Three things the Clinton campaign needs to do now (please, just in case you win the nomination)

[Attorney in Texas]

Last edited Thu Feb 4, 2016, 03:43 PM - Edit history (1)

I hope Sanders wins the nomination and spares us from pitting a status quo establishment Democrat against a Republican who promises change (that match up looks horrible for us Democrats). If Clinton can stop the hemorrhaging and use her cache of un-democratically allotted super-delegates to win the nomination that is so famously "inevitably" hers, then she needs to be ready for a general election. Sanders' campaign has been flawless (whether you are in Clinton's camp or Sanders', we should all agree that his campaign is very well run), but Clinton's campaign seems hellbent on snatching defeat from the jaws of victory.

Here is what the Clinton campaign needs to do to get back on track (none of us wants a wounded general election candidate whose weakness opens a door for a radical right-wing presidency, and -- on this point at least -- supporters of Sanders and Clinton are united):

1. Stop the bleeding on the lack of trustworthiness.

Clinton's most vulnerable weakest is her history of self-aggrandizement and making up implausible excuses for her own errors (don't make me list them). This has cost her dearly in the eyes of young Democrats and Independents of all demographics and potential cross-over Republicans. Any Democrat needs strong and enthusiastic support from young Democrats, Independents, and cross-over Republicans, and Clinton has never polled strongly among these groups, and her campaign seems calculated to widen this trust gap.

Clinton needs to campaign as who she is, not as who she thinks she needs to pretend to be in order to compete for Sanders' supporters. When Clinton pretends to be the "progressive" choice between herself and Sanders, she sounds unauthentic and it gives anyone who has been paying any attention to the campaign the clear impression that Clinton assumes we are idiots. If this were a fight between Jim Webb and Clinton, she gets to wear the progressive mantle, but in a contest with Sanders, Clinton magnifies her problematic lack of authenticity and trustworthiness by pretending we primary voters cannot figure out for ourselves who is -- by far -- the progressive choice.

On September 10 in Columbus, Ohio, Clinton accepted the role of centrist moderate, and she only further damages her wounded credibility by attempting to crawfish back from that (rare) candid admission.

2. Begin the general election campaign on the issues now.

If you google "political triangulation," then you had better be prepared to read a lot about the Clintons. They own political triangulation. It is not a tactic that I'm fond of, but it is a real thing that has served some candidates well over the decades, and no one does it better than the Clintons. We all know that Clinton is going to pivot rightward if she can fix her campaign and pull off the nomination. Clinton needs to make her general election case now. If the Clinton campaign truly believes Sanders is too liberal and progressive to win the nomination, then they shouldn't be trying to position Clinton to his left.

On foreign policy, she's a hawk. She should own it. She should be campaigning as she plans to govern (i.e., as a hawk who is well to the right of Sanders but to the left of Rubio with more experience and with better judgement than Trump or Cruz). On foreign policy, she is the American Maggie Thatcher, and while that isn't a great model for the primary, it's not a bad model for the general election (especially if the choice is between America's Thatcher versus an equally bellicose Republican without any experience or judgment to guide that hawkishness).

On domestic policy, she is status quo (basically a third Obama term). While I yearn for a president who governs more like 2009 Obama rather than 2011-2015 Obama, there are Democrats and Independents and potential cross-over Republicans who do not want a more progressive America and who are more scared that we will actually tip backward than hopeful that we can push forward. {{{Spoiler alert: Clinton's general election campaign theme will be about incremental "fixes" to the current system plus loud public pronouncements on a few issues like gun control and immigration where polling indicates her view is more widely accepted than the Republican view}}}. She should change her stump speech to begin the process of touting her general election domestic agenda now, and she should begin the process of contrasting her domestic agenda from the Rubio-Trump-Cruz agenda (and not worry about contrasting her domestic agenda to Sanders').

3. Stop thinking of Sanders as a rival and see that he is an opportunity.

The whining that Sanders is running a negative campaign is silly (and it exacerbates the problem of dis-ingenuousness discussed above). If you compare the tone of the Sanders campaign with the Clinton 2008 campaign against Obama, you would almost wonder if Sanders is a Clinton plant based on how gentle he has been with Clinton. If you compare the tone of the Sanders campaign with the entire Republican field, you would have to come to the conclusion that either Sanders or each and every Republican is not calibrating their campaign correctly because the contrast in tone toward the primary opponents is so striking.

