"It then quickly became clear the Clinton campaign didn't understand various states' caucus and slating session laws, and the Obama campaign did," Bike noted.
Bike also recalled that the Hillary Clinton campaign managed to alienate the influential Kennedy family during the 2008 campaign, despite the longstanding ties between the Kennedys and the Clintons. "The Clinton campaign credited some of President John F. Kennedy's achievements to President Lyndon Johnson, so angering the Kennedys that they came out for Obama," Bike recalled.
"Her slogan, "Ready from Day One to be a great president,' essentially was George H.W. Bush's slogan in 1988--not a candidate with whom the Clinton team needed to associate.
"Then when all these errors piled up, the Clinton campaign started blaming the media instead of its own operation, thereby increasing negative media coverage of her," Bike said.
So does that mean Hillary Clinton won't be a viable presidential candidate in 2016?
"I think she could be a great candidate--if she learns from the mistakes of 2008," Bike said. "I'd be amazed if she didn't. She's not only smart, but a student of history as well."
Bike compared Clinton's situation to that of Richard Nixon in 1968.
"When Nixon ran for president in 1960, a lot of veterans of President Dwight Eisenhower's campaigns were driving Nixon's campaign, and perhaps he wasn't well served by the president's men running the show," Bike said. "In 1968, Nixon had his own guys calling the shots, and he won.
"Hillary's 2008 campaign was, in a sense, another Bill Clinton campaign of the 1990s--except it wasn't the 1990s anymore," Bike said. "In 2016, I fully expect Hillary to be running an up-to-date campaign, using tactics Obama and the Tea Party have used to win in recent years. Nixon used new tactics in 1968, and I expect Hillary to do the same in 2016."
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