Meet Maggie Williams, Hillary Clinton's New Campaign Manager

[bigtree]

Born and reared in Kansas City, MO, Williams graduated Phi Beta Kappa from Trinity College in Washington in 1977 and received a master's degree at the University of Pennsylvania's Annenberg School for Communications. She has worked for the Children's Defense Fund and once served as press secretary for Sen. Robert Torricelli (D-NJ).

As the first Black woman to direct the operations of the first lady in the White House, Maggie Williams quickly found herself smack in the middle of the republican war on the Clintons.

from Ruth Marcus' 1994 article: http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/01/08/AR2008010803378_pf.html

"I had been saying to anyone who would listen that I believed Whitewater was a distraction from the president's agenda, and I did not understand how 17 years of Arkansas history was related to feeding people, clothing people, giving people health care," Williams said. "I was outspoken; I said that; I said it over and over."

In a White House with a different and more powerful First Lady, Williams (was) a different and more powerful chief of staff. She (held) the title of assistant to the president -- on a par with other senior staffers and, in the title-conscious White House, a significant notch higher than her predecessors in the job.

"Her job is huge," said one official, pointing to Williams's three-part role as a major player on health reform, administrator of the First Lady's staff and overseer of White House social functions. "No First Lady's chief of staff has ever had this kind of job."

While a sizable share of Williams's power derives from the importance of her boss, she also plays a wider role than the specific issues facing the First Lady because of what numerous White House officials describe(d) as her overall good judgment, particularly on communications issues.

Williams, at then-White House Chief of Staff Thomas F. "Mack" McLarty's direction, was the principal author earlier (that) summer of a major memorandum on White House reorganization. McLarty said he and his successor as chief of staff, Leon E. Panetta, (had) asked Williams to prepare periodic reviews of the 30-, 60- and 90-day outlooks for the White House.

"The best way to describe her is her title," said communications director Mark Gearan. "She is both assistant to the president and chief of staff to the First Lady."

[saltpoint]

1. She sounds pretty damned impressive to me.

[rodeodance]

2. thanks very much--nice to have this.

[BlackVelvet04]

3. I hope this is a shot in the arm for the campaign. n/t

[rodeodance]

7. fingers crossed

[AX10]

14. Same here!

[rodeodance]

4. REC

[Quixote1818]

5. Impressive. nt

[janetblond]

6. Williams is one smart cookie ..

Hillary took an emergency measure early.
I bet she's in shock.
Obama's kickin' butt, left AND right.

[Straight Shooter]

8. I'm impressed.

Smart move, Hillary. Now get rid of Mark Penn and find someone like Ms. Williams to replace him, too.

Thanks, bigtree. Nice find.

[abburdlen]

62. I agree!

I don't think I'd switch candidates, but I'd donate to Clinton's campaign if she dumped Penn.
He should have no place in any Dem. campaign.

[gateley]

9. Wow. Very impressive! Hillary was smart to keep her on all these years.

It mentions her good judgment particularly on communications issues. I wonder if we'll see a noticeable change in Hillary's campaign now.

I like her!

[tularetom]

10. Whaddaya mean "new" campaign manager? Did I miss something

When did this happen? Did she can her "old" campaign manager? I'm trying to stay objective here but this is going to appear like a desperation move.

[Drunken Irishman]

18. Yeah, today.

She essentially demoted Patti Doyle.

[Thrill]

11. Didn't she get in trouble for accepting illegal

monetary gifts?

[Ichingcarpenter]

16. Johnny Chung and Maggie Williams

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=132x4525207

[janetblond]

22. Typical Political $#!T!!

This is why I'm voting FOR CHANGE!
Most politicians think they're above the law.
BTW ... this scandal won't be overlooked ...
Someone in the media will find it, and it will be all over TV within 2 weeks.

[Ichingcarpenter]

23. It is already on the front page of the huffington post

I'm sorry, but it will bring up that case and the Hsu donation case again.
Bloggs of the left and right are already onto it.

[bvar22]

39. But...But...Hillary said she has already been vetted,

and there won't be any more scandals tumbling out of her closets.

Are you sure about this?
Hillary wouldn't lie to us, would she?

[bigtree]

60. you can dredge up whatever republican attack you want for your political purposes in this campaign

but, don't expect anyone to distinguish your appropriation of their attacks from the right-wing slime the majority of Democrats were defending our two-term president against.

