Hillary: Better Candidate, Obama: Better Campaign

[TragedyandHope]

This line was thrown out by one of the Fox pundits after Obama's Fox News Sunday interview yesterday. It was probably just meant as a frag grenade lobbed over to stir us up, but I'm afraid I fell for it anyway.

Personally, I don't agree with the basic premise.

However, Hillary is obviously a very strong candidate and in many ways, but the strategy of her campaign does seem to have done her more harm than good. I don't know whether Hillary or Mark Penn or someone else made most of the bad calls, but surely Hillary has to take leadership responsibility for tactical decisions made in her name.

It's not so hard to imagine an alternate reality where a different tone of campaign on Hillary's part would have given her a clear lead (in real math). I guess she just started off on the wrong foot based on a few incorrect assumptions and chose to embrace the mistake rather than correcting it. Or maybe it was just too late to divert the train to another track.

[grantcart]

1. the candidate is the campaign

[Bread and Circus]

2. The "all of a sudden" love affair from the vast RW smear machine for Hillary is so over the top its

laughable.

To take any of it at face value is just beyond basic common sense.

It's all a scheme to handicap the Democratic party come November.

[speedoo]

3. No. IMO she's a worse candidate than her campaign indicates.

Her character is deeply, deeply flawed.

[grrr050]

7. And Obama's is just so perfect!

I guess thta's why we call him St.Obama.

[speedoo]

10. Obama is by no means perfect.

But his character is far superior to Hillary's.

[undeterred]

12. Worse than our worst fears.

[annie1]

4. i agree.

[MidwestTransplant]

5. She is a better candidate.....for their purposes.

[SoonerPride]

6. The fucking right wing is shitting themselves with fear of facing Obama. That much is crystal.

They are scared to death real change is coming.

Oh, and that we'll jail war criminals.

[undeterred]

15. EXACTLY.

[Cassandra]

8. Her surrounding herself with the DLC ideology...

both hurts her candidacy and her ability to be a good president. Her abilities cannot be seen in a vacuum. She has hitched her wagon to the DLC and its corporate agenda and it will sink both her campaign and her presidency, if she were somehow able to become the GE candidate.

[rucky]

9. If this were all about choosing the best candidate...

Biden would've had this locked up by now.

What looks good on paper doesn't always translate - especially when it comes to mass appeal.

[NeedleCast]

11. For a Fox pundit, being half right is over achieving

[SoxFan]

13. Obama: better person

One candidate has used 9/11 as a political cudgel; hinted that the other candidate was a drug dealer; engaged in racial dog whistle politics; been caught in a flat-out lie about her experience; sent out false mailings about her opponents stance on abortion; flip-flopped on her support of the DNC rules; etcetera

One has not.

[Apollo11]

14. I agree Hillary's campaign started out with some wrong assumptions.

They assumed that no other candidate would be able to match their fundraising, so they didn't invest enough time and resources in building up a mailing list of small donors.

They assumed that Hillary would win Iowa and ride that momentum thru Super Tuesday.

They overestimated the nostalgic "appeal" of letting Bill Clinton anywhere near the Whitehouse.

They certainly misunderestimated Barack Obama's ability to inspire voters.

But based on her performance in ALL the debates so far, I think Hillary is the stronger candidate.

At this point I believe the best solution would be a CLINTON - OBAMA ticket.

But if Obama wins the nomination, I hope we will all support him 110% B-)