Clinton needs a new mantra

By Lee Bandy
SouthCarolina Insider

(2/29/08) During Bill Clinton’s successful run for the presidency in 1992, James Carville, his top aide, coined the phrase, “It’s the economy, stupid.”

Today Hillary Clinton, who seeks to follow in her husband’s footsteps, is in dire need of a new mantra 15 years later.

A suggestion: It’s the campaign, stupid.

Hillary Clinton, the senior senator from New York, is watching her Democratic presidential campaign rapidly slip away from her. No longer are members of the media writing about the “inevitable” frontrunner. Instead they talk about Hillary Clinton playing second fiddle to rival Barack Obama, the senator from Illinois.

National columnist Robert Novak says she ought to quit to avoid serious embarrassment and save the party from a real split at the Democratic National Convention in Denver in August.

What went wrong?

The pundits and veteran party observers say her campaign had no clear battle plan after Super Tuesday. They thought they would be in the catbird seat after the round of primaries and caucus meetings in early February. Clinton’s campaign was not prepared, however. They were short on cash. She loaned the campaign $5 million of her own money. Also, Clinton was caught without any staff in critical states and lacked a clear caucus strategy.

And then there was Bill, her husband. He probably caused her campaign more harm than anyone. He played the race card, making sure voters in South Carolina and elsewhere knew Obama was a candidate of color.

That angered the African-American community. Blacks turned out in record numbers on primary day in South Carolina. Eighty-one percent voted for Obama. There was no looking back after that. The Illinois senator was well on his way.

South Carolina was the turning point in the primary election for both Obama and Republican John McCain

Leon Panetta, former White House chief of staff to Bill Clinton and a Clinton loyalist, blasted his ex-boss.

“It seems to me like they rolled the dice on Super Tuesday, thinking that would end it,” Panetta told the New York Observer . “And\when it didn’t end it, they didn’t have a plan. And when it came to the caucus states, they did have a plan – which was to ignore them. I think those were serious mistakes.”

Today, Obama has seized the lead in fund-raising, contests won and total delegates.

She is now in need of a big comeback in the Ohio and Texas primaries next Tuesday.

But it may be too late. She missed her opportunity.