In New Book, James Carville Dishes And Disses On Hillary Campaign
In a forthcoming book, top Hillary supporter James Carville reveals that Bill Clinton was privately shocked and infuriated by the Hillary campaign’s awful financial mismanagement, and he serves up scorching criticism of the campaign, singling out polling guru Mark Penn for “suffering fatal confusion” about delegate strategy.
The criticism from Carville, who’s been close to the Clintons for many years, is surprisingly sharp for the normally tight-knit Clinton inner circle. Carville didn’t have a formal campaign role, but he had access to the campaign, and offers up a glimpse of what he saw.
I obtained an advance excerpt of the book, which is called “40 More Years,” and is about the emerging Dem majority, and here are a few choice tidbits:
* Just before the Iowa caucuses, Bill Clinton was privately informed by Hillary campaign chair Terry McAuliffe that the campaign only had enough money to buy TV ads for two more states — New Hampshire and South Carolina. Carville, who was there, relates that Bill had an “unprintable reaction” and went into a “panic,” calling other high-level campaign officials, who told him that this was indeed the case.
* As early as mid-April, well before Hillary dropped out, it was already clear that many super-delegates they were pursuing were likely to go for Obama. Carville reveals that Rahm Emanuel invited him to privately address a group of super-delegates, and “almost all” of them told Carville that they’d be going for the Illinois Senator.
* Mark Penn, Carville says, was a key factor in Hillary’s defeat, because he “suffered fatal confusion on the subject of delegates.” Carville hits Penn for reportedly not understanding that California was not a winner-take-all state, so his strategy hinged too heavily on winning it. Carville terms this a “spectacular error.”
* “The `inevitability’ strategy was just plain dumb,” Carville writes. “It played into a preexisting perception among many voters, and literally all of the media, that she felt that she was entitled to the nomination.” He also charges the campaign made a “flawed” decision to be as aggressive as possible with the press because they’d concluded “the press didn’t like them.”
The book, which was co-authored by writer and political operative Rebecca Buckwalter Poza, is due out in mid-May, and is likely to spark another round of public finger-pointing about the dramatic and historic, but flawed, Hillary campaign.
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Hey Greg,
Sorry to comment on something other than your blog post…I was waiting on you to do another Arlen Spector post so I could make my comment there…
I heard Michael Smirconish yesterday on Larry King say that he thinks Toomey is going to drop out and the Repubs are going to get Tom Ridge to run against Spector.
I just heard Rick Sanchez say about 5 minutes ago that Toomey has dropped out of the race…. Kind of makes you wonder…..
Can you check this out?
Isn’t Tom Ridge pro choice? Hell I don’t know if Republicans will vote for him.
As for the book, Carville is settling scores for the Clintons on that front. He is a loyal soldier and you know that Bill nor Hillary can really come out and blast Mark Penn the way they want to so he takes up the mantle. Of course most of what Carville is saying is probably also true. Hindsight is certainly 20/20
It kinda makes you wonder why Hillary didn’t get Carville to run things.
The Matalin factor, SG. There was some doubt about keeping info inside the core. And Begala begged off. That was to have been the first Combo.
Choice has played against party stereotype frequently in PA. The GOP have put pro-choice candidates up against either Casey, among other examples.
Why is Mark Penn still employed after his performance with the Hillary campaing? And his polling has been debunked as iffy at best.
from what I can gather, Toomey is still very much in. I hear his staff is being assembled and moving into position.
When you think about it not only does Toomey pretty much have to stay in, leading Congressional Republicans also pretty much have to endorse him now. If either of those two things don’t happen then Arlen Specter’s critique will be validated. Of course for most of us it already rings true. But you know the GOP won’t want to be seen as having been hijacked by the fringe as Specter said, even though by backing Toomey they will be showing that in fact they have.
This is off topic but has anybody else seen the blatantly racist article today from Byron York? I really try to keep my powder dry when it comes to accusing something or somebody of racism but this sh*t is beyond the pale.
