Turning It Around

Gallery

Hillary's Big Comeback

Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton narrowly won the New Hampshire Democratic presidential primary on Jan. 8, 2008, a surprise victory for the onetime front-runner that reenergized her campaign and reshaped yet again the fight for the party's nomination.

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Clinton headquarters in Iowa was located in a nondescript office park in the East Village section of Des Moines, decorated with hand-painted signs such as "Give 'Em Hill." The days began with a meeting known as a standup in the main open area of the office. Teresa Vilmain, the campaign's state director, told the assembled throng to clap twice if they could hear her, and then someone took a turn leading the group in a cheer -- "kind of like summer camp," as one staffer put it.

In one such call-and-response, the leader shouted out a word or phrase and the crowd was supposed to follow with a loud grunt.

H (unh)

HRC (unh)

Let's Help Her Win (unh)

The Presidency (unh)

A respected operative with deep knowledge of Iowa, Vilmain was brought in months earlier to replace another director and impose order on the operation. She developed an elaborate field apparatus and built a list of 86,000 supporters rated 1 (strong) or 2 (leaning). It was a list that skewed to older women, including more than 1,000 over the age of 90. Vilmain built a model on the assumption that 160,000 voters would caucus, meaning that if they could get the bulk of their 1s and 2s out, Clinton would win.

But Vilmain expressed frustration over not getting more resources and especially time from Bill Clinton. Solis Doyle arrived to set up shop in an office built just before her arrival and worked quickly to make sure Vilmain had everything she needed. The campaign had been using Bill Clinton mainly for fundraising and was already moving to shift him to more campaigning in Iowa.

The former president was seething over what he was seeing. When a campaign fundraiser took him aside after a Philadelphia event, Clinton grew visibly agitated at what he heard. The fundraiser, Mark A. Aronchik, told Clinton that he had spent time in Iowa and that voters there did not relate to the candidate personally.

"He was really bothered by the fact that not only had he heard that from me, but he had heard it from others," Aronchik said. Clinton reassured Aronchik that the campaign planned to send a wave of surrogates.

Clinton then launched into what was becoming a common refrain in private and, eventually, in public, complaining bitterly that the media had skewed coverage of the contest. "How in the world has she been defined as removed and unemotional and detached?" he asked. "That's just wrong."