Do As I Say...Or Else

Many stories in the last few weeks have shown how bitterly divided Senator Clinton's own campaign staff is, how willing to resort to in-fighting, back-stabbing and just plain nastiness they are. As example, just this morning The Washington Post ran a story about attempts by Clinton campaign staffers to steal the credit for recent Clinton wins from Mark Penn or at best downplay his role in such.

Since the Senator has prided herself as being an able manager during the campaign, stressing these managerial qualities as necessary for the Presidency (that for some obscure reasons her opponent lacks, reasons not specified by Senator Clinton), it is very telling that she cannot control or manage her own campaign or campaign staff with anything near the effectiveness of her opponent.

One thing we can easily derive from this is that, to Senator Clinton, this type of staff behavior is obviously either perfectly acceptable (perhaps this is the Washington norm she is used to) or completely beyond the scope of her professed managerial skills to cope with. Either conclusion is disturbing.

Even worse, actually frightening, is the idea that many of these campaign staffers would probably end up in the White House, on her Presidential staff, if she were to somehow magically win both the nomination and the election. Internal rancor and in-fighting would reign in a new Clinton White House from Day One if this happens.

The big question, with the easy answer: DO WE WANT THIS?

PS I have to send you away for a moment, for an excellent examination of the failed logic behind Senator Clinton's "But I can win the Big States!" mantra.