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http://www.washingtonexaminer.com/opinion/blogs/beltway-confidential/black-white-divide-in-obama-popularity-43923897.html
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Oh and make sure you check out the comments section where all the non racist racist “conservatives” link up to tell everybody how black folks think.
The ultimate blame lies at the top of the ticket. How a campaign is run speaks volumes about how an administration would perform.
I will say, as irritated as I was that Hillary was staying in the race after the Mathimatical possibility of winning came and went, I am glad she stayed in.
The continued primary paid off in the General as there were the later primaries in PA, NC, and IN and w/ them voter registration drives in those states that have driven Dem registration advantages to historic levels. These advantages are clearly evident w/ the events of yesterday. Lets not forget 10 months of mainly democratic political news stories to go with it.
So Mark Penn may have screwed up any chance of Clintons returning to the Whitehouse but inadvertantly may have given Dems (clearly w/ Obama’s help) a generation of electoral success.
SG, Andrew Sullivan linked to it. Steve Benen, Matthew Yglesias and David Weigel all went after York for apparently invoking the 3/5s rule
in measuring presidential popularity.
RE: the racist rantings.
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What is interesting is that the worse a MAJORITY treats the underlying MINORITY. The more they kick and scream about the way they are treated or fear being treated when the former Majority is either in or entering the Minority.
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As we all should be aware in less than 30 years “Whites” will NO LONGER be the majority and we are seeing the “kicking and screaming” with greater frequency as this is realized. Fox and Co. are happy to stoke this fear even going as far as to blame Mexican illegal immigrants for Swine Flu. Yeah, Im sure that how swine flu got to Isreal too.
I think Mark Penn gets work by threatening to sweat on people if they don’t hire him.
I think Smerconish is right–the GOP in PA will have to dig up a more powerful opponent to Specter. And yes, Ridge is pro-choice. Should be an interesting season.
Finally….somebody has come out and told the truth about the incompetence of Mark Penn! Many of us realized from the get-go that thie “junkyard dog” was bad news for Hillary’s campaign. I am not surprised to hear that Bill Clinton sees him as the main culprit in her campaign mismanagement!
So, why, why, why is this man still making millions as a CEO of the biggest lobbying firm in D.C.? Go figure! There is not necessarily culpability for psychopaths!
Oh, I dunno. I love reading these inside stories about what happens behind the scenes, and I suppose Carville’s got to make a buck every once in awhile, but jeez–the dust was just starting to settle. Seems like he could have held this back for a bit longer. Whatever. I’m sure it will be #1 on the NYT list the day it’s published.
therightwork, I love the threat to sweat scenario. Honestly, though, I expect a lot of people to figure out how to making money doing hte post mortems on the Hillary campaign. They can scapegoat Penn all they want, and he did screw up. But she hired him. Watching her campaign flail while Team Obama was all grace under pressure helped him convert a lot of skeptics.
HRC and her pals, Carville included, can whine and trash Mark Penn til the roosters start smacking their lips but the truth is the HRC personally wasn’t equipped to run a major political campaign. SHE mismanaged her choice in leader (Penn) SHE mismanaged her finances and because SHE thought SHE WAS ENTITLED to be PRESIDENT she was soundly rejected. The RIGHT person IS President, Barack Obama.
So Greg, did Carville mention in his book the more than 2,000 instances of irregularities in the caucuses that have never been investigated?
Did he mention that the person who spent all the money was Patty Solis Doyle, sister of Chicago Alderman Solis and longtime friend of David Axelrod?
Did he talk about the Rules & Bylaws Committee of the DNC breaking its own rules to hand pledged delegates to a candidate who didn’t even run in the state for which he was awarded delegates?
Obama cheated his way into the nomination. He didn’t win, and Hillary didn’t lose.
Carolyn Kay
MakeThemAccountable.com