« Pro-Clinton 527 Prepares For Ohio, PA and Texas | Main | HRC Continues To Pound Obama On "Accomplishments" » Lesson: Prepare Your Surrogates.20 Feb 2008 09:23 am Comments (24)
Matthews did the same thing to Obama surrogate Gov. Jim Doyle of Wisconsin last week. While the surrogates should be better prepared, you can see how badly Gov. Doyle's performance hurt Obama last night. 
Why is it that Tweety only asked this question of the Obama supporter? How many Clinton supporters can name one of her accomplishments in the Senate? I can't think of any.
The funny thing is, the Congresswoman from Ohio (don't recall her name) who was speaking on Clinton's behalf interrupted this guy to talk about all the wonderful accomplishments Clinton has...and then failed to name a single one of them. And Matthews didn't press her, go figure. This was an embarrassment, no doubt, and painful to watch live. But please. Clinton's only accomplishments of consequence are her campaign's success in getting us to believe she actually has accomplishments.
The end-of-segment banter between Matthews and Olberman (which immediately followed the clip above) was hysterically funny. They're truly the best pair for election coverage.
Well she voted for the Iraq war without reading the NIE although she didn't think it was actually an authorization of military force or some such lame excuse. And she voted for declaring Iran's military a terrorist organization (effectively an authorization of military force for Bush to bomb Iran). That's about it.
I watched this exchange live and it was bizarre. I really think the Chris Matthews has ADD or something similar. This assault came out after he had let Clinton supporter Rep. Tubbs Jones spew forth the standard Hillary talking points. So why did he then launch this attack on the former mayor of Austin who had just recently decided to support Obama? Who knows? It seemed like Matthews turned on a dime and decided to "go get" the Obama surrogate. In the end Keith Olbermann was clearly embarrassed by Matthews' behavior and neutralized him. Funny thing is the Obama supporter should have made up an answer on the spot---there's no way Chris Matthews could have known if the man's answer was accurate or not. To my mind, it reflects much more poorly on Matthews than the Obama surrogate. He owes the man an apology, in my opinion.
Seriously, there is no excuse for not being prepared before going on TV. That being said... Yes we can!
Is it any surprise that Marc wants to talk about this instead of what REALLY happened last night? This is getting old.
Sorry, but there's no way to spin it as anything but a snafu by the Obama camp. I've been amazed by how prepared they've been on every front (it was brilliant of Obama to spend the first couple minutes of his speech instructing supporters on how to navigate the crazy Texas voting rules). But in this case, they blew it. Chances we'll ever see that guy again on national TV?
Undoubtedly it's a snafu, but I find it funny that when Clinton surrogates engage in race-baiting, Marc's response is quite literally a variation on "Oh well, boys will be boys." (In that case, "Rendell will be Rendell.") But here, Marc posts this clip with his portentous directive to prepareth ye surrogates! Was this embarassing for Obama and this poor bastard? No doubt. But probably not as embarassing as losing ten elections in a row by a minimum of 17-point margins. Just sayin'.
Yes, that was bad and really serves to bolster Clinton's new message. The media are now looking to trash Obama and bring him down a few pegs to so that, when Hillary wins Ohio, Texas & maybe Vermont, they can say... "we've got a race on our hands again America, tune in every weeknight at six for up to minute delegate tracking. Don't touch that dial!" This is a blunder for Obama's campaign, a huge boost for MSNBC, who will show this clip ad nauseum and a great way to present Hillary's new talking point. "What has Obama done for us... ever?"
What Jeff Larson said.
This is how Chris Matthews makes amends to all the women for his sexist rhetoric against Hillary Clinton.
If you've worked campaigns you would know that this can happen. As for why this guy did so poorly who knows. The instinct is to blame Obama's press flaks but I doubt that is what happened. In my experience, you prep a surrogate and if they don't pay attention they then go out there and make your campaign look bad or off message. That's probably what happened. Most embarassing for the gentleman from Texas. I'm not sure if Chet Edwards was available but that would have been the way to go.
I wonder why they never ask that question of the HRC surrogates?
"Yes, that was bad and really serves to bolster Clinton's new message." A message that, once again, has nothing to do with her or her accomplishments, or lack thereof. I'm sure they will run ads with this and the media will be "gotcha!" and "Hillary comeback!" and everything else, but they did that with the race-baiting and with the debate ads and plagiarism charges, and we saw how well that worked out. Real people have more important things to worry about than meta politics.
sorry, willie, but i don't buy that. if this clip gets repeated ad nauseam, it also forces the media and the campaigns to open up a conversation about the candidates' accomplishments, and just because this poorly prepared surrogate doesn't seem to know about them, that doesn't mean obama doesn't have any. in fact, i'd venture to say that judged relative to the length of their time in public life, obama's accomplishments are more prominent.
It is very interesting how the Obama-lovers who have commented above have tried to spin this and try to accuse Clinton of not having any accomplishments. The fact is that the guy representing Obama screwed up big time and it really creates an opening for the republicans. Expect to see the Republicans hammer this point over and over and over again. The sad part is that Chris Matthews, who has been trumpeting Obama might be the one who has created the opening for Obama's defeat.
the guy was an uninformed surrogate and a bad politician --- he is the one who looks bad -- this gives Chris Matthews the right to say he doesn't overtly favor Obama? Yes he does- And as someone above said - this is far less embarassing than a 17 pt loss in a state whose demographic suits her?
Senator Clinton has based her campaign on an erroneous claim to greater legislative and administrative experience. Former President Clinton talks up her role in his administration on the campaign trail but pointedly refuses to release any documents that would provide greater details on her actual activities there. It is broadly understood that Hillary spearheaded the response team that staved off Republican attacks and spun the many scandals of the Clinton years. As to her Senate record, no one in the press has had the diligence to lay out her record for the public to assess. Senator Clinton, who has served only one full term (6yrs.), and another year campaigning, has managed to author and pass into law, (20) twenty pieces of legislation in her first six years. These bills can be found on the website of the Library of Congress (www.thomas.loc.gov), but to save you trouble, I'll post them here for you. There you have it, the facts straight from the Senate Record. Now, I would post those of Obama's, but the list is too substantive, so I'll mainly categorize. During the first (8) eight years of his elected service he sponsored over 820 bills. He introduced His first year in the U.S. Senate, he authored 152 bills and co-sponsored another 427. These included: In all since enter the U.S. Senate, Senator Obama has written 890 bills and co-sponsored another 1096. An impressive record for someone who supposedly has no record according to the spin meisters and mindless twits. I challenge Clinton supporters to name a single legislative accomplishment that demonstrates her superior experience.
Amber,
thanks Amber, that's good stuff. let the man's accomplishments speak for him.
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What an embarrassment. Silver-lining - This won't ever happen again. And it gets people talking about substantive issues like what the candidates' respective accomplishments REALLY are.
The surprise will be when people learn how much Obama HAS done both in the State Senate and the U.S. Senate. Just as it will surprise people who he CAN talk about issues and has specific plans to address the issues facing the country.
What will Hillary do then? The debate should be a great opportunity for Obama to put this thing to bed.
Posted by C.B. Todd | February 20, 2008 9:29 AM