Why are such seasoned Dem campaigners as the Clintons so surprised by:

[Phoebe Loosinhouse]

caucuses and proportional allocation of delegates?

Isn't this the same playbook Bill himself ran under and won?

It annoys me when Bill says "If we ran under the Republican rules she would be the nominee now."

We don't, and she isn't.

It is hard to listen to people constantly complaining about the rules that every single candidate had to run under. They just didn't run a good campaign or she WOULD be the nominee by now.

[w4rma]

1. Why are such seasoned Dem campaigners as the Clintons pretending to be so surprised by… (nt)

[livetohike]

2. He has lost it - they were wrong in their planning

and are grasping for some sort of reason. I think he's now a bitter former President.

[Starbucks Anarchist]

3. Ironic, given the "experience" meme that gets tossed around.

All that time in Washington, you'd think they'd know about this stuff.

[Yael]

4. They didn't know about Texas until 2 weeks before

and Mark Penn's strategy assumed a winner-take-all in California.

They don't care about the party, the rules or the people. They just want the power.

[skipos]

5. They are PRETENDING to be surprised

"I want to thank all of my supporters and everyone I have met in Iowa over the past 11 months. I am in awe of your commitment to the WONDERFUL TRADITION OF THE CAUCUSES. Now they are here, and I hope that on January 3, you will stand up and be counted for me." - Hillary Clinton, before she started losing caucuses

[VolcanoJen]

13. Bada-bing!!

Exactly. Couple that with, "This nomination process ends on Super Tuesday," or something to that effect. :-)

[otohara]

6. If we ran under the Republican rules

Honestly WTF good does it do to say something so lame as this?

I'm worried Bubba losing his bearings.

[grytpype]

9. If my aunt had balls, she'd be my uncle! n/t

[DevonRex]

7. And if she can't run a campaign she can't run the country. nt

[sfaprog]

8. Even just yesterday, Hillary was saying in Kentucky that more people had voted for her than Obama

They keep talking out of both sides of their mouths. Proposing party unity out of one side, "we're the best" out the other.

[unblock]

10. if we ran under republican rules ... OBAMA WOULD HAVE HAD A DIFFERENT STRATEGY, DUH!!!

one could argue that hillary would indeed have come out on top under such rules, but i hate historical revisionism where people change ONE thing that suits them and ignore that other things would have to change as well.

the supposed premise is that we ran under republican party rules and yet somehow obama foolishly persisted with a strategy that was designed to win under democratic party rules.

[nenagh]

11. The greater the anger Bill and Hill can create

means only Bill or Hill can placate their angry supporters

which greatly inflates the Clinton power base during later negotiations.

[Ino]

12. It sounds a lot like that Bush stand-by...

"No one could have foreseen ...

that caucuses would figure so prominently
that little states would matter
that Michigan & Florida would be so important
that Obama would raise so much money
that people would see through our lies & rhetoric
that voters would prefer someone else to ME!"