WSJ, pg1: Clinton Team Seeks to Calm Turmoil

[DeepModem Mom]

Clinton Team Seeks to Calm Turmoil
By MONICA LANGLEY and AMY CHOZICK
February 14, 2008; Page A1

MCALLEN, Texas -- With Spanish music blaring, Sen. Hillary Clinton campaigned across South Texas yesterday with a more populist message, as her new campaign manager sought to reshape a campaign that has lost eight straight primaries in a week.

Maggie Williams, a confidante of Mrs. Clinton from when she was first lady, has moved to assert her control following the departure last weekend of former campaign manager Patti Solis Doyle. Ms. Williams is running a daily conference on what ads to put up and expanding the inner circle with advisers from the old Clinton White House. But the campaign has something of a shellshocked feel, as staffers privately chew over a blowup last week where internal frictions flared into the open. Clinton campaign operatives say it happened as top Clinton advisers gathered in Arlington, Va., campaign headquarters to preview a TV commercial. "Your ad doesn't work," strategist Mark Penn yelled at ad-maker Mandy Grunwald. "The execution is all wrong," he said, according to the operatives. "Oh, it's always the ad, never the message," Ms. Grunwald fired back, say the operatives. The clash got so heated that political director Guy Cecil left the room, saying, "I'm out of here."

Adding to the sense of drama, an aide to Sen. Barack Obama yesterday declared the Clinton campaign all but doomed. Obama campaign manager David Plouffe said that Mrs. Clinton can't become the Democratic nominee without winning every remaining contest in "blowout form." In a conference call with reporters, he said that "even the most creative math" won't get her there. To disprove that, the Clinton team is relying on its new campaign manager, Ms. Williams, and her reshaping of the candidate's message to focus more on solutions for working-class people. As part of that revamp, Sen. Clinton is getting tougher on Mr. Obama. "There's a big difference between me and my opponent," Mrs. Clinton told a mostly Hispanic crowd here in McAllen: "I am in the solutions business. My opponent is in the promises business." Meanwhile, she launched her first negative ad, airing one in Wisconsin that criticized Barack Obama for not agreeing to debate before that state's primary.

Though Mr. Obama has pulled slightly ahead in delegates, Mrs. Clinton's advisers say their candidate can halt his momentum -- as she did after her Iowa loss by winning New Hampshire -- in part by besting him in coming debates...

Ms. Williams is pouring resources into two must-win states, Texas and Ohio, which vote March 4. Some advisers are looking even further out: to spring contests in Pennsylvania and Puerto Rico. Mr. Penn yesterday released a memo saying that Mrs. Clinton leads in the "three largest, delegate-rich states remaining: Texas, Ohio and Pennsylvania." He noted that they have 492 delegates, or 64% of the remaining total Mrs. Clinton needs for the nomination.

Campaign aides say Ms. Williams and newcomers she brought from the old Clinton White House, such as Doug Sosnick and Steve Richetti, bring a needed jolt of energy. Some add, though, that the drumbeat of recent Obama wins casts a pall, particularly on the long-timers who've watched the campaign's slide. Still, it's possible the tumult, including the staff shakeup, could be just what the limping Clinton campaign needs. John McCain dumped his campaign managers last summer when his candidacy seemed to be tanking. Now he is the strong Republican front-runner. Indeed, the biggest sign of trouble for Mrs. Clinton recently -- the need for her to make a $5 million loan to her campaign -- will turn out to be "the turning point," predicts Alan Patricof, a venture capitalist who is one of her national finance chairs. "People see what a fighter Hillary is and want to help her come back," he says. The campaign projects it will raise around $20 million this month....



http://online.wsj.com/public/article_print/SB120295209438666989.html

[John Q. Citizen]

1. Clinton going negative is sure to remind people how negative she can be.

I can't believe Dems would want to return to 1994, when the Clintons survived and the party withered.