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Yesterday I was at a brunch with a number of women, most of whom, I think, were former Hillary Clinton supporters in the primary.  The talk turned to what went wrong, and it seemed to me to be very much a primer for Business 101.  Although the subject was politics it was also really about business, the business of getting selected as nominee of your party, then elected president.  The theme of the discussion could have been “What Not To Do In Your Business or How You Should Have Revised Your Plan On the Fly As Mistakes Became Evident.“  Lessons from the Hillary Campaign, a short list; a complete list would stretch ad infinitum:

• Don’t Put Someone In Charge Who Has Zero Experience In The Field ( Patty Solis Doyle as campaign manager)
• Don’t Believe Your Own Press Clippings and Get Overconfident, ( Sense of Entitlement, Underestimating Opponents, ie. Barrack Obama)
• Don’t Ever Run Out Of Money, The Ultimate Mistake ( Someone had to tell Clinton they’d blown all the money by Iowa, the first primary???  Track your money and guard every penny.  Whole auto companies have been saved by counting their green backs one by one on a desk each night.)
• Don’t Buy Snow Shovels When There’s No Snow In The Forecast, Hire A Helicopter, Or Order Sandwich Platters With Your Last Dime ( Part of the Don’t Ever Run Out of Money rule…. Also part of the zero experience syndrome.)
• Don’t Let A Consultant Run Your Business Or Your Campaign ( He goes back to a secure job and collects a paycheck from you whether your product explodes in your face or not.  You want someone with “skin in the game”, ie. you lose, he hurts as well.)
• Don’t Think A Man ( Bill Clinton or Mark Penn) Knows More Because He’s A Man ( This was your campaign, if mistakes were to be made they should at least have been your mistakes, made from your gut.)
• Use Common Sense, Don’t Delegate It ( When Mark Penn’s big game plan was for Hillary to be accepted as Commander in Chief, instead of making an all out play for women; when the first poll came in showing she already was viewed as an acceptable commander in chief, she needed to pivot that sucker fast and go after those she finally acknowledged at the end, her only truly reliable block, women voters.
• Learn to Count ( Did Mark Penn really not understand proportional voting and think it would all be wrapped up by California?  And he was paid or is still owed $7 million for this advice?  Are you kidding?)
• When You Identify Your Weakness, Don’t Avoid It, Try To Fix It ( Caucuses)
• Don’t Try To Be “The Best Little Girl In The Class When You Lose“, Possibly expecting payback ( You may get pay back but it probably won’t be the kind you were expecting.  Ask Sen. Lieberman who has already been taken to the woodshed for his opposition and may lose his committee chair.)
• Don’t Seriously Tick Off Your Most Ardent Supporters ( See Lynnette Long’s blog, http://www.lynettelong.com/my_weblog/2008/11/parity-in-the-c.html.)
• Stand for Principle Over Expediency ( There were many lessons to be learned from your run.  Every supporter you had will have to decide if they agree with Lynette Long’s blog or not.  If they do, it doesn’t bode well for your future.  And that’s no way to run a business or a campaign either.)

(Footnote- February 3, 2009.  Well, I’m a big Hillary fan and devoted a lot of time and energy to try to get her elected.  I think I was in a very disappointed mood when I wrote this.  And Lynette Long may have been also, when she wrote her blog. Hillary did get pay back by going over to the Obama side and displaying loyalty.  She was appointed Secretary of State, and, in these early days, it looks like she is going to make that a more energetic and principled department.  We wish her… and us… the best.)

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