losing by as much as 20 percent here -- had been planning to reassess staffing at the campaign’s Brooklyn headquarters after the first four primaries, but the Clintons have become increasingly caustic in their criticism of aides and demanded the reassessment sooner, a source told POLITICO.
Keep in mind, that was before Hillary's NH beating. Since then, the rumblings of dissatisfaction have only gotten louder. Rachel Maddow actually asked Hillary about the rumored shake up, and Hillary responded:

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I have no idea what they’re talking about or who they are talking to. We’re going to take stock but it’s going to be the campaign that I’ve got. I’m very confident in the people that I have. I’m very committed to them; they’re committed to doing the best we can. We’re going to take stock, what works, what doesn’t work. We’re moving into a different phase of the campaign. We’re moving into a more diverse electorate. We’re moving into different geographic areas. So, of course it would be malpractice not to say, “OK, what worked? What can we do better? What do we have to do new and different that we have to pull out?”
That's a clever way of admitting that, yes, they're going to do some soul-searching and alter course. They're just not going to call it a "shake-up" because of one simple fact: Winning candidates don't need to do this. Hillary is not a winning candidate. Hillary is a dud, and all the staff alterations in the world won't change that fact. As the Huffington Post reports, this isn't the first time the Clinton's have blamed "staff" for their own shortcomings. In fact, the whole "our staff failed us" line is a Clinton campaign tradition. It's never their fault. The blame always falls upon their underlings...
In 2008, Hillary "chief strategist" Mark Penn was the fall guy. Benenson and his team are not responsible for a generation-long history of Clinton machinations. Nor is Hillary's campaign responsible for her deception following the Benghazi attack, or her scandal-ridden past. By making changes in her campaign team, the Clintons can pretend that the Clintons are not the problem. Instead, we know the main problem is that Hillary, has always been Wall Street's candidate, but this is not the year of Wall street. Further, the attacks on Bernie Sanders by the Clintons - Chelsea, Bill, and Hillary - have backfired. Hillary's supporters hurt her: Madeleine Albright overplayed the gender card and Gloria Steinem insulted young women supporting Bernie.
To be blunt, the problem isn't staff. It's Hillary herself. She's been around roughly forever, and everyone (including most of what she would claim as her base) has already formed a decidedly negative opinion of her. Those willing to vote for Clinton are not "enthusiastically" supporting her. They're either "willing" to vote for her, or "begrudgingly" arguing that she represents the Democrats' best 2016 chance. None of them are arguing that she's the best choice. Basically, Hillary is the left's John McCain. So, let her "shake-up" her campaign. We’re willing to admit that maybe, just maybe, a better team might - barely - drag her across the finish line. But, if the GOP can't field a candidate capable of defeating such a washed-up, desperate, 'inevitable nominee?' They deserve to lose.


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