Clinton backers fault campaign

Supporters outline errors as focus turns to big states

By Paul West, Baltimore Sun

It may be hard to recall the shield of inevitability that once surrounded Hillary Clinton, but a December 2007 cover story in a liberal magazine is a reminder.

"Has Hillary Locked It Up?" asked The American Prospect, which unabashedly promotes its "Liberal Intelligence." The article lauded the "strategic and tactical brilliance of her campaign" and "her political adeptness," concluding that Clinton had pulled so far ahead that the race might be over once the first votes were cast.

Now, after falling behind Barack Obama, her campaign is being vilified by some of her supporters. They say she made the strategic mistake of believing that she was inevitable, allowing herself to be positioned, in effect, as an incumbent in an election about change.

Her advisers apparently assumed that the nomination would be decided by the Super Tuesday primaries Feb. 5, when more than half the states would have voted. Pennsylvania Gov. Edward G. Rendell, a Clinton supporter, was quoted as saying last week that "it sure didn't look like they had a game plan after Super Tuesday."

Among recent problems: a shortage of campaign cash and, some supporters say, a surplus of loose talk by her husband, the former president.

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