Donna Brazile: How the Clinton campaign ran the DNC

[Statilius the Epicurean]

https://www.politico.com/magazine/story/2017/11/02/clinton-brazile-hacks-2016-215774

Holy shi this article is completely insane. DWS ran the DNC into the ground.

[BudgieForce]

Obama and Debbie bankrupted the DNC, Hillary came in and used her Victory Fund to make it solvent again. By doing that however, the Clinton Campaign had greater influence over the DNC than they should have before Hillary was the actual nominee. It sucks that Hillary got stuck saving the DNC, it sucks that Bernie had a thumb on the scale against him and it sucks Brazile feels the need to inflame tensions between the wings of the party to sell a book.

[#gravelgang #lessiglad]

Just read this article too. The whole thing reeks of Brazille trying to deflect blame. I don't doubt she's telling the truth, but she paints herself as some helpless victim and I have serious doubts that she didn't at least have an inkling of what was going on, with her decades-long ties to both the Clintons and the DNC.

Maybe she didn't fully know the extent of the oddly close relationship, but it's surprising that she portrays herself as being completely blindsided

[BlueSwan]

Obama and Debbie bankrupted the DNC, Hillary came in and used her Victory Fund to make it solvent again. By doing that however, the Clinton Campaign had greater influence over the DNC than they should have before Hillary was the actual nominee. It sucks that Hillary got stuck saving the DNC, it sucks that Bernie had a thumb on the scale against him and it sucks Brazile feels the need to inflame tensions between the wings of the party to sell a book.

This.

I'm honestly not sure that the Hillary Campaign is much to blame here. They saved the DNC from bankruptcy. They had a lot of influence over the DNC for sure, but they didn't rig the election process. Is it unfortunate that the DNC was indebted to Hillary - YES! I guess one way of looking at it is that at the time everybody - and I mean everybody - just flat out assumed that Hillary would be the nominee with no competition. That Bernie Sanders proved to be a worthy opponent caught everybody by surprise. But that still isn't a very good excuse for the mess that the DNC put themselves in.

[publicunofficial]

The DNC should have been  allowed to go bankrupt.

[Rookie Yinzer]

Sounds like an interesting read. Hillary ended up on a lot of people who were loyal to her’s sh**t lists after she fumbled the election.

ETA: and this should end the peculiar Hillary 2020 speculation. She is toast. While I still think Bernie was going to lose, this looks horrible especially with a Clinton hack (she lost her job at CNN over Hillary) being the one to tell this story.

[RINO Tom]

The DNC should have been  allowed to go bankrupt.

No DNC bailouts!

[Hoosier_Nick]

The most shocking this is how they talk about spending money in Chicago and New Orleans during the election since they were concerned that Trump would win the PV and lose the EC. Most analysis, as we all know, showed little chance of this happening. What were they thinking?

[Confused Democrat]

Well this blows a big hole in a lot of the Clinton and DNC apologists arguments.

[Atlas Has Shrugged]

BUT RUSSIA!

[Absentee Voting Ghost of Ruin]

The most shocking this is how they talk about spending money in Chicago and New Orleans during the election since they were concerned that Trump would win the PV and lose the EC. Most analysis, as we all know, showed little chance of this happening. What were they thinking?

Maybe they were looking for an excuse to give money to particular people or organizations?

[MASHED POTATOES. VOTE!]

Obama was a very poor party leader/operator, so there's nothing unexpected in Clintonities being able to just take over.

[Doimper]

BUT RUSSIA!

Excited for more indictments, friendo?

[Grumpier Than Uncle Joe]

Has jfern weighed in on this yet?

[Virginiá]

For the life of me I still don't understand what is meant by "rigged" primaries. No votes were changed. It just sounds like it was the debate scheduling, superdelegates committing long beforehand (which is irrelevant because Clinton still won by delegates), and a bunch of random talk among DNC staff that never amounted to anything. What else is there? This sketchy fundraising structure using states as pass through entities isn't right but it doesn't have anything to do with Bernie's votes.

This isn't to say the DNC wasn't being shady and untrustworthy, though. I'm just not sure I like the terminology here, because a lot of people seem to level charges on the DNC that describe something that wasn't happening. I can't tell you how many times I've seen people say the DNC actually stole the nomination from Sanders, when it is more like just working against him on the periphery.

All I can say is they really need to clean this mess up by 2020. Just let the candidates run on an even playing field, and stop trying to control everything. At the very least they should understand that they are too incompetent to tilt a primary against their disfavored candidates and get away with it.

[Rookie Yinzer]

For the life of me I still don't understand what is meant by "rigged" primaries. No votes were changed. It just sounds like it was the debate scheduling, superdelegates committing long beforehand (which is irrelevant because Clinton still won by delegates), and a bunch of random talk among DNC staff that never amounted to anything. What else is there? This sketchy fundraising structure using states as pass through entities isn't right but it doesn't have anything to do with Bernie's votes.

This isn't to say the DNC wasn't being shady and untrustworthy, though. I'm just not sure I like the terminology here, because a lot of people seem to level charges on the DNC that describe something that wasn't happening. I can't tell you how many times I've seen people say the DNC actually stole the nomination from Sanders, when it is more like just working against him on the periphery.

All I can say is they really need to clean this mess up by 2020. Just let the candidates run on an even playing field, and stop trying to control everything. At the very least they should understand that they are too incompetent to tilt a primary against their disfavored candidates and get away with it.

At the end of the day when Hillary Clinton is in the center of the scandal you can’t scrub the appearance of corruption off. Any sort of context and nuance that takes longer than 15 seconds to explain is looked at with disdain and as lying. The best the Democrats can do is to move on and work on providing transparent primaries with even playing fields.

[Mr. Morden]

It just sounds like it was the debate scheduling, superdelegates committing long beforehand (which is irrelevant because Clinton still won by delegates), and a bunch of random talk among DNC staff that never amounted to anything.

I'd also note that on debate scheduling, no one was forcing the candidates to only do debates at the DNC sponsored times and venues.  The TV networks wouldn't have refused to air a debate just because it wasn't an official DNC event.

[NeederNodder]

Props to Brazile. Statements like this from an "establishment" figure shows a change in tone for the party.

[Chancellor Tanterterg]

This is beyond pathetic coming from Brazile.  Didn't she get fired for leaking debate questions to Hillary?

[MASHED POTATOES. VOTE!]

Speaking of "rigged primary". While I have no doubt the DNC was partial in favor of Clinton in a definitively improper way, I still don't think Sanders would've won the nomination. And I'm saying this as Sanders supporter.

[Dr Oz Lost Party!]

Ok, Donna.

[Doimper]

Props to Brazile. Statements like this from an "establishment" figure shows a change in tone for the party.

She's trying to boost her book sales, dude

[publicunofficial]

Props to Brazile. Statements like this from an "establishment" figure shows a change in tone for the party.

She's trying to boost her book sales, dude

I encourage all Dem hacks to turn on each other for their own gain.

[publicunofficial]

Also gotta love the transformation of "The primary wasn't rigged, get over it" to "The primary was rigged, but still get over it" from my least favorite posters here.

[Grumpier Than Uncle Joe]

Is anyone surprised at the assertion the Clintons tried to rig the primary?  I mean c'mon, successful or not they put their best foot forward I'm sure.