[bigtree]

24. I like how you posted Huffington's old hit piece on the Clintons portraying her as a victim

:rofl:

this is the stuff that republicans used to feed us . . . way back when.

[Ichingcarpenter]

29. I didn't post the old hit piece she did on her site today

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/


You do realize that technorati rates her site as the 4th most read on the web.
http://technorati.com/pop/blogs/

[bigtree]

33. ignorant

It's an old article she's reposted. wtf

[Ichingcarpenter]

42. Ignorant means lack of information

Redundancy is the term you are looking for.

You never addressed Bill's Chinese visits with gifts and the
admission of guilt that occurred.

[bigtree]

58. Obviously, you want to carry on Fred Thompson's campaign against the Clintons

but, this board is supposed to be a refuge from these republican-based attacks. This has been fought out before, with the majority of Democrats opposing Fred Thompson's witch hunt. BTW, he closed those 'Chinese donation' hearings down right after then-RNC chairman Haley Barbour was reported to have accepted cash aboard a Chinese yacht in international waters.

When you do go back and inform yourself with republican talking points from the debate raging back when, I hope you notice where the battle lines were drawn. I was very proud, at the time, to defend my Democratic president against these overblown charges. But, not here in this DU refuge. Not for some yahoo who wants to revive and perpetuate the failed republican, right-wing attacks they used to try and bring down our two-term Democratic president.

[rodeodance]

78. ha ha---next time get your lack of information before you spout off!

[Dogmudgeon]

51. Back when Arianna was a deep-pocket Republican

I read the piece. It was primarily unsourced gossip.

But for a Clinton-hater, gossip is proof enough.

--p!

[Dogmudgeon]

52. Back when Arianna was a deep-pocket Republican

I read the piece. It was primarily unsourced gossip.

But for a Clinton-hater, gossip is proof enough.

--p!

[bigtree]

59. yep, she was dyed in the wool back then

undercover now

[goldcanyonaz]

12. Woohoo!!

:woohoo:

[rodeodance]

20. lots of those little blue bubble back to yah1

[ecstatic]

13. thanks for the info nt

[thunder rising]

15. All that and still second choice on the campaign ... hmmm

[Raffi Ella]

17. Good Move .

:)

[jefferson_dem]

19. More on Maggie Williams here...

from back in "the day."

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/arianna-huffington/who-is-maggie-williams_b_85909.html

[bigtree]

25. I doubt you got the drift of that article

Huffington wanted to portray Maggie Williams as a victim of the Clinton's, caught up in that 'major' scandal, Whitewater. Your highlighting of this is just so delicious.

First, Willams is obviously no victim of anything. She's a lifetime friend of Hillary, and a capable, faithful confidant of Bill as well.

Secondly, your highlighting of this is a typical piggybacking on republican attacks and elevating the tripe which most folks in our party, back in the day, spent our time fighting.

[KittyWampus]

64. you love the GOP-style attacks when it comes to Rezco and calling Obama supporters a cult.

[bigtree]

65. liar

find ONE 'Rezco' post from me.

find ONE 'Obama Cult' post from me.

That's the problem with this game folks are playing on this political page. You really have no way of knowing WHO you're talking to, or what they actually represent. But, go ahead. Make it up as you go along. That will certainly substitute for the vacuousness of your arguments.


And, if you bothered to donate you could do a search and determine this for yourself.

[elixir]

21. This is terrific, thank you!!!! I have renewed hope in the campaign.

Go Hillary, Go Michelle!!!!

[Hoof Hearted]

26. Welcome Maggie Williams!

I think she might be exactly what we need!

[sloppyjoe25s]

27. VERY tough competition

Obama people would be fools not to continue to treat the Hillary campaign VERY seriously.

[zabet]

28. Very impressive move by the Clinton campaign.

Very very smart.

[David Zephyr]

30. The old saying about "swapping deck chairs on the Titantic" comes to mind.

The Clinton campaign is collapsing in front of the entire nation day after day after day.

[bigtree]

34. like you'd be in any position to know

this is hardly a collapse. This is a step up, in my estimation. But, you keep 'hoping'.

[David Zephyr]

35. No, we just keep winning and winning and winning and winning and winning

and, yes winning.

