Clinton's Long Goodbye Dooms the Ickes Gameplan:

Commentary by Amity Shlaes

Last week, Harold M. Ickes seemed like Hillary Clinton's only angel. This week, it is becoming clear that he is her undoing.

Exactly how Senator Clinton's strategist has played such an important role in her presidential campaign becomes more obvious when you scrutinize not one Harold but two: Harold M. Ickes and Harold L. Ickes, his late father.

Harold M. has led Clinton's campaign using a traditional Democratic approach to politics, in which a party functionary works like crazy for a campaign that dispenses rewards to interest groups on behalf of the candidate. That approach worked phenomenally for Harold L. in 1936, when he was serving the New Deal as Franklin D. Roosevelt's adviser and secretary of the Interior. But it turns out it's ill-suited for victory today.