One thing that never became clear during my Hillary reporting was where in the heck Harold Ickes fit into all this. He was supposedly the one with all the expertise on the map and the nominating process. (He did, after all, help write the rules.) He was in charge of the budget (along with Patti Solis Doyle) and so had a pretty good idea of where money was being spent and on what. His dismay over Penn's lack of knowledge of the process has been colorfully reported. So what was the problem? As a part-time consultant, did he originally have too much other stuff on his plate to pay attention to the race? Did he not have the juice to win a strategy argument against Penn? People complain that Solis Doyle lacked the expertise to run the campaign. But Ickes was there specifically to help her shoulder the burden. (His official title was originally something like assistant to the campaign manager.)
So someone please tell me, what was Ickes doing (or not) when everything started to fall apart?
--Michelle Cottle