[Hardrada]

36. The Hillbots still don't see to get the point of all that

winning! Her campaign seems to be like the Blob. You keep shooting at it or trying to blow it up and it keeps on creeping along. I suspect it will eventually fizzle away anyhow.

[bigtree]

37. so arrogant

it's a long way down from there . . .

[David Zephyr]

38. bigtree, no matter how high I get, I will always be looking up to you.

;-)

[rodeodance]

76. see you in March

[judaspriestess]

31. ............

:thumbsup:

[AX10]

32. It's about time!

[bigtree]

40. kick!

:kick:

[Ichingcarpenter]

41. yeah she's got the future

surrounded by her past

A truly honorable person at one time, but has had ethical lapses that has paved
her future.

[anamandujano]

43. Rezko

[ellisonz]

44. She's the Clinton's Colin Powell.

[flordehinojos]

45. if you intend that to be a smear or a slight on maggie williams

(what was it that harry belafonte once said of colin powell? something about the slave willing to do the master's bidding?) you ought to be reassured that maggie williams is no colin powell.

that she is a decent straight shooter. that she is. and whatever belafonte may have called mr. powell, powell himself attested to that when he lied his teeth out at the UN about those WMDs which he knew all along was a big fat lie.

MW is no CP!

[ellisonz]

47. She's an attempt to give credibility to a craven campaign. IMHO.

And he willingly lied through his teeth, sound like some one we know, goes by the name of Big Dog...

And don't give me that crap about how I'm being divisive and negative. This is rearranging the deck chairs on the Titanic.

[flordehinojos]

48. obama campaign talking points, i see.

and by the way ... clinton lied about his personal life the same as anyone caught in an illicit affair. his lies did not send thousands of american soldiers to die in vain for the price of oil.
CP's and GWB's lies did.

Who really is rearranging the deck chairs ont he Titanic. It seems to me you are really trying hard to do so. Rough seas ahead for the obama slime machine?

[ellisonz]

49. clinton triangulation strategery, i see.

I'm sorry, I'm just not big on womanizers and the women who excuse their behavior, and I'm a male. He also has made a habit of telling lies about my man Barack. Remember, Bill was against the war, and Barack was for it, and coincidentally none of that rubbish tells anything about character. IWR.

I made a smart ass comment and you latched onto it. I don't see how I'm desperate and don't look now, but we just won the last 4 states...I'm pretty optimistic about the Potomac primary too. Project much?

[flordehinojos]

56. a fair win i can take, a dishonest one i cannot.

#1. Bill and Hillary Clinton have told factual truths about barack obama your man.

#2. I've never heard the Clintos say that Obama was for the war. I have heard them say that Barack
Obama was against the war when he was not in the senate but that once he was part of the senate he voted to fund the war (which is really an invasion and occupation of iraq--it never was a war and it isn't now).

#3. I think that by blindly taking your man's side, because your man no matter what, you are the one who is triangling...and by the way triangling is the correct word for what you refer as triangulation.

$4. Yes you won this saturday's contest. and i am looking with my eyes quite open. will your man win? perhaps. a lot of it will be owed to the media propping him up and making out of him someone who he is not... i am going to allow myself to copy and paste this from a thread someone here in DU started earlier--(once i've finished replying to you, i will look up that threas and give you the link to it if you care enough to look at some facts):
.....
"We Illinois progressives sent Obama to the U.S. Senate, where he promptly joined the Joe Lieberman wing of the Democratic Party. He’s not a progressive. But he’s a master at pretending to be one. "Obama is a company man.”

His economic advisers are very conservative, from the University of Chicago-Milton Friedman school of economics. My favorite economist, Paul Krugman, caught Obama using right-wing talking points on what to do about Social Security and about his health care plan.

His voting record is pro-business and pro-war. He glorifies American imperialism. He flip-flopped on the Palestinians and Israel, and now is AIPAC-approved.

He has shown repeatedly what good friends he is with anti-gay African American preachers.

He misuses history, according to a prominent historian.

He, uh, stretches the truth. Example:

Trying to sound authentically African-American during a speech memorializing the forty-second anniversary of the 1965 Voting Rights March at the Pettis Bridge in Selma, Obama claimed that his black (Kenyan) father and white (Kansan) mother married and conceived the future Barockstar because of the great Civil Rights struggles fought in Selma and Birmingham, Alabama… (Obama 2007)

Wow. Too bad Barack Obama Jr. was born in 1961, two years before the famous campaign to desegregate Birmingham, three years before the Civil Rights Act, and four years before the famous Selma march!"

here, as promised is the link to the post from which these quotes came:
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=132x4518807
.........

