Tunnel Vision Crippled Clinton Campaign

There’s a mountain of analysis of what went wrong with Hillary Clinton’s drive for the presidential nomination.

I’m with the pundits who say it was her team’s assumption that they were orchestrating a coronation when they needed to be gearing up for a marathon race.

While the dark horse (no pun intended) raised buckets of money and orchestrated a grassroots revolution, Hillary stayed stuck on the experience message.

Instead of asking voters to make a change by electing a woman, she kept hammering away that experience was the most important quality in a leader. It worked for Dick Cheney, so why not Hillary?

The Democratic nomination campaign has played out like a classic Aaron Sorkin script, showing that someone who refuses to play by the old rules can win.

Cue Bill Clinton and some Old Skool attack tactics, in case the contrast with Obama’s positive approach wasn’t profound enough yet.

This race was Hillary’s to lose, and she handed it to Obama by not recognizing early enough that she had to differentiate herself from the stereotypical image of a politician.

Takeaway: Unless you understand the dynamics of the race you’re in, you won’t know what change to make in your tactics.

Photo via Flickr by Roger Goun, used under a Creative Commons attribution licence.

Previous Hillary posts:

Clinton’s Foot in Mouth Disease; ‘Off the Record’ Comments Sometimes Aren’t; Hillary Spins Primary Wins; Hillary Clinton: Once More with Feeling; Romney and Clinton Use ‘The Comeback’