Whouley High Harmony

04.01.2008

I agree with the CW that Hillary faces serious challenges in getting back into this race, but I'm not prepared to count her out so quickly. One reason is something I alluded to at the end of my caucus wrap-up piece last night but didn't completely tease out: The Iowa results didn't really catch the Clintonites by surprise. In fact, the Clinton camp had, on some level, been anticipating this for weeks.

What's the evidence for this? The clearest data point, as I mentioned in the piece, is that they decided to keep uber-operative Michael Whouley in New Hampshire rather than dispatch him to Iowa. Now, I've heard that the office politics of having Whouley bigfoot Teresa Vilmain, Hillary's top Iowa honcho, would have made that decision incredibly fraught. On the other hand, they'd probably have done it had they deemed it useful. I suspect one reason they didn't is that they were increasingly pessimistic about Iowa and assumed they'd need Whouley to help bail them out in New Hampshire. Which means they've been chewing over plan B for a while now...

P.S. I concede that the title of this post is really apropos of nothing. Just wanted to give a nod to those Boyz II Men fans out there...

--Noam Scheiber

Posted: Friday, January 04, 2008 12:23 PM with 8 comment(s)

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adamvaught said:

If you insist on bringing Boyz II Men into this, how we sing one of their songs to Hillary.

IT'S SO HARD TO SAY GOODBYE TO YESTERDAY

How do I say goodbye to what we had?

The good times that made us laugh

Outweigh the bad.

I thought we'd get to see forever

But forever's gone away

It's so hard to say goodbye to yesterday.

I don't know where this road

Is going to lead

All I know is where we've been

And what we've been through.

If we get to see tomorrow

I hope it's worth all the wait

And I'll take with me the memories

To be my sunshine after the rain

It's so hard to say goodbye to yesterday

January 4, 2008 1:03 PM

boneill said:

That was from memory.

January 4, 2008 2:05 PM

rossjem said:

The question is, what is Clinton's ground game for winning in Motown/Philly? Will she have to go to voters, on bended knee, and promise, "I'll make love to you"? If she does, and it works, that will be one sweet day. But if it doesn't, and the electoral water runs dry, she may have come to the end of the road.

Man, I stayed up way too late last night?

January 4, 2008 2:10 PM

rossjem

As a last grasp at relevance, she'll appear on a crappy episode of the Fresh Prince of Bel Air. (Nice work, by the way.)

January 4, 2008 2:24 PM

Adam, not a bad idea. It's certainly the case that a couple of guys have been up to no good, and have started making trouble in her neighborhood.

I'm on fire!

January 4, 2008 2:39 PM

And yes, bone, it was from memory.

January 4, 2008 2:43 PM

rossjem, trying to capture the youth vote, she could bring out her mom and tell people parents just don't understand. Or she could just get Jiggy in Miami with the Men in Black secret (service agents.) Oh, I bet she longs for Summertime when he campaign was all Boom Shake Shake Shake the room. No, she looks a Bill and thinks, It Just the Two of Us.

January 4, 2008 2:53 PM

The Stump said:

Karen Tumulty makes a good point in her piece about Hillary's next move: So it would appear Clinton

January 4, 2008 11:27 PM