It’s early days yet, but Hillary Clinton is already running what looks like the classic campaign of a loser — in contrast to those once run by her husband — in two different and critical ways. Bill’s campaigns resembled those waged by his fellow winners — Carter, Reagan, Bush 43 and Obama. Hillary’s recall those of what we can call the loser group — Al Gore, John Kerry, John McCain, and Mitt Romney.

One thing the winners had in common is that they headed teams of fanatically loyal home-grown advisors who understood, knew, and loved them, and stayed loyal to them when things became thorny — as things quickly did in each case. No one knew Pat Caddell, James Carville, Karl Rove or David Axelrod before they elected a president.