Ready on Day One

Already, pundits have begun to post mortem the Clinton candidacy for the Presidency.
She is, indeed, Dead Woman Walking!

One of Hillary’s themes, oft repeated during the campaign and the debates, is her readiness on Day One, to be the President of the United States. My pals in Washington, DC who hitched their wagon to the Clinton star during Bill’s administration feel strongly about her readiness on Day One. One friend explained that she knew all the Federal agencies and would know how to undue the harm and tricks of the Bush administration on Day One. The Day One argument is all about readiness to, not only lead the nation, but be a great manager. It is rare that you find great CEO and COO skills in the same person. No matter, her supporters, and her framers, Mark Penn leading the charge, clearly see the Day One argument has central to her positioning as the best candidate.

There is a problem with the Day One argument, however, and the flaw in the argument is now, with the first post-mortem talk, becoming glaringly apparent. What is there for us to look at, where Hillary has had a senior leadership role, with ultimate responsibility for building her team and providing leadership to that team? Ahh, I get it. It is her campaign for the Presidency.

She chose the senior people to manage the campaign. She must have been a participant in the strategy. She must have had some insight into the budget and how money was being spent. Regardless, she bears responsibility for the way the campaign was run.

The litany of glaring mistakes could go on for pages. The highlights are: a campaign manager (two of them) with no campaign experience who came to the position as a consequence of long term loyalty; no ground game in the caucus states (my gawd, how could Hillary lose to Obama in a state such as Idaho?); profligate spending on everything from hotel rooms in Vegas to deli sandwiches in Iowa; no plan and no money after Super Tuesday (because they thought it was going to be in the bag by then?); the decision to let Bill out of his cage, and so forth.

In my mind, we have no further to look than her campaign in order to ascertain her readiness to be President on Day One. This was a campaign that was hers to lose and lose it she did. She is not ready on Day One.