Bubba To The Rescue!

December 12, 2007

Bubba to the rescue!

Alarmed by his wife's slide in the polls and disarray within her backbiting campaign, a beside-himself Bill Clinton has leaped atop the barricades and is furiously plotting a cure - or coup.

Hillary and Bill Clinton

"She's in big trouble and he knows it," a top Democratic operative and Hillary Clinton booster told the Daily News.

Sources familiar with the ex-President's thinking say he doesn't believe his wife's situation is desperate. But he's unhappy with her operation - once hailed as a juggernaut - and concerned she could lose the Democratic nomination without major alterations in strategy and staffing.

Bill Clinton is mulling "a lot of different ideas and a lot of different scenarios to fix this," an official who regularly speaks with him said. "He will come up with literally dozens of ideas. The trick will be to figure out the most important one or two to get her out of this downtrend."

Another Democrat with close connections to the Clinton campaign describes Bill Clinton as "very engaged and very agitated. He's yelling at [chief strategist] Mark Penn a lot."

Penn laughed off the idea that he's on the hot seat. "That's funny," he said. "I've been working with Bill Clinton through thick and thin for 10 years, exchanging views."

A source close to the former First Couple criticized recent campaign ads as lacking focus, faulting Penn the most for failing to fine-tune the message: "The key problem is not the spots, but what they're saying."

Sources close to the former President say he and the candidate are talking constantly but sharing very little of what they're discussing with subordinates.

Several other Hillary Clinton partisans, however, aren't so shy about critiquing the performance of her campaign - and predict a major staff purge is inevitable.

Campaign officials and a source close to both Clintons flatly denied the head-rolling buzz. "Can this change by the end of the week? Yes," the source said. "But at this point, everyone's on solid footing."

Another Hillary Clinton operative told The News, "Nothing will happen until after Iowa," referring to the Jan. 3 Hawkeye State caucuses. The candidate last night rejected the scuttlebutt.

"These stories are false. I have the best staff in the country, and I have total and complete confidence in them," she said.

Campaign manager Patti Solis Doyle is the biggest target, sources said. She recently took over personal command of the Iowa operation, and a Clinton defeat there could damage her future.

As Barack Obama has steadily narrowed Hillary Clinton's once-impregnable lead, friction inside her headquarters has flared. One post-Thanksgiving meeting erupted into finger-pointing over the loss of her advantage.

"They all want to kill each other," said a source aware of the closed-door meeting.

The backstabbing involves several high-level people in the campaign, including Penn, Mandy Grunwald, Ann Lewis and Howard Wolfson, sources said.

Penn maintained, "It's a totally false story."

Meanwhile, Hillary Clinton's campaign abruptly shifted gears Tuesday, arguing Obama can't beat a Republican. Until now, her attacks targeted Obama's experience, not his electability.

Pouncing on a report that revealed Obama staked out stridently liberal positions in a 1996 candidate questionnaire, Hillary Clinton's campaign argued his past record is easy ammunition for the GOP.

Obama spokesman Bill Burton fired back, "For a candidate who 50% of the country says they won't consider voting for, raising questions about electability is a curious strategy."

Source: New York Daily News

Posted by Hillary · Filed Under Bill Clinton, Hillary Clinton, Top Story

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