Clinton Campaign Puts Foot In Mouth, Swallows Leg Whole

The Clinton campaign has been out disparaging Obama's recent string of wins:

Bill Clinton, for instance: "the caucuses aren't good for her. They disproportionately favor upper-income voters who, who, don't really need a president but feel like they need a change."

Of course, besides being on the surface absurd (upper income voters don't need a president - huh? isn't this a democracy?), its also patently untrue. The caucuses Obama won in Iowa, he won all income brackets, not just upper income, and has also won lower income brackets in contests in Virginia, Missouri, etc. Also, the Clintons aren't exactly throwing back "wins" in the Nevada or New Mexico caucuses.

Then her chief strategist, PR wonk Mark Penn, posed the question this way: “Could we possibly have a nominee who hasn't won any of the significant states -- outside of Illinois?” Chief Strategist Mark Penn said. “That raises some serious questions about Sen. Obama.”

So now the Clinton campaign is telling states like Colorado, Missouri, Washington, Minnesota, Virginia, Maryland, Maine, Delaware, Iowa, and Connecticut that they don't matter, cos they didn't vote for her. Way to ingratiate yourself for the fall election.

Anyhow, these ludicrous arguments have even insulted and infuriated Clinton supporters like Talking Points Memo's Josh Marshall:

...good spin is clever and forward-leaning pitches of actual realities, facts. The word in the sense we use it today actually came into being in the early 90s and to a great degree around the '92 Clinton campaign, which had such mastery in its practice. But this Clinton campaign has been doing it in a weird parody mode. Not sharp 'spins' on favorable realities, but aggressive pitches of complete nonsense. So now you have Penn successively saying caucus wins don't really count, small state wins don't really count, medium state wins don't really count, states with large African-American populations don't really count, all building up to yesterday's gem [the above Penn Quote]..."

Atrios:

Like I said yesterday, all this "spin" bugs me. Not because I'm being spun, but because spin should make your candidate look good, not bad. Mark Penn's pronouncements, and others from the campaign (he's not the only one), give me that watching-an-Ari-Fleischer-press-conference feeling. It's the utter contempt for everyone not on board with the candidate, an attempt to just assume them all away.

And this isn't even broaching the "screw the voters, I'm gonna get nominated by super delegates" maneuvering currently going on.

But check Kos's "I Voted for Obama Hence I Don't Matter" post for a rundown of all of this plus the superdelegate strategizing that lies behind it.