I happily voted for Bernie Sanders yesterday and was genuinely glad he won the Michigan Presidential Primary, but I still think Hillary Clinton is going to be our nominee come November and that she's going to win the general election easily regardless of which bozo the republicans choose to be their candidate.
That being said, it does fill me with just a little doubt to watch what happened in Michigan and to read that, frankly, Secy. Clinton just got outworked and outmaneuvered here and lost what was an imminently winnable election for her. In fairness to her, Michigan polling is notoriously awful, but still she had to know that Sen. Sanders campaign is an extreme grassroots operation and that he'd have half the college kids in the state out knocking on doors for him. Christ, she didn't even open an office in Ann Arbor, which is only the third largest city in the state and a Democratic stronghold (she carried Democrats 58-40).
Now perhaps this is only a bump in the road that will keep Sanders in the race to keep pushing Clinton leftward so we can hold her feet to the fire once she's in the White House; perhaps it's a much needed wake-up call; perhaps the Clinton campaign is already focusing on November's opponent (rhymes with "dump"); as for myself, in an election this important, against in all likelihood an extremist republican candidate, I'd really hope that our presumed nominee and her staff are crossing all the t's and dotting all the i's.
Because failure is not a fucking option.
Peace,
emaycee
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Another way to look at it:
ReplyDeleteSo the polling was awful. I have to assume she had internal polling done as well, and who knows what that showed. But if it confirmed what was being seen in all the other polls, no way am I wasting money on an office in Ann Arbor. Look, any campaign is about resources and where you put them. A ground game is incredibly effective in GOTV, but it costs a lot of money, as would an office and staff. If I am running that campaign and I see those polls, my resources are better spent elsewhere.
Moreover, if a ground game is incredibly effective at GOTV, I'm also not sure that I want to help with that in Ann Arbor. Of course that college town was gonna go for Bernie. You might GOTV, but you might GOTWV (get out the wrong vote).
All I'm saying is that it's not hard to see why she had a different strategy than Bernie. I don't think that points to Hillary's campaign failing. It was a weird state (you were a caucus state in '00 and '04 and B-Rock wasn't on the ballot in '08, so who the fuck knows what to make of the folks there) in a weird year (see, Trump, Donald).
I have no doubt in my mind Hillary's campaign is an efficient, well run machine. Hell, they tried to hire me to run the organizing in my state, so they can't be that dumb. Er, maybe that's a bad example.
That's really cool, Son--can't imagine it would have been a lot of fun campaigning for Hillary in your state, though.
DeleteIt was flattering as hell, and a difficult decision I had to make in a split second. I actually think it would've be a lot of fun, but I couldn't pass up a stable job for something that might only last a few months. I'll have to tell you the story next time we chat.
DeleteI, too, think that we're looking at a Clinton nomination. But I want Bernie to hang on so he can continue to lure in the new class of Democrats. Bernie is (thankfully) pulling Hillz leftward), but he's also pulling in the young voters for whom Hillary isn't attractive. As long as he doesn't launch a smear campaign, he should be able to transition the rookies to Hillary.
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