200 Internal Clinton Camp Memos Leaked

[HuskyCaucasian]

I had this in the democratic thread, but I thought it should get it's own. Nothing is expected to be made public until next week, but this should be interesting.

 

Atlantic Gets Hold Of Internal Clinton Camp Memos

Just when you thought everyone had moved on... former advisers to Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton are in a tizzy over an upcoming piece in the Atlantic Monthly that chronicles the inner workings of the now-defunct campaign.

 

Of particular concern are nearly 200 internal memos that the author, Josh Green, obtained -- 130 or so of which he plans to scan in and post online. When the piece is published sometime next week, readers will be able to scroll through the memos, from senior strategists such as Mark Penn, Harold Ickes and Geoff Garin, and see what exactly was going on inside the infamously fractured Clinton organization. That has some former team members in a panic.

 

Marc Ambinder:

The Atlantic's Josh Green has about 200 of them from the height of the Clinton campaign. Atlantic subscribers should be getting the story in their mailboxes later next week, and we hope to post the story online early next week...

[bmags]

I'm definitely buying that issue.

[Jenksismyhero]

What could they possible say that would be of interest?

 

"Play up Obama's lack of experience," "don't mention race," "try to keep Bill under control?"

[bmags]

What could they possible say that would be of interest?

 

"Play up Obama's lack of experience," "don't mention race," "try to keep Bill under control?"

 

I think it would be a great look into the inner workings of a campaign. There were huge power struggles between people in the campaign and during the primaries this traditional campaign of Clinton was getting dominated by the volunteer level campaign of Obama and I think it would be interesting to see internally what the reactions were and how blind they were to changing.

[HuskyCaucasian]

What could they possible say that would be of interest?

 

"Play up Obama's lack of experience," "don't mention race," "try to keep Bill under control?"

I'd be VERY curious on this race thing. I still stand that while Bill Clinton is not a racist, he used race to try and paint Obama as "the black guy." It is not beneath the Clintons to use ANY tactic they think might work.

[DrunkBomber]

I'd be VERY curious on this race thing. I still stand that while Bill Clinton is not a racist, he used race to try and paint Obama as "the black guy." It is not beneath the Clintons to use ANY tactic they think might work.

Ya, the Clintons should leave playing the race card to Obama supporters.

[Texsox]

I'd be VERY curious on this race thing. I still stand that while Bill Clinton is not a racist, he used race to try and paint Obama as "the black guy." It is not beneath the Clintons to use ANY tactic they think might work.

It is not beneath *ANY* politician to use ANY tactic they think will work.

[HuskyCaucasian]

Well, some details have emerged:

 

Clinton was advised by Penn to portray Obama as foreign

Mark Penn, the top campaign strategist for Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton (D-N.Y.), advised her to portray Sen. Barack Obama (D-Ill.) as having a “limited” connection “to basic American values and culture,” according to a forthcoming article in The Atlantic magazine.

 

Penn, the presidential campaign’s chief strategist, wrote in a memo to Clinton excerpted in the article: “I cannot imagine American electing a president during a time of war who is not at his center fundamentally American in his thinking and in his values.”

 

A Penn memo suggested that the campaign target Obama’s “lack of American roots” said in part: “All of these articles about his boyhood in Indonesia and his life in Hawaii are geared towards showing his background is diverse, multicultural and putting that in a new light.

Other highlights:

 

—Of all the materials The Atlantic received, the first mention of delegate counts came in a memo that senior adviser Harold Ickes sent out just 12 days before the Iowa primary, and after the campaign had nearly run out of money campaigning in Iowa, where Clinton would finish third. He predicted, correctly, as it turned out:

 

—Green writes: “The internal discord over whether to attack Obama led some of her own staff to spin reporters to try to downplay the significance of her criticisms. The result for Clinton was the worst of both worlds: the conflicting message exacerbated her reputation for negativity without affording her whatever benefits a sustained attack might have yielded.”

 

—The famous 3 a.m. ad, written by Penn and approved by Hillary Clinton almost didn’t run: “In the days leading up to Ohio and Texas, the campaign kept arguing over whether to air the [3 a.m.] ad. With the deadline looming, Bill Clinton, speaking from a cell phone as his plane sat on a runway, led a conference call on Thursday, February 28, in which he had both sides present their case. As his plane was about to lift off, it was Bill Clinton – not Hillary – who issued the decisive order: ‘Let’s go with it.’ ”

Edited August 10, 2008 by Athomeboy_2000

[Texsox]

Sounds like Bill was her most senior advisor, seems like a smart move since he won two campaigns for the same office.

[HuskyCaucasian]

I think to see on paper the compete discourse within the campaign is fascinating. We're starting to see some of the same feuds in the McCain campaign as well.

[Texsox]

Thankfully there are no diversity of opinions or thoughts in other campaigns. Get a bunch of people who all think the same and go from there.

[HuskyCaucasian]

Thankfully there are no diversity of opinions or thoughts in other campaigns. Get a bunch of people who all think the same and go from there.

There is a difference between differing opinions and infighting. Every office place has differences of opinion. But to have "cliques" and inward wars is trouble some. It's when two sides are trying to push agendas and they collide. That's when you start to see leaked memos and such.

[Texsox]

There is a difference between differing opinions and infighting. Every office place has differences of opinion. But to have "cliques" and inward wars is trouble some. It's when two sides are trying to push agendas and they collide. That's when you start to see leaked memos and such.

 

Exactly. Careful hiring of people all with the same agenda prevents that. Also, hiring subordinate personalities who will not "rock the boat" is a good preventative strategy. It worked wonders for Bush in the past two elections.

[HuskyCaucasian]

This might be one of my favorite lines of all time:

• Green reports that on Feb. 11, the day that Clinton finally replaced campaign manager Patti Solis Doyle with Maggie Williams, Wolfson aide Phil Singer cursed out first Wolfson, then Policy Director and Solis Doyle ally Neera Tanden, yelling: “[Expletive] you and the whole [expletive] cabal” before climbing on a chair, berating the entire staff and leaving.

 

The same day, Washington Post Managing Editor Phillip Bennett wrote Williams to complain Singer had spread rumors about one of his reporters. Williams eventually saw the letter after Wolfson intercepted it, and Singer left for a week. On his return, Green reports that Wolfson explained to a colleague, “When the house is on fire, it’s better to have a psychotic fireman than no fireman at all.”