Many politics watchers, including President Barack Obama and even Republican Newt Gingrich, believe that Hillary Clinton already has the 2016 presidential election sewn up.
Not so, says William S. Bike, author of the book Winning Political Campaigns: A Comprehensive Guide to Electoral Success.
"Many have forgotten that Hillary Clinton failed to get the 2008 Democratic presidential nomination not only because Barack Obama's campaign was a good one, but because her campaign was so bad," Bike said.
The 2008 Clinton campaign made mistake after mistake, Bike recalled, mentioning several Clinton campaign faux pas that are contained in the book "Winning Political Campaigns."
"For one thing, the campaign was top-down, while Obama's was decentralized and grass roots," Bike explained. "So the Clinton central campaign structure tried to control everything, which didn't work. Plus the people at Clinton campaign HQ weren't that good, anyway.
"For example, they were focusing on yesterday's technology by still working on building direct mail lists, while the Obama campaign was focusing on building e-mail lists. The Clinton campaign was tied to the old system where time was spent courting the old big-money donors and promising the status quo to them, while use of the internet freed Obama to spend his time courting new donors who wanted change.
"Clinton campaign personnel talked a lot about strategy--never a good sign," Bike said. "As the old saying goes, "Those who are talking aren't doing.' In the meantime, the Obama campaign never talked about strategy and instead concentrated on winning.
"Early in the campaign, in February 2008, when Hillary was still the front runner and should have been cool and collected, TV caught her fussing and fuming over some Obama flyers she didn't like, making her look less-than presidential from the get-go," Bike recalled. "Her surrogates acting like she already had the nomination sewn up and turning angry when things weren't going her way turned people off, too. That drove undecideds and even some Hillary supporters into the Obama camp.
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