The Atlantic's Josh Green obtained hundreds of internal e-mails and memorandums circulating among top aides to Hillary Clinton and has woven them into a fascinating narrative of her failed campaign.
Here, in detail and backed up by evidence, is the story of what really happened. The memos, e-mail and Josh's reporting, describe, in detail:
** The battle for strategic supremacy and chaos in the campaign
** Mark Penn and the rest of the staff debating gender, politics, Obama's significance, timing, the media's bias and more.
** Leaking and leaker hunts;
** Penn's view of humanizing candidates and the billionaire who convinced him that being human is overrated; and why Clinton was like Margaret Thatcher;
** A key Clinton insider who just about had it with the rest of the campaign.
** Strategy memos about caucuses and delegates that were not heeded;
Will the article make backstage encounters between the Clintons and Obama more tense in Denver? Probably not. From the article, it appears as if she rejected the advice to attack Obama for sounding "foreign," for example.
The Obama campaign obtained a copy a few days ago; senior-level managers have read the article and would give me no comment, although I do not get the sense that anyone in Chicago is particularly troubled by the revelation.
Here's an excerpt from a memo Penn wrote in December of 2006:
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Looks like Penn was right.
Posted by Dan Walter | August 11, 2008 8:53 PM