Hillary should take a page from David Brooks column

[question everything]

http://www.nytimes.com/2016/02/09/opinion/i-miss-barack-obama.html

It is praising Obama (and I think it was posted on DU someplace)

But here are the important parts:

Obama’s basic approach is to promote his values as much as he can within the limits of the situation. Bernie Sanders, by contrast, has been so blinded by his values that the reality of the situation does not seem to penetrate his mind.

Take health care. Passing Obamacare was a mighty lift that led to two gigantic midterm election defeats. As Megan McArdle pointed out in her Bloomberg View column, Obamacare took coverage away from only a small minority of Americans. Sanderscare would take employer coverage away from tens of millions of satisfied customers, destroy the health insurance business and levy massive new tax hikes. This is epic social disruption.

To think you could pass Sanderscare through a polarized Washington and in a country deeply suspicious of government is to live in intellectual fairyland. President Obama may have been too cautious, especially in the Middle East, but at least he’s able to grasp the reality of the situation.

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Hillary should hammer these facts in her appearances.

[Hortensis]

1. Brooks is a mainstream conservative player

and this is an historic election year. It's a hit piece on Hillary, pretending to class her with that lineup of extremist billionaires' tools on the right. "Apres Obama, le deluge!"

More deluge for them, all right.

[question everything]

2. Of course he is.

But I think that he described the problem with "Sanderscare" succinctly and should be used.

(Perhaps it has been and I did not pay attention)

[Hortensis]

6. Except for the part about destroying

insurance companies. Insurance as a delivery system for healthcare is basically obsolete, and an important next step for any adminstration will be downgrading them officially to what they are -- paper-processing/billing functions, along with how much we will pay for that. But, yes.

[Dawson Leery]

3. k/r

Bernie will be in effect, stealing good coverage from those who need it.

[BlueCaliDem]

4. President Obama is a pragmatic Progressive - like Hillary. Sanders is a staunch ideologue.

Hillary has been making the point you've pointed out repeatedly in her campaign speeches (I know what can get done; campaign in poetry, govern in prose, I'm a Progressive who gets things done, etc), but Sanders supporters aren't listening. Instead, they translate this into: "she's the candidate that can't!"

They've already bought into the "Hillary-is-dishonest" theme that Republicans have spent tens of millions of dollars propagandizing since 1992 to the American electorate. Unfortunately, level-headed Liberals have bought it, hook, line, and sinker, too.

Luckily - and what can save this country and President Obama's legacy - minorities like African and Latino Americans don't listen to mainstream news. They listen to their Black and Latino community leaders, to their ministers, to their families, and to each other on their blogs. In essence, and in my honest opinion, they're more level-headed than Whites (not knocking White people! They're just less distrustful of repeated memes that distort their views).

[mgmaggiemg]

5. agree