Why Hillary Could Not Persuade - Part 1

In the coming days, I will be posting a series of entries trying to explain why Hillary Clinton's candidacy failed. In other words, how is it that over the past year Hillary has gone from front-runner to failure? How is it that a candidate with the best name recognition and the biggest fundraising operation (formerly) lost?

The first reason why Hillary couldn't persuade is because she utterly mismanaged her campaign's finances. This is a problem for two reasons: (1) If someone is trying to convince a country that she is a qualified executive and capable of overseeing the trillions of dollars that the Federal government spends annually, why should we believe her in light of the following:

Nearly $100,000 went for party platters and groceries before the Iowa caucuses, even though the partying mood evaporated quickly. Rooms at the Bellagio luxury hotel in Las Vegas consumed more than $25,000; the Four Seasons, another $5,000. And top consultants collected about $5 million in January, a month of crucial expenses and tough fund-raising.
...

The firm that includes Mark Penn, Mrs. Clinton’s chief strategist and pollster, and his team collected $3.8 million for fees and expenses in January; in total, including what the campaign still owes, the firm has billed more than $10 million for consulting, direct mail and other services, an amount other Democratic strategists who are not affiliated with either campaign called stunning.

Howard Wolfson, the communications director and a senior member of the advertising team, earned nearly $267,000 in January. His total, including the campaign’s debt to him, tops $730,000. (source)

(2) In such a close race, a candidate cannot afford to waste money. Consider the example of John McCain, whose campaign budgeted its way back into the nomination:

[Rick] Davis, [John McCain's campaign manager and] a calm and efficient lobbyist who impressed everyone with his budgeting skills...

The campaign slashed many salaries, top aides worked without pay, and virtually
everyone had to fill multiple roles. Field organizers handled advance for McCain's events. National press secretary Brooke Buchanan also became McCain's on-the-road secretary, coffee fetcher and occasional baggage hauler.
In an organization that had once spent money on luxuries like a snow plow to clear the way for McCain's bus, Davis issued a mandate that the campaign would never spend more in a week than it raised. Every Friday afternoon, the finance team sorted through requests. "Ninety-five percent of people [Davis] talked to, he was telling them 'No,' " Black recalled.

The campaign stopped building its own events and trawled for invitations. "If you went to a Rotary in Manchester [N.H.], it didn't cost you anything," Davis said. "So we went to a lot of Rotary Clubs. . . . The philosophy in July, August, September and October was: Don't spend money unless you absolutely needed it."

When McCain inched up in polls in the fall, aides called from Iowa begging: "Could you just give us something?" But "every decision had to be subordinate to winning New Hampshire," Salter said.
(source)