From the Times article:

“Geoff Garin is the straightest shooter,” said Senator Charles E. Schumer of New York, one of many Democratic senators Mr. Garin has advised. “He doesn’t try to shift the numbers or slant the numbers to buttress his argument.”

Seems like the exact opposite of what the Clinton camp has been doing lately.

I think the time is way best for Senator Clinton to have another personality/campaign transplant. I detested Mark Penn -- and all he stood for. I cheered when the Senator finally realized that she has to get rid of this union busting hack who represents and advocates for the worst of corporate America -- Countrywide, Blackwater, the attempts to establish free trade without protection for workers and the environment. Then, what does Clinton do? She keeps Penn close with a fig leave "demotion." It is shabby and unconscionable -- and a slap at every one who carries a union card or supports the American worker. I'll still vote for her if she gets the nod but my senator continues to disappoint me deeply.

They should have done this a long time ago. Hillary does best when she is not jabbing elbows. What she has always needed was to show her human side more than her political side since her image has always been more of a political wonk who says whatever and is unconnected rather than an engaging politician with a human side.

I bet it works in the short term. Her numbers will bounce up a little. The problem now is that the media is looking all over everything she has ever said to fill the "say anyting" image that was created after the Tuzla story. The hospital story is one example of this, and I suspect the media will look for more since the hospital story was partially true.

Most likely, Clinton loses no matter what she does. The Democratic electorate has decided competence does not matter, that a lightweight with no particular accomplishments is preferable because, well, darn, he just makes makes us feel good about ourselves. who cares if within 6 months he is going to fuck up left and right. Example, one reason we got into the Cuban missile crisis at all was that dumb bunny JFK gave Khreshchev the impression he was incompetent, and just because he got lucky later does not mean he was smart. Her only hope is that enough people sort of wake up and think, hey, that guy talks smooth but he has no substance. Then her new strategy and image makes sense. A 1 in 7 longshot.

where I work we have 40 percent women in senior positions and people from all kinds of ethnic and social backgrounds, and they are all presumed to be competent. In the US, because of AA and the need of corporate America to mollify certain aspects of the population, I have to presume any African American or woman is possibly incompetent. Certainly if you look at the rate black associates make partner, you have to assume 98 percent are second rate. and that is certainly what I have heard anecdotally, and it would accord with everything I saw in law skool.

Oh, and I read the comment Obama passed a hard bar exam. All bar exams are essentially the same, and the NY bar is hardly difficult at all.

Meanwhile, I am enjoying a nice break in Karlovy Vary, staying in the same hotel where Casino Royale was filmed. And banging an inappropriately younger woman. Oh dont squawk, she is in her mid 20s.

Geoff's a really good guy and very smart pollster and strategist. He'll do his best to help her do her best -- but he won't formulate any groundbreaking strategy that will redefine the race, partly because that's not his style, partly because there is no strategy at this point that could redefine the race.

Seems like the ego-driven surgeon is off the case and the hospice doctor is taking over.

Great! Clinton is going back to lying about her emotions and likability instead of lying about her experience and Obama . . . Okay. Clinton will still be lying about Obama . . .

McCain-Clinton '08

Not gonna happen, too late. And, remember, you need even more money to realign the message...etc. They don't have the money to do this. Finally, they already ran out of real estate, this effort will make no difference!

Hillary lost this namination in IA, she lost again in VA, then lost for the last time in WI!

Why is any pollster publicly delineating campaign strategy instead of just doing the polling to see if the campaign strategy is working? Denigrating "poll driven politics" has been a Republican talking point for decades. Even more so over the last eight years as their policies bore bitter fruit and became as wildly unpopular as they always should have been. Sending the message to voters that we're going to tell you whatever our polling tells us you want to hear isn't the way to engender trust. Bush won in 2004 by saying "you may not always agree with me but you know where I stand". "Maverick" McCain would do the same if he ran against Hillary. Contrast that with Obama's position: "We need to tell the American people not what they want to hear but what they need to hear."