Ready on Day One?

Hillary Clinton is fond of proclaiming that she, unlike Barack Obama, is the candidate in the race for the Democratic nomination who'll "be ready on day one" to resume assume duties in the White House. It has become her slogan in this race, meant to assure voters that Clinton's résumé is more impressive than her challenger's. The charge of inexperience--which was also bandied about as strategy to beat Obama by those pasty old Republicans at this weekend's "Winter Retreat" in Southern California--relies on a fearful audience. With scant evidence of rookie mistakes or bad judgment, the case is made by Clinton and McCain that Obama's future decisions will probably be bad ones because he hasn't served enough time in the Senate.

And if you look at the national campaign Obama has run, there's quite a strong argument to be made that of the two Democrats running, he is the smarter, more effective manager. Remember, we have been assured by the Clinton campaign that even though Hillary currently trails in the popular vote, trails in states won, and trails in delegates earned, there's absolutely nothing to worry about. This was all part of the grand plan laid out back on day one. Hillary would go after "significant" states like California, New York, Texas and Ohio. Her vast electoral experience provided her with unique insight as to how to win the nomination. Voting was really just a formality. She was inevitable.


Well, from today's Washington Post comes word that there may be some strategic vision problems:

Supporters of Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton are worried that convoluted delegate rules in Texas could water down the impact of strong support for her among Hispanic voters there, creating a new obstacle for her in the must-win presidential primary contest.

As Hilzoy points out today, no, this is not actually a "new obstacle," rather one that the Clinton camp did not anticipate out of poor planning. More from the Post:

What Clinton aides discovered is that in certain targeted districts, such as Democratic state Sen. Juan Hinojosa's heavily Hispanic Senate district in the Rio Grande Valley, Clinton could win an overwhelming majority of votes but gain only a small edge in delegates. At the same time, a win in the more urban districts in Dallas and Houston--where Sen. Barack Obama expects to receive significant support could yield three or four times as many delegates.

In other words, that strategy of losing so much that you had to win big in Texas and Ohio seems to have hit a snag. So much for "ready on day one."