It was supposed to be different this time. After the wounds of 2008, many of them self-inflicted, Hillary Rodham Clinton rebooted for 2016 with a new message, new advisers and new energy.
But two dynamics have crystallized this month, suggesting the New Hillary is hobbled by old weaknesses. Once again, worried supporters see signs of a bunker mentality in response to bad news about her email server and other controversies, and a candidate who can seem strangely blinkered to the threat posed by a lesser-known challenger.
“A lot of the people who were hired by the campaign were new to the Clintons,” said a prominent Democrat who counts both Hillary Clinton and former president Bill Clinton as friends. “I kind of assumed it would be different. But it hasn’t changed.”
That Democrat and other supporters requested anonymity in order to discuss the shortcomings of a candidate whom they still overwhelmingly support and believe can win the White House. Several supporters said that while no one is pulling the fire alarm, they see worrisome patterns emerging.
Among them: insularity, rigidity and a sense that the operation is tone-deaf to changes happening around it.
The concerns come as Clinton is weakened by forces both within and outside her control, allies outside the campaign said. And if her campaign is doing some things well – raising money and organizing in early states – Clinton has not been able to shake off basic questions about her skills as a candidate.
Her campaign has been slow off the mark in responding to the surprising surge in national support for Vermont independent Sen. Bernie Sanders, several Democrats said.
Meanwhile, the confusing saga of Clinton’s private email system took what many Democrats saw as a chilling turn last week, with more news about the FBI’s investigation into the potential mishandling of classified material on Clinton’s home computer server. Clinton is not the target of the investigation but, in the words of one Democrat, no one wants their candidate’s name in the same sentence as “FBI.”
One Democrat with past experience in presidential campaigns said Clinton and her advisers need to be risk-takers.
“They need to show her being bold and being a fighter and breaking out of this carefully constructed, opportunistic package that people think she is,” said another Democrat.
“There’s clearly emotion out there, and she’s just not going anywhere near it, and she needs to find a way to.”
Her campaign protests that they are doing just that and caution that any freak-out is vastly premature.
“We’re spending the next two weeks on pretty intensive political education” among supporters, said communications director Jennifer Palmieri. “Explain the facts but also the political context that they have to look at this through. We’ll handle it. Fight back.”
Clinton has been fiestier on the stump lately, delivering a partisan barn-burner of a speech to Iowa Democrats on Friday night. She framed the email issue as part of a sustained Republican attack on everything Clinton.
“It’s not about emails or servers,” Clinton said. “It’s about politics.”
