CAMPAIGN MEMO: Hillary Clinton going all out to win in South Carolina

CAMPAIGN MEMO: Hillary Clinton going all out to win South Carolina...


Thu Jan 24 2008 11:22:05 ET
CAMPAIGN MEMO: Hillary Clinton going all out to win in South Carolina
To: Interested Parties
Fr: Joe Erwin, Obama supporter, Former South Carolina Democratic Party Chair

There’s an old South Carolina saying that goes like this – some people would rather climb a tree to tell a fib than stand on the ground and tell the truth. The truth is Hillary Clinton’s campaign is pulling out all the stops to win in South Carolina. And it includes saying and doing just about anything to win.

Judge the Clinton campaign on their actions rather than their spin:

· On Monday, Clinton’s own state chairman, Don Fowler, publicly stated that despite negative ratings in the 40s, Hillary Clinton would win South Carolina. [SC ETV, January 21, 2008] The day before, Fowler said “I’m confident with the kind of campaign we’re running, next week we’re going to win.” [AP, January 20, 2008]

· The Clinton campaign has made a long-term investment in South Carolina starting 7 months ago, opening offices across the state and hiring over 100 staff, in addition to importing scores of staff from Iowa and Nevada.

· Just before Christmas, the Clinton campaign brought in Steve Bouchard, nationally renowned political and field expert, to take over the South Carolina operation.

· The Clinton campaign has spent well over $135,000 on consultants like State Senator Darrell Jackson specifically to compete for votes in South Carolina’s African-American community.

· Hillary Clinton has the support of former Governor Richard Riley, former Congressman Butler Derrick and dozens of state legislators and local officials. They are pulling out all the stops to win.

· In the last week, the Clinton campaign nearly doubled their TV buy, expanding from spending about $236,000 on a mostly cable TV buy to more than $414,000 on wall-to-wall broadcast TV in every major market in the state.

· On Wednesday, the Clinton campaign launched a dishonest statewide radio ad falsely attacking Barack Obama. It’s the first negative ad aired by any Democratic presidential campaign in South Carolina this year.

· South Carolina women are getting calls from the National Organization for Women (NOW) deliberately distorting Barack Obama’s record on women’s issues, just as the Clinton campaign and their allies did in Iowa, New Hampshire and Nevada.

· At stop after stop, Bill Clinton repeated attacks on the Obama health care plan, remarks on Ronald Reagan and record of opposing the war in Iraq that experts like Robert Reich and media outlets like factcheck.org and the Washington Post have shown to be false.

· Despite the fact that 59% of the expected turnout in the January 26 Democratic primary will be women, the Clinton campaign somehow argues that Hillary Clinton cannot win in South Carolina because of her gender.

· Public polling just a few weeks ago showed Hillary Clinton with a strong lead in South Carolina. (Clinton led Obama 45-31% in AP/Pew Research poll, November 7-25; Led 45-21% in ARG poll November 26-29; and led 42-34% in a CNN poll, December 9-12.) Now that her lead has evaporated, the Clinton campaign claims she can’t win here.

· Now, the Clinton campaign will bring Hillary herself back to the state earlier than they previously planned, with a major economic policy address scheduled today in Greenville and a massive rally planned for Friday night in Charleston with both Bill and Hillary Clinton.

END