A campaign that truly believes it is winning either ignores its opponent or goes out of its way to be nice to its opponent. Clinton and her surrogates betray their lack of confidence in her campaign by the manner in which they go after Sanders. It's an obvious tell.

So where does that leave Clinton? She (1) needs to show some authenticity; (2) intends to triangulate rightward for the general election; and (3) has an opponent who is going easy on her as compared to nearly every objective metric. All three circumstances point to the conclusion that she needs to stop treating Sanders as a rival and start treating Sanders as a foil to reflect that her policy positions have centrist appeal to moderates. She needs to begin her general electric campaign now by selling herself as the sane alternative to Rubio-Trump-Cruz. If Sanders calls her a moderate and a centrist, she needs to look straight into the camera and say "damn right!" She needs to own who she is because, if she doesn't, she will never have a hope as a general election candidate.

Clinton cannot win me over in the primary because I agree with Sanders on every issue where he and Clinton differ and because I think we need a Democratic change candidate like Sanders to beat the Republican change candidate in what is shaping up to be a change election of epic proportions.

Clinton can, however, mitigate the sleeplessness I feel as a result of her running a campaign that seems calculated to doom any chances she might have in the general election. I support Sanders, but I acknowledge that Clinton is the favorite and he is the underdog. I will vote for Sanders in my primary, but I expect that Clinton has a better than 50%-50% chance at winning my state and the nomination.

For the sake of the party, get your shit together because I don't want to lose the primary and then also lose the general election!

[grasswire]

1. I don't think the necessary adjustments can be made.

It would be like making a dog into a cat.

I have come to believe in the last 24 hours after reading about her father that her flaws are rooted in the pathology of that relationship, as is her evident deep, deep felt need to take punishment -- indeed, it sometimes seems as if she seeks it out through avoidable errors. She seems to be replaying what she experienced as a child when her mother was abused and took it forever, and she herself was abused by her bitterly punitive and cold father.

Just as George W's pathology affected him completely, so does Hillary's, apparently.

Why else would she relish and seem to thrive under such rejection?

She is simply too flawed to represent Democrats, and her enemies will exploit those flaws to the nth degree.

[Attorney in Texas]

4. I'm not sure either. You would think she learned at least some lessons from 2008, but I see no signs

of that.

[Fearless]

15. Agreed.

[daleanime]

2. I have to agree that this would make her a stronger candidate....

still wrong for me, but a stronger candidate. Don't think she will, or can, take the advice though.

[Attorney in Texas]

7. Clinton's campaign is all tactics and no strategy. It's a reactive fight to win the daily news cycle

with no apparent thought to the general election.

It's as if she is thinking "I got all of these super-delegates so I don't have to think strategically in my campaign."

[Armstead]

3. She is what she is -- She's not gonna change

I'd rather put up with eight years of Clinton Personal Bullshit and Centrist Corruption/Cowardice than eight years of whatever horror show the GOP comes up with.

But it will be with no illusions. She will perpetuate a rotten status quo, and a Democratic Party that has lost its moral compass. The best I will hope for is that the counter energy Sanders represents will continue and at some point supercede the stale complacency that the Democratic Establishment has come to represent.

[grasswire]

11. it's not just that

If she were to be elected, the constant attacks on her would make Obama's presidency seem like a rosy paradise in modern America. The GOP hated Obama but had little scandal to work with there. With Hillary, we will see hell in our own time. There will be no peace in the land. No peace, and no progress.

Plus the fact that she will have few coattails as people hold their noses for her or simply don't go to the polls. The down ticket will be bad for progressives.

She does not have the youth vote and never will. They will simply tune out.

[Vote2016]

5. kick & rec

[Attorney in Texas]

14. thanks

[JudyM]

6. Absolutely. Well stated. K&R.

[Attorney in Texas]

10. Thanks

[cali]

8. Best op I've read in ages. Just outstanding, Texas.

[Attorney in Texas]

12. Thanks!

[Matariki]

9. "Clinton needs to campaign as who she is, not as who she thinks she needs to pretend to be"

This a thousand times. I would find her much more trustworthy and simply accept her as a Centrist with some Progressive positions. She's all over the place depending on who she's talking to and seems oblivious to the fact the what she says is on record.

[Attorney in Texas]

13. Sen. Franken may need to give her a Stuart Smalley pep talk