"Project Much?" No. I think Project Truth Telling. And it seems Project Truth Telling bit the ass off of your Smart Ass Comment ... you didn't like the factual reply to it and then latched on to it by the post that i am again replying to with truth and facts.

O, and while i am in edit mode, i am not taking up for men who cheat on their women nor women who cheat on their men. however, i do consider that to be a personal affair to be resolved between the three people involved. your taking the side of sliming or slamming bill clinton, politically, for something that had nothing to do with politics and a lot to do with his personal relationship with his wife is ... another great example you have just given all of us of the triangling that goes on in this nation against the clintons.

[ellisonz]

68. Your #2 is my case in point against the Clintons.

The rest is spam.

[ellisonz]

50. clinton triangulation strategery, i see.

I'm sorry, I'm just not big on womanizers and the women who excuse their behavior, and I'm a male. He also has made a habit of telling lies about my man Barack. Remember, Bill was against the war, and Barack was for it, and coincidentally none of that rubbish tells anything about character. IWR.

I made a smart ass comment and you latched onto it. I don't see how I'm desperate and don't look now, but we just won the last 4 states...I'm pretty optimistic about the Potomac primary too. Project much?

[rodeodance]

75. Obamababies have a lot to learn from a strong woman!

[ellisonz]

81. The sexism card, again?

[ellisonz]

82. The sexism card, again?

[ShortnFiery]

46. A very astute observation. IMO, spot on.

:thumbsup:

[bigtree]

61. She's a Democrat. You should know better.

I think you do.

[geiger]

53. Here we go, back in time again.

This is not the answer.

She's a great loyal servant, smart and knowledgeable, but it didn't work then and it won't work now. It's, sadly, over.

[bigtree]

63. what a pathetic political strategy

to come on to these threads with your fake concern and faux praise.

Two-term president. We could do much worse.

[geiger]

69. you don't know the first thing about me, so you can keep your sappy analysis

about political strategy to yourself.

This election is not about strategy; it's about getting real.

[bigtree]

71. well, YOU said "it didn't work then"

'it' most certainly did work then for the two-term president who left office with a performance rating of nearly 70% approval.

You need to get real.

[geiger]

79. What Ever.........you know what I mean.....

I feel like I am in a time warp.... HhELlo.,ADious....blaH, blah,bla,,,,,,,,,,,

good bye

[geiger]

54. dup

[geiger]

55. dup

[oasis]

57. Good choice.(eom)

[Indenturedebtor]

66. Good luck with this

This does seem a desperate move... changing horses midrace and all that. Let's see what happens.

I notice them taking Obamas message of hope and change over the last couple of speeches... lets see if that continues. It'll be interesting to watch the strategery.

[bigtree]

67. I think the campaign obviously is concerned about these caucus losses

they probably feel they should have at least tried to stay close to Obama in some of them. But, this isn't some major lurch in the campaign and most voters won't notice, except to admire Maggie Willams. I personally don't think either of them own the "hope" thing. I notice in his stump speech, Obama likes to raise the straw man of someone criticizing his call for hope, and then he goes on a long rant about the value of hope, as if the things he raises aren't already evident to Democrats. I've never heard Hillary Clinton criticize "hope", despite the stump speech objections Obama raises, and I guess she wants to highlight that point.

Change was Edwards' mantra.

[Infinite Hope]

70. Hm...I wonder what one of the benefits of her promotion were that the campaign saw. n/t

[bigtree]

72. I think it was her organizational skills which prompted the move

reports were that she had been complaining since New Hampshire about the management of the campaign.

What do YOU think the 'benefit they saw' might be?

[Infinite Hope]

84. I agree that was one of the benefits. n/t

[rodeodance]

73. PBS Lehrer news hr. tonight--doyle is still working in the campaign.

[bigtree]

80. that's not surprising given the tone of her 'resignation' letter

good news

[Hutzpa]

74. Goddam, she is an

[bigtree]

83. please, go on . . .

[Tatiana]

77. Maggie is fierce. This is an upgrade to the Clinton campaign. n/t

[thevoiceofreason]

85. Will she agree to hand-carry $50,000 checks to the campaign too