All the talk about how good Hillary's campaign team is just that 'TALK'. Remember Bob Shrum and the way he screwed Al Gore/John Kerry's campaign in every way possible. It's one of the most uncreative (can you remember even one good AD in 2000 & 2004 or one liner narrative of George Bush), lazy, spineless, cautious, unfocused campaign's I ever saw.
I am afraid Mark Penn, Wolfson and rest of the gang on Hillary's campaign staff are doing the same thing for Hillary. Hillary is getting Bob Shrumed in 2008 with the same spineless campaigns we all saw in 2000 & 2004. The campaign AD's are soft, no creativity, cautious and has no emotion or passion.
Some times facts are painful to acknowledge but they are facts. Compare Al Gore/John Kerry's campaign and George Bush campaign. George Bush campaign in 2000 & 2004 had the punch, ouch factor & one liner narrative of the opposition in their AD's and his campaign team led by Karl Rove were ruthless in their campaign strategy. They wanted people & press to talk and reember Al Gore as inauthentic and John Kerry as flip-flopper and they suceeded. Can you remember any thing from Al Gore/John Kerry's campaigns in 2000 and 2004? DEFINITELY NOT.
If you don't connect to frustrations and emotions of the voters; they won't get excited and vote. Republicans are good at inciting the emotion in the voters and they get them to the polls. If democrats don't learn the art of campaigning from Republicans, I am afraid we are going to loose 3 times in a row.
I would say Hillary didn't do that bad except for the dust-up with Chris Dodd towards the end of the debate. Her campaign team did most of the damage after the debate. They gave the story legs and made her look weak. You all know the post debate stories about how Clinton campaign handled her debate performance. I won't repeat it here.
Now comes the silly story of Hillary not tipping the waitress.
If it is Karl Rove and he see's the NPR story on the waitress tips; you all know what he would do. He will divert the story by saying that NPR didn't check with the campaign and it is typical liberal press that is out to get their candidate.
What did Clinton's campaign do; inspite of paying the bill and tip, they still are trying to conveince the press that they didn't do any thing wrong rather than going on the offensive. The updated story in NPR still is not helpful to Clinton campaign. Read for yourself.
http://www.npr.org/...
Here are the highlights. This might still have the legs with the wingnuts following-up on the story.
On Thursday, Esterday was sticking by her story.
"Why would I lie about not getting a tip?" she told NPR. She also maintained that her co-workers at the restaurant had not received tips.
Esterday, speaking to NPR from home later Thursday, said the Clinton campaign staffer who visited the diner apologized to her and said a $100 tip was left on a credit card the day of Clinton's visit. Esterday said the staff member said the money was meant to be shared.
"I explained to her that our credit card machine, you know, doesn't add on the tip," Esterday said. "And she said, 'Well, then, they left a $100 bill there.' And I said, 'Well, it didn't get divided up amongst us, because I had gotten nothing.'
"She just said, 'Well, there was one left,'" Esterday said. "She just kept repeating, 'There was one left.'
After the campaign staffer stopped at the diner Thursday, Esterday said, the $100 tip was a hot topic.
"Two others that had worked with me that day turned around and said, 'We didn't know about any $100 tip,' because they both turned around and said 'We didn't get a part of it.' And they didn't. So, it's like 'OK, where did it go?' That's the mystery question: Where did it go?"
Esterday said it would surprise her if money that was intended to be split among the staff was never shared.
"The ladies that were working that day have been working there for years — some of them for 30 years, some of them for 25 years," Esterday said. "And I've known a lot of these ladies most of my life living here, too. And I can't imagine them pocketing it."