Clinton builds a different campaign for 2016. Will she be different, too?

[n2doc]

No one can say what kind of candidate Hillary Rodham Clinton will be once she starts actively campaigning later this year. Last summer’s book tour and later public appearances highlighted the degree to which she is both rusty as a candidate and still grappling with the message for a 2016 campaign.

There are clear indications, however, that she is determined to put together a campaign organization that is markedly different from the one she had in 2008, designed to avoid both the tactical and strategic mistakes that contributed to her undoing against Barack Obama and the debilitating infighting that plagued the inner circle of what became for a time a dysfunctional campaign.

The upper most tier of Clinton’s new team speaks to the changes between 2008 and a 2016 campaign. In John Podesta, designated as the likely chairman, Clinton has something she lacked eight years ago. Podesta is someone who can speak to her almost as a peer. He should be able to offer unvarnished and critical counsel from the perspective of someone who has been White House chief of staff in her husband’s administration and a now a top adviser to Obama. In contrast to many of the people in the upper ranks of the 2008 campaign, Podesta likely will not be timid about speaking frankly to her.

Beyond quiet advice to the candidate, there is an even more important role that Podesta could play in a Clinton 2016 campaign. Because of his stature, personality and long-standing relationship with the Clintons, he can speak authoritatively for the candidate, internally and externally. He brings order — to the extent that anyone can — to an operation that otherwise could be plagued by freelancing among the Clintons’ vast and extended network. He has the opportunity to draw clearer lines of authority and enforce the rules.

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http://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/clinton-builds-a-different-campaign-for-2016-will-she-be-different-too/2015/02/07/280e5aac-aee7-11e4-ad71-7b9eba0f87d6_story.html

[yeoman6987]

1. I am sure she learned some lessons from 2008

I think it will make her a better candidate. President? No definite answer to that.

[djean111]

2. No, she is just interested in "acting" differently.

She will still be a Third-Wayer.

[antigop]

3. Clinton Consults to Define Economic Pitch

http://www.wsj.com/articles/clinton-consults-experts-to-define-economic-pitch-1422837490

Lineup of Experts and Topics Discussed Offer Hints About a Focus on the Middle Class in a Possible Presidential Campaign

Hillary Clinton has been consulting with an array of economists and academics—including liberal Joseph Stiglitz, former Fed chairman Paul Volcker and new faces outside the traditional orbit of Democratic policy experts—as she prepares for a likely presidential campaign that would make sluggish wage growth and middle-class prosperity a central focus.

One of Mrs. Clinton’s broader goals is to develop ways to address economic anxiety without sounding like a combative populist or demonizing high-income groups, said a person familiar with her thinking. It isn’t clear whether that particular question has come up in the meetings she has been having with various policy experts.

She has been using the meetings to prepare herself for a possible campaign, ground herself in the issues and tease out fresh approaches to stubborn domestic and foreign policy problems, people familiar with the matter said.

As the former secretary of state keeps a low public profile ahead of announcing her near-certain candidacy, the meetings offer clues to which issues she believes merit attention and whose advice she values. Many, but not all, participants served in Bill Clinton ’s administration; others are distinguished primarily by expertise in subjects that are certain to be front-and-center in the 2016 presidential race.

The article does not mention labor leaders being consulted.

[djean111]

4. So, basically, no point in listening to a word she is told to say. Thanks!

[merrily]

12. The illusion of authenticity is just as good as authenticity, if not better.

Ah well, the electability veil seems to be dropping rapidly on DU. It's becoming more and more apparent some just really want Third Wayers and only Third Wayers in office, so maybe that's a step toward honesty, anyway.

Grateful for small favors.

[merrily]

13. Er....

One of Mrs. Clinton’s broader goals is to develop ways to address economic anxiety without sounding like a combative populist or demonizing high-income groups, said a person familiar with her thinking.

Notice, something is said about populists that is pejorative, but the only thing said about high income groups is about not being mean to them. That is not a typical description of a Scylla and Charybdis dilemma. It isn't combative populist, on the one hand, for example, versus high income groups taking umbrage too readily. No, its don't seem aggressive to the rich and, on the other hand, don't demonize the poor dears, either.


Is this the Nicholas's framing?

And what is the big deal about "addressing" economic "anxiety?"

We don't have only economic anxiety. We have extraordinary imbalance, not entirely unrelated to things that occurred during President Clinton;s administration (NAFTA, "ending welfare as we know it," repeal of Glass Steagall).

Come up with good, fair programs and justify them without being combative or demonizing any group.. Or is this all about just wanting to sound good? And how Hillary can sound good is what it's about, why should anyone care?

The way this story is written, more is concealed than revealed. All I really get is that the group is stacked with Third Way types. And then, this:

“One major focus of the meeting was the miserable recent performance of wages in general and middle-class wages in particular, and what if anything the government can do about that,” said Mr. Blinder.

If anything? Really, Mr. Blinder? What if anything the government can do about wages? (Alan Blinder, a Princeton professor and former Fed vice chairman and economics adviser to Pres. Clinton.)

Sigh. Why do we even bother?

[RBInMaine]

6. "Third wayer, third wayer, third wayer,..." bla bla bla....yawn....snoooooooooooooze....."

[djean111]

8. That, of course, is just your personal take on it. Others of us do not - will not- share

your opinion or change our minds about it. Not trying to convince you.
I do think Hillary would be proud to be known as a Third Wayer.

[merrily]

14. Yep. Truth can be numbing. Especially when it's undeniable.

[blkmusclmachine]

5. Queen Blue Dog, Third Way acolyte, "New Dem," would-be Triangulator In Chief, to the right of Obama,

etc.
She is nothing we want, or need.

[RBInMaine]

7. Obama was a good campaigner but is a MEDIOCRE LEADER. That's just the fact. He campaigned as a

transformational figure and has led as a transactional guy with little emotion and fight, has led his party to getting the shit kicked out of it in two mid term elections, and virtually squandered the huge mandates he had. So please, much as I like Obama, and I do, he will go down as MEDIOCRE when he could have been GREAT.

Hillary will be a STRONG LEADER, and THAT is what we need and what we have LACKED.

Your "third way"meme is old as the crust on Rush Limbaugh's underwear.

[AtomicKitten]

10. No, that's your opinion and not a fact.

Hillary's Nightmare? A Democratic Party That Realizes Its Soul Lies With Elizabeth Warren.

http://www.newrepublic.com/article/115509/elizabeth-warren-hillary-clintons-nightmare

[merrily]

15. That is disgusting.

[davidpdx]

9. Nope she won't

Her campaign maybe better, but she will be the same candidate.

[HappyMe]

11. No she won't be different.

Her campaign may talk a good game, but that's about it.

[hedgehog]

16. This is a real turn-off right here:

A former Obama campaign aide recalls Clintonites planting stories in foreign newspapers, then watching them enter the domestic bloodstream through outlets like The Drudge Report. This appears to be how Obama’s dubious connection to former Weatherman terrorist Bill Ayers first gained widespread attention. “They were the kings of bank-shot press attention,” says the aide. “They were pitching stories domestic outlets would not cover . . . because the information they were peddling was so toxic.”

Other New Yorkers may recall Mario Cuomo's last minute decision not to run back in 1992. I've always thought he was protecting his family from the kind of attacks Geraldine Ferraro faced over her husband's finances.