Posted by
Black Knight on Wednesday, March 05, 2008 1:43:37 AM
Your campaign people will tell you how great you did.
I'll tell you what I saw.
(1). You never should have let Clinton go without challenge to Tavis' State of the Black Union. She had a 45 minute unchallenged speil. You or Michelle should have been there.
(2). Your campaign manager made the most collosal bonehead mistake I've ever seen. He said "Clinton would fail." Well she didn't fail. He failed. Sports teams never, ever, in a thousand years, give ammunition to the opposing team, by getting them fired up with stupid, "I dare yous," or "we are going to beat you," or "you are going to fail,"or "we are going to win.". If Iraq was a blunder, this was a collosal blunder of untold proportions. With a friend like him, you don't need any enemies.
(3). Anytime Clinton makes an appeal to women, get Claire McCaskill, or Janet Napolitano, or Michelle to counter in the same news cycle with, "We strong women win on the merits. We don't have to play the gender card like our opponent."
You are underutizing these brilliant women. They need to be on TV everytime Clinton is on TV.
(4). The press has set a steel trap for you. Everything you and Michele or your reps say, they jump right on it. That's to be expected.
They call you unAmerican, but McCain can quote Mao, but nothing is said. Just be aware of what is being said.
(5). The debates. You had her down for the count but you gave her two debates. Big mistake. It revived her campaign. You were too generous. When she was running in her Senate campaign, she never if ever gave her opponent a debate.
I would have told her, "No, I am not afraid to debate you, I'm not going to let you set the agenda. You never debated in your Senate campaign; now you want to cry foul. Release your tax returns and the debate question can be revisited."
(6). You were on cruise control; prevent defense. Big Mistake. Attack her on the issues. I would have told her:
"Yes, my opponent cleaned up after the first Bush by letting Al Qaeda bomb the World Trade Center."
"Yes, my opponent is ready for day one, but they have stiffed several small businesses by not paying their bills."
"How can my opponent manage an economy when they cannot even manage their campaign finances?"
"My opponent had 8 years to provide healthcare and could not get the job done. A second chance at failure we don't need."
(7). You won the last debate, but you lost the last debate. How can that be? You actually won the sit down debate; but she continued to debate after the debate. She signed more programs than you. She was still debating. The camera lingered. She lingered. You left. People saw that as her caring more than you.
(8). You disappeard from TV; she was all over the place for two weeks. Bottom line, she out worked you hands down.
(9). Finally take full responsibility for the loss. If you blame anybody else for the loss except yourself; then you haven't learned a thing.
This is not fingerpointing. I said all of this before Tuesday night,