Allen and Parnes begin the book by giving the readers a glimpse of what they think troubled Clinton’s campaign. According to the authors, “the campaign was an unholy mess, fraught with tangled lines of authority, petty jealousies, distorted priorities, and no sense of greater purpose” (Allen and Parnes 21). It seemed like no one was taking charge, and no one knew how to make Clinton’s campaign about something more significant than her. She lacked a vision that she could communicate to her voters. Most of her campaign staff were close friends she had worked with for more than a decade, and yet they contributed very little to her campaign in terms of political knowledge and skills (Allen and Parnes 16); the political experts she hired did not know her at a personal level. In fact, people like Beneson, Palmieri, and Podesta were hired to signal to Democratic officials, donors, and party voters that she had learned to welcome new members to her team and that she was determined to replicate the approach that Barrack Obama’s campaign took to win the 2008 elections (Allen and Parnes 24). They were all throwing elbows, and it was happening even before she launched her campaign.