By BETH FOUHY
Hillary's campaign is in full desperation mode. They have gone from inevitability to playing catch up in a matter of a few months. The signs of decline are obvious.WASHINGTON (AP) - Democratic Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton replaced campaign manager Patti Solis Doyle with longtime aide Maggie Williams on Sunday, engineering a shake-up in a presidential campaign struggling to overcome rival Sen. Barack Obama's financial and political strengths.
The surprise announcement came hours after Obama's sweep of three contests Saturday and shortly before the Illinois senator won caucuses in Maine on Sunday. Determined to stem the tide, Clinton turned to a longtime confidante to manage her operations while the campaign acknowledged that she made a private visit to North Carolina this week to seek the endorsement of former rival John Edwards. Her rival Barack Obama was planning his own meeting Monday with Edwards, who confidants said was torn over which candidateto back.
The daughter of Mexican immigrants who cut her political teeth in Chicago, Solis Doyle served as Clinton's scheduler for eight years in the White House and began overseeing her political operation during her first run for Senate in 2000. But Solis Doyle's appointment as Clinton's presidential campaign manager last year surprised many Democratic operative including some in Clinton's inner circle, who believed she did not have sufficient political experience to run the operation.
Money will be crucial for a drawn-out fight for the party's nomination, an historic struggle between Clinton, who is seeking to become the first female commander in chief, and Obama, who would be the first black president. The Democratic Party's system of awarding pledged delegates proportionally and the oversized role of superdelegates, the 796 lawmakers, governors and party officials who are not bound by state votes, meant that no candidate had a commanding lead.
According to The Associated Press' latest survey, Clinton had 243 superdelegates and Obama had 156. That edge was responsible for Clinton's overall edge in the pursuit of delegates to secure the party's nomination for president. According to the AP's latest tally, Clinton has 1,125 total delegates and Obama has 1,087. A candidate must get 2,205 delegates to capture the nomination.
The delegate numbers increased the possibility of a protracted fight for the Democratic nomination, perhaps lasting through this summer's national convention in Denver.
Super Tuesday was, for all practical purposes, a draw between Obama and Hillary.
Hillary's money is drying up as Obama proves a formidable fundraiser. She has resorted to dipping into her own nest egg to the tune of $5 million in order to cover a campaign finance shortfall.
Obama has won every contest since Super Tuesday and is expecte to win most, if not all, future ones.
Making a "private" (i.e. "secret") visit to John Edwards in order to beg for his support is yet another sign of weakness on her part. She is scraping the bottom of the barrel for support here, folks.
Hillary has thrown her Latina campaign manager under the bus. So much for affirmative action.
As I have stated in the past, I don't care how Hillary loses. Whether Obama beats her in the Democratic primaries or she loses to the Republican nominee in the general election in November, I want the Clinton "dynasty" to be buried once and for all.
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