The campaign is scrambling for damage control, but in a conference call with supporters the team heard the some things that won't help them too much:
The object of the call, and a follow-up breakfast Thursday morning with campaign chairman and former chairman of the Democratic National Committee (DNC) Terry McAuliffe, was apparently to stop whatever bleeding the senator might have sustained during a debate in which Clinton wore a bull’s-eye on her back throughout the evening.I should think not. Making the moderators the subject of their anger will only encourage future moderators to take a tough line with Clinton to evoke a similar response. It's their job to challenge the candidates and force them to articulate their positions and explain why they should be president. "Shooting the messenger", so to speak, is a pretty bad campaign tactic.
Penn and Mantz said “a new phase” in the campaign had begun with about 65 days to go before the Iowa caucuses. They expect Obama and Edwards to go “negative on TV, and we’re going to need the resources to fight that front.”
While one supporter voiced his concern that the Clinton campaign is not devoting enough money and staff to Iowa, lagging behind Obama, most supporters who commented on the call expressed their displeasure with what they saw as the moderators’ focus on Clinton.
One caller from Oklahoma City said that “the questions … were designed to incite a brawl,” and that Russert’s and Brian Williams’s moderating was “an abdication of journalistic responsibility.”
Another said Russert “should be shot,” before quickly adding that she shouldn’t say that on a conference call.
This episode is a reminder that Clinton and her shock troops have an enlarged sense of entitlement as it pertains to the presidency. She considers the White House her birthright and anyone that gets in the way must be crushed. I don't know if this episode will represent a turning point in the campaign, but it certainly will give her opposition some ideas about how to get under her skin.
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