2008 Woodie Awards
Clinton ethos, grand campaign strategy falters
Dan O'Gara
Issue date: 3/11/08 Section: OpEd Page
So the grand political theater that is the Democratic nominating process has finished its sweep through Ohio, Texas, Rhode Island and Vermont without moving the contest any closer to a firm conclusion. Sen. Hillary Clinton's (D-N.Y.) campaign can claim her emphatic win in Ohio, coupled with a narrow victory in Texas gave her candidacy new life and considerable momentum heading into the next important primary to be held in Pennsylvania April 22.
This paradigm shift in rhetoric is fascinating considering Clinton spent the last month trying to convince voters that momentum is meaningless. The new narrative says that Clinton is the resurgent candidate, that she finally found her voice in Ohio and successfully poked holes in Sen. Barack Obama's (D-Ill.) campaign that is light on substance. She successfully manipulated the media into believing that Obama had not received enough criticism (and not even enough first questions during the Cleveland debate) and coupled this with the tried-and-true strategy of throwing the proverbial kitchen sink at Obama.
Alas it worked, but only if you accept the narrow definition of victory that the Clinton campaign is serving up. Her "firewall" barely held-a meager accomplishment considering she had been campaigning on the myth that she was the inevitable candidate, but nonetheless celebrated Super Bowl-style with confetti, balloons and a party atmosphere at her campaign headquarters in Columbus. Yet her claims to momentum are ultimately going to be rendered moot by cold, hard math. No matter how much momentum Clinton gains, momentum will always lose in a battle against math, and the numbers say that Clinton is fighting a battle that should be declared over. According to an analysis by Jonathan Alter of Newsweek, even if the senator from New York wins the remaining 16 primaries (throw in Michigan and Florida for good measure) by much larger than expected margins, she will still be trailing in the delegate count come the August convention.
This paradigm shift in rhetoric is fascinating considering Clinton spent the last month trying to convince voters that momentum is meaningless. The new narrative says that Clinton is the resurgent candidate, that she finally found her voice in Ohio and successfully poked holes in Sen. Barack Obama's (D-Ill.) campaign that is light on substance. She successfully manipulated the media into believing that Obama had not received enough criticism (and not even enough first questions during the Cleveland debate) and coupled this with the tried-and-true strategy of throwing the proverbial kitchen sink at Obama.
Alas it worked, but only if you accept the narrow definition of victory that the Clinton campaign is serving up. Her "firewall" barely held-a meager accomplishment considering she had been campaigning on the myth that she was the inevitable candidate, but nonetheless celebrated Super Bowl-style with confetti, balloons and a party atmosphere at her campaign headquarters in Columbus. Yet her claims to momentum are ultimately going to be rendered moot by cold, hard math. No matter how much momentum Clinton gains, momentum will always lose in a battle against math, and the numbers say that Clinton is fighting a battle that should be declared over. According to an analysis by Jonathan Alter of Newsweek, even if the senator from New York wins the remaining 16 primaries (throw in Michigan and Florida for good measure) by much larger than expected margins, she will still be trailing in the delegate count come the August convention.
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