Hillary’s campaign is already improved over last time

Soon after Hillary Clinton entered the 2008 presidential race, a pro-Clinton ad appeared on Power Line. It turned out that the Clinton campaign had bought ads on the 50 most read blogs (or some such cut off).

I should have realized then and there that Clinton would run an incompetent campaign. Whatever our standing in the blog readership ratings, there aren’t many Democratic primary votes to be gained on Power Line. And by cutting out lefty blogs with fewer readers than Power Line, Clinton got off to a bad start with an element of the Democratic base.

The Clinton campaign quickly removed the ads from Power Line, but the damage had been done.

It was downhill from there. Most notably, Team Obama outflanked the Clinton campaign in under-the-radar Red State caucuses on its way to building a delegate lead that withstood Hillary’s late charge in big state primaries.

This time around, Clinton is already ahead of the game. To my knowledge, she has not attempted to advertise on Power Line.

Clinton is also ahead of the game to the extent that she faces no Democratic campaign apparatus comparable to Team Obama. The unwillingness of Elizabeth Warren to show signs of entering the race means that smart, ambitious veterans of the Obama campaign probably see no alternative to joining the Clinton campaign, other than the unacceptable one of sitting this election out. You don’t expect them to embrace Martin O’Malley, do you?

This dynamic hardly ensures that the Clinton campaign will run like butter. Clinton will need to listen to the Obama veterans, rather than the operatives with whom she feels more comfortable. Major clashes seem inevitable.

As Steve likes to say, pass the popcorn.

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