E.J. Dionne: Parsing the Clinton Memos

[marmar]

from Truthdig:



Parsing the Clinton Memos

Posted on Aug 13, 2008
By E.J. Dionne



Will the Party of Clinton ever become the Party of Obama?

It has now been more than two months since Barack Obama secured the Democratic presidential nomination, yet here we are, still fascinated with Bill and Hillary Clinton and what they’re up to. Why?

The latest round of Clinton mania was precipitated by Joshua Green’s article in The Atlantic on a Clinton campaign riven by unresolved factional disputes, as well as the online publication of a trove of internal memos portraying a staff in strategic and tactical gridlock.

The notion of the Clinton campaign as a Jets-and-Sharks knife fight is hardly new. Members of the campaign’s high command were leaking so furiously against each other that Clinton loyalist and lawyer Robert Barnett was moved to write an early March memo (unearthed by Green) declaring: “STOP IT!!!! ... This makes me sick. This circular firing squad that is occurring is unattractive, unprofessional, unconscionable, and unacceptable.”

Still, it’s always entertaining to learn so quickly after the fact who said what to whom in the middle of a fierce campaign, and the memos suggest why Obama is having difficulty in moving the Clintons gently offstage and seizing control of a party whose nomination he won fair and square.

The memos make clear that once Clinton lost her standing as the inevitable nominee, her strategy was based in part on delegitimizing Obama’s victories. Because the Clinton campaign failed to anticipate the importance of delegates elected through caucuses rather than primaries, her operatives regularly argued that Obama’s caucus triumphs lacked the same weight as her primary victories.

Because Obama overwhelmed Clinton in many staunchly Republican states, he was said not to be the choice of real Democrats and swing voters in states such as New York and California, Ohio and Pennsylvania. .......(more)

The complete piece is at: http://www.truthdig.com/report/item/20080813_parsing_the_clinton_memos/

[Captain Hilts]

1. The notes confirm she refused to use the "kitchen sink" strategy. nt

[blm]

3. Notes confirm that she wouldn't be seen doing it herself as others came forward to do it for her.

.

[Bucky]

2. Allow me to translate

It has now been more than two months since Barack Obama secured the Democratic presidential nomination, yet here we are, still fascinated with Bill and Hillary Clinton and what they’re up to.

"yet here we are..." We, meaning the Washington press corps who aren't struggling to pay their bills or sending their kids off to die in a pointless occupation that serves as al-Qaeda's greatest recruiting poster


Will the Party of Clinton ever become the Party of Obama?

Maybe, if we, like, nominate him or something. The real question is, will the news reporting industry ever become the industry that reports actual news.


The notion of the Clinton campaign as a Jets-and-Sharks knife fight is hardly new.

In fact, the press has been obsessing about it, to the exclusion of economic or legal or war reporting, for months.


Members of the campaign’s high command were leaking so furiously against each other that Clinton loyalist and lawyer Robert Barnett was moved to write an early March memo (unearthed by Green) declaring: “STOP IT!!!! ... This makes me sick. This circular firing squad that is occurring is unattractive, unprofessional, unconscionable, and unacceptable.”

See, first he tries to describe the Obama-Clinton conflict as a "Jets vs Sharks" thing. As evidence of this fighting, he points out that Clinton supporters were squabbling among themselves. It's been a while since I've seen West Side Story, but I recall it being about two gangs fighting (and dancing), not about one group of adolescents squabbling among themselves. Apparently EJ doesn't know his Sondheim. Or doesn't know what he's talking about.

[Demeter]

4. There Was NOTHING Else Worthy of Ink?

Not the 2.5 wars in process, or the Greater Depression blossoming right in your living room, or the swiftboating crashing on the shoals of factual rock, or anything?