Hillary Clinton will lose the Democratic nomination for two reasons:
First, she’s spending way too much money on consultants. Strategist and pollster Mark Penn, who appears to have bungled this campaign in every conceivable way, is owed some $10 million alone. If you’re a Hillary Clinton supporter, just how does it feel to give your money to the guy that’s messed stuff up so badly rather than seeing your money spent on ads for your candidate? But that’s precisely what’s going on, and it’s a huge problem now the nomination process has become a war of attrition.
UPDATE: I’m not the only one seeing the money thing as a disaster.
The second issue, and this has been a problem from the very start, is that Hillary Clinton has been wrongly packaged. For all her faults, and you know I think that they are many, she has a number of attractive qualities (she’s a good debater, she’s intelligent, etc.).
But that’s not how she’s being sold. We’re told that she’s “tough” and “tested” and “ready on day one” all of which plays into the meme of Hillary as a shrill, attacking, win-at-all costs politician. You know, the very thing most of us are sick of in American politics.
When this gets coupled with the “you’re all a bunch of sheep, look at Hillary run” verbiage the the campaign constantly spits out, the results are doubly damning. Here’s part of Hillary’s statement after losing Wisconsin:
Only one of us is ready on day one to be commander in chief, ready to manage our economy, ready to defeat the Republicans. Only one of us has spent 35 years being a doer, a fighter, and a champion for those who need a voice.
Sweep aside the content (which I would obviously dispute anyway), and what is the subtext of the argument she’s making? Look at me! See how great I am. Here’s what I will do for you. This is not an isolated, out-of-context quote. In fact, it is one of the more benign. Her literature and quotes are littered with this type of message. I can’t help but think consciously or subconsciously voters are picking up on the contempt that lies very low beneath the surface.
From a political strategy standpoint, this message also seems absurd when you’re running a candidate with sky high negatives. To say nothing of running it against a message of inclusion (“Yes we can”) like Barak Obama’s.
In conclusion, it’s no wonder she’s losing. It’s Hillary–and a few very well-paid advisors–against the world, and that’s a mountain very few can climb.