Hillary Demands Loyalty Above All Else.

A very eye opening article passed my way. It really gave me a glimpse into the sort of management style and executive experience Hillary will bring to the table.

It explains the inner workings of the Hillary campaign staff, especially Patti Solis Doyle. Here are just a couple of choice excerpts:

Hillary's staffers were fiercely loyal. "My staff prided themselves on discretion, loyalty, and camaraderie, and we had our own special ethos," Clinton wrote in her memoir, Living History. "While the West Wing had a tendency to leak, Hillaryland never did."

and this:
"Concerns about Solis Doyle have preoccupied many in the campaign for several years. Clinton insiders say that her campaign chairman, Terry McAuliffe, launched an unsuccessful bid to remove Solis Doyle while on vacation with the Clintons two years ago. Two top campaign officials told me that Maggie Williams, Hillary's former chief of staff (and, as of Sunday, her campaign manager), also sought and failed to have Solis Doyle removed two years ago. Last year, some of Bill Clinton's former advisers, known as the "White Boys," lobbied to oust her, too.

But because of Solis Doyle's proximity to Hillary Clinton, because she demonstrated the loyalty and discretion Clinton so prized, and because no one appeared capable of challenging Clinton's presumed status as the Democratic nominee-in-waiting, nothing was done. "What Patti has that is real power is the unquestioned trust and confidence of the candidate," Paul Begala, a veteran of Bill Clinton's campaigns, explained in an on-the-record interview last year. "That makes her bulletproof."

This one is particularly telling:
"Here, too, Solis Doyle was disastrous; her lack of skill in areas other than playing the loyal heavy began to show. The first public sign of this came just after Clinton's reelection to the Senate. Even though Clinton had faced no serious opponent, it turned out that Solis Doyle, as campaign manager, had burned through more than $30 million. As this New York Times story makes clear, the donor base was incensed."

But this really nails it:
"Rather than punish Solis Doyle or raise questions about her fitness to lead, Clinton chose her to manage the presidential campaign for reasons that should now be obvious: above all, Clinton prizes loyalty and discipline, and Solis Doyle demonstrated both traits, if little else. This suggests to me that for all the emphasis Clinton has placed on executive leadership in this campaign, her own approach is a lot closer to the current president's than her supporters might like to admit."

Check out the whole article in The Atlantic by Josh Green
http://www.theatlantic.com/doc/200802u/p atti-solis-doyle

Tags: campaign, Fundraising, Hillary, Patti Doyle (all tags)

Comments

8 Comments

Re: Hillary Demands Loyalty Above All Else.

Sounds like Bush and Hillary share the belief in loyalty above all else, including competence.

by genevajoe 2008-02-12 07:34PM | 0 recs
Re: catty gossip

Seriously, I don't think I have every agreed with joanH, but this is a waste of space...

Stupid Obama hit jobs are terrible, stupid Clionton hit jobs are terrible...

If you have to go after someone, his name is John McCain!!!

by labor nrrd 2008-02-12 07:35PM | 0 recs
Re: catty gossip

The biggest #1 priorty among voters is Change. We are tire of Bush appointing incompent people to high ranking positions. (like the president of the Arabian Horse Association appointed to head up FEMA, just as Katrina victims how that worked out)

This is a legitimate piece that does not attack Hillary on anything personal, but does raise serious concerns about her managerial decision making.

Considering the horrible state of our nation and the mismanagement of just about every government branch, this article is important for our decision making process.

by mageduley 2008-02-13 03:48AM | 0 recs
doyle sucks

it has a ring of truth.
 let's face it, doyle sucked in her role, she overspent, ridiculously so.
 she promoted a bad message (inevitability) and the campaigns woefully underestimated obama.

considering how she bled money in iowa, she can be directly blamed for this whole situation.

obama and hillary had the same amount of money and yet hillary was so broke she had no choice but to leave the vast majority of states to obama (she would probably have contested the midwest states if she actually had any money to do so on 2/5)
i daresay, doyle was about as incompetent as she could have been

by Lazeriath 2008-02-12 07:37PM | 0 recs
Re: Hillary Demands Loyalty Above All Else.

What's the point of this? Ask any politician, they value loyalty above all else.

by RJEvans 2008-02-12 08:08PM | 0 recs
Re: Hillary Demands Loyalty Above All Else.

Basically, it confirms what most progressives know about Hillary.

Deep down, there's a real progressive there.

But she's arrogant, and every time anything comes to a crisis, she chooses to play it safe.  She chooses loyalty, establishment and the safe choice.

And that's why I don't support her for the nomination.  I would support Edwards, Obama, Gore, just about anyone else.

But every instinct she has is just dead wrong.  Her mistakes on the trail confirm it.

by thereisnospoon 2008-02-13 12:23AM | 0 recs
Re: Hillary Demands Loyalty Above All Else.

This also sheds light on the ready-on-day-one mythology.  She can't even get her shit together in this campaign, 35 years of experience or not. Results matter, not Bushian loyalty and bunker mentality insularity.  This is an example of managerial problems with HRC.  She's a progressive and smart, but she shares a troubling resemblance to Bush with this "us against the world" bullshit.

by PositiveFreedom 2008-02-13 02:50AM | 0 recs
Re: Hillary Demands Loyalty Above All Else.

Stop shooting the messenger. This is a valid topic to discuss.

I think it makes sense. I think this is both a positive and negative point with Hillary. If Bill had a very loyal group with him, maybe he gets better protected in the 90s against the republican nut jobs. This is where the REpublicans have had the edge over the DEmocrats. Bush won his relection due to this loyalty factor among many in his inner circle. They looked like brainwashed freaks to us, but it played well to his base. So it is good that Hillary shows loyalty and receives it.

But then the negative is we do not want a repeat of Bush putting loyalty way above everything else. I do not think Hillary is that bad. But it is something to monitor. They did spend an awful lot of money in the senate election which she could have won without spending a single dollar.  

by Pravin 2008-02-13 06:37AM | 0 recs

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