I wonder whether the pundits have realized yet the quandary in which Hillary Clinton finds herself. More public exposure doesn’t help her for any number of reasons not the least of which is that she’s thoroughly unpleasant. Just recently sending surrogates out hasn’t had the desired effect because her surrogates are unpleasant, too.
You don’t find Blumenthal, Brock and Albright to be little cuddly bears as they besmirch everyone in sight??
One question that is my mind listening to pundits talk about Hillary’s advantage with non-whites was the number of Democrats I know that believed the Clintons played the race-card in South Carolina eight years ago and did not forgive them (him) for it. I suspect that this time they will vote for Hillary unless the Republicans nominate someone like Kasich. These people are white though, and I wonder how this plays out with the black electorate.
IOW, what is the black turnout for Hillary going to look like? She might win their relative support, but are they going to turn-out in the primaries, or more importantly, the general election for her? Can Obama effectively campaign for her, or will he?
1) Hillary should stop giving speeches. She’s terrible at it. I can’t listen to her, and I support her.
2) In lieu of speeches, capitalize on what everyone who knows HRC personally will tell you: that one-on-one or in small groups she really connects. They should stop speaking and start doing panel. HRC, no moderator, six regular voters, and someone Tase Hillary every time she goes to boilerplate. Her campaign needs to embrace the possibility of the unexpected, not shy away from it.
3) She should add up all the speaking fees she ever earned from Wall Street, and write a check for the total to children’s charity. If you want redemption, you start by admitting your sin, you atone, and you move forward. The gesture would be powerful. And the Clintons can afford it.
4) Stop attacking Bernie, start attacking Trump and Cruz. Tell people publicly that that’s what you’re doing and stick with it, and insist your proxies do the same. Trump, bless his psychopath heart, will respond crudely and that will elevate Hillary’s visibility and highlight her toughness.
5) Talk to white working class voters. In 2012 white people cast 72% of votes. 1% of the white vote equals 4% of the Latino vote. She’s not getting more out of the black vote – they went all-in last time, there’s no more water in that well. Energize the Latino vote by attacking Trump, but stop ignoring the white working class. Yes, there is a strong strain of racism and nativism there, but there’s a stronger desire to knock the billionaire class down a peg.
6) Stop obsessing over Muslims, they don’t have a lot of votes. And it will read to Latinos and blacks as a shift of priorities, as though they are being pushed further down the totem pole. And if there’s a terrorist attack of significance it will bite Hillary hard in the ass and drive voters to Trump.
7) Accept any offer of a debate,and hope the emphasis starts to widen out to include more of the Commander in Chief issues.
8) In summary: Stop speaking, start talking, ignore Bernie, attack Trump, go for the white working class vote.
In her interview with George Stephanopoulos last Sunday she really sounded as though she were suffering from dementia.
and it’s something over which she has no control.
Dave:
She’s cautious and programmed. She needs to accept risk because risk = authenticity. Her disciplined messaging comes off as phony pap, especially to younger people. She’s still fighting not to lose and she needs to accept risk or she will lose. Look at the people doing well: Trump and Sanders. They both take risks. Even Kasich takes risks, refusing to play anyone else’s game. Rubio does not risk, and Christie beat him to death in public. Bush does not take risks and he’s paying people’s annual salaries for every vote he gets. The voters decidedly do not want safe, they want authentic, and they want change.
I personally know people who’ve worked for her (Secret Service security details, etc.) and they do not have a good word to say.
You bring up an insight that I think is too infrequently acknowledged. During the modern period we have tended to elect risk-takers to the presidency. Maybe earlier, too, but I don’t have the same understanding of the dynamics of that earlier period.
During the early years of the George W. Bush presidency I frequently noted that I was completely unable to identify with his notions of risk and reward. He didn’t see the risks where I saw many and saw great rewards where I saw none.
Barack Obama is frequently portrayed as an avoider of risks but I don’t think that’s correct. I think he takes plenty of risks. I think a better evaluation would be that I am completely unable to identify with his notions of risk and reward.
In her interview with George Stephanopoulos last Sunday she really sounded as though she were suffering from dementia.
&
She’s cautious and programmed.
Hillary’s own people were talking about the need to repeat things to her over & over again because her memory was flagging back when she was SecState. She’s programmed because it’s the only way she’s going to be able to function day in and day out. She’s clearly getting old fast, in ways that Sanders and Trump, for example, aren’t. She sure as Hell isn’t coming across as energetic as Ronald Reagan did on 1980.
But she’s a brand, and too many people depend on the brand for a living to let her chance at the Presidency slip away, regardless of whether or not she’s all there. We’ve seen it before, from Reagan’s second term to Thurmond’s last 15 or 20 years in the Senate. I seem to recall the Democrat’s favorite
Klansmanpork-barreler, Robert Byrd, seeming rather senile in his last few years. Harry Reid hasn’t been all there in recent years either. Staffers do the work and role out The Great Personage at public events as needed. Hell, it’s a tradition on the Supreme Court!So the question becomes, if Hillary does get elected, who will really be running things? I can’t imagine it will be Bill, as he’s too busy looking for underage sex slaves and porn starlets without Charlie Sheen
AIDScooties to bother with doing the job. Not to mention he’s old and frail, too. The old Bill ain’t the Bill of old.So will it be Huma? One of Hillary’s ball-less male hangers-on?
Doesn’t really matter though, does it? It’ll be the same crap of fucking over everyone that isn’t a donor and invading the world/inviting the world if Hillary is all there or not.
I think a better evaluation would be that I am completely unable to identify with his notions of risk and reward.
I don’t see what’s so hard to understand. It’s the same as Wall Street’s credo: Rewards are privatized, risks are socialized. What could be simpler?
Dave:
You’re talking about reality. Sorry, “reality.” Her problem right now is perception. What she does if she gets into office is her problem (well, ours), but first she needs to convince people she means what she says, that she is a real person, not an older, shriller Marcobot.
You know what I use to win over audiences of teenagers looking up at a bald old dude? Early in my presentation I show them a shot of me as a teenager with my family where I’m surreptitiously giving the middle finger. It’s not me saying, “I’m like you,” it’s me saying, “I’m not a teacher. I’m not part of ‘them.'” The kids can feel their teachers tensing up and they know I’m not a phony. After that, it’s easy.
Nothing works like honesty and as the saying kind of goes, if you can fake that. . .
Jean Giraudoux.
An important point. And it’s not just her brand. It’s the Clinton brand, what’s left of the DLC’s, and, possibly, the whole Democratic Party’s.
IMO those juicy speaking fees are pre-payments to President Hillary. No president Hillary—no more juicy speaking fees.
Michael is probably right about what Hillary should be doing instead of what she’s actually doing. But the problem is that attempts to remake her image are difficult because so many people already made up her mind about her. That’s a thin reed in an election that will probably be about turnout.
In other words, Hillary needs to become better at faking authenticity.