Question
Is the impending Clinton/Clinton loss going to effect the way He/She is viewed historically? Especially since he was the face of the party up until the past 6 months…
In my opinion I don’t think this helps the Clinton Machine at all. There is definitely Clinton Fatigue and with a new crop of voters able to see what the Clintons look like in a campaign perhaps more people won’t cannonize this dynamic duo the way the GOP has done to the Alzheimer riddled, Iran/Contra “I don’t remember”, strapping young buck, welfare queen caller/outer, gipper aka St. Ronnie Reagan.
Thoughts?
Tags: 2008 Presidential, Hillary Clinton
I’m not saying “impending Clinton loss” anytime soon.
Even this morning the CLinton’s are trying to steal the headlines by rushing out a press release saying they are going to fight for FLA and MI delegates to be seated. It worked on NPR.
WDEL will probably bite on the story this afternoon. Even knowing that the story is not about FLA and MI – it is about stagemanagement and trying to keep Texans from thinking about this win.
“Both Senator Obama and I would make history,” the New York senator said. “But only one of us is ready on day one to be commander in chief, ready to manage our economy, and ready to defeat the Republicans. Only one of us has spent 35 years being a doer, a fighter and a champion for those who need a voice.” Quote from this morning’s AP story.
I think this is the tragic flaw in her campaign. If you accept the 35-years part then you have to accept that you are voting for BILLARY. And every time he grabs headlines this perception is reinforced with the voters.
Among independents and swing-voters there is no adoration of Billary. The couple is seen as “politicians” with all the recent failures that involves. They are just as culpable as W or HW for the current mess in America. Ralph Nader gave all those uncommitted voters, nearly a third of the registered voters these days, permission to believe that there is no difference between the parties or our leaders.
Her campaign is based on some mythical adoration of her husband, who was afterall impeached. Penn and the others who are running this campaign live in that bubble of power and echo chamber where everybody loves Bill, so this strategy makes sense to them. But it is completely out of touch with mainstream America where the Republican base hates Bill and Hill; the undeclareds see no difference between him and the other past presidents; and a fair number of Democrats are still embarassed by the Clinton’s disfunction.
Hillary is running on the Billary brand and it’s not selling well against the New and Improved Obama brand.
Yes, it’s destroying the brand. And it couldn’t happen to a nicer couple. Keep it coming, Billary. Half the country used to hate you; you’ve managed to spend about $100 million to up that to three-quarters.
Zing Al, but you are right.
Actually, they are doing the Democrat “brand” a back-handed favor. By making this election about them instead of their party, they’ve effectively severed the bonds that they had on the control mechanisms. People are sour on the Clintons, but it is not reflecting on the Democratic Party in the same fashion that people being fed up with Bush IS reflecting on the Republicans.
The real question now is–who takes over the reins of control behind the scenes? It’s looking like another centrist Al Gore-Joe Biden-type coalition, which may put them at eventual odds with Obama as the frontrunner.
The answer to Steve Newton’s question is that Obama, as the titular head of the Democratic Party, takes control. I think that’s great for the continuation and expansion of the 50-state strategy.
By contrast, it appears that ‘Billary’ is trying one last swift-boat Hail Mary. From today’s AmericaBlog:
“Clinton supporters raising “at least” $10 million for anti-Obama Swift Boat campaign
by Joe Sudbay (DC) · 2/20/2008 10:04:00 AM ET · Link
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It had to come to this. Clinton allies are raising millions in a desperate, last ditch effort to defeat Obama by ruining his image with a Swift-Boat-style 527.
ABC’s Jake Tapper reports the new group, called “The American Leadership Project,” is planning to run anti-Obama ads in Ohio — and maybe Texas and Pennsylvania, too. According to Tapper, the ads are “aimed at tarnishing” Obama. Marc Ambinder adds these details:
Allies of Hillary Clinton plan an expensive, stealth campaign to buttress her standing in the must-win states of Ohio, Texas and Pennsylvania.
They’re canvassing Clinton donors for pledges of up to $100,000 in the hope of raising at least $10M by the end of next week. The money will be placed in the account of a political committee organized under section 527 of the tax code.
Not so stealthy anymore.
You know, this campaign has, for the most part, stayed on the high road. There have been some bursts of negativity of late, but by and large, it’s been pretty clean. Looks like that is about to end.
Clinton’s supporters are absolutely obsessed with driving up Obama’s negatives. You get the sense that they cannot believe that Obama’s campaign is making them work for what they rightly deserve. Now, instead of picking out their White House office furniture, they’re forced to raise large amounts of money to tear down the Democratic front-runner. After all these years in power, the Clintons clearly have rich, rich friends who can chip in $100,000 on their behalf. To contrast, Obama’s campaign hit an unprecedented landmark today: over 500,000 contributors. Clinton’s campaign couldn’t come close to that — so she needs her wealthy friends to bail her out.
Over the past year, Obama has shown he can withstand the Clinton’s negative onslaught. But, it does make one wonder how far the Clintons and their allies are willing to push this fight. If they want to make this ugly, it’s not like she (or her husband) have got the cleanest records around. Far from it. And, I’m just talking issues, like those votes where she supported Bush on the Iraq war in October 2002 and the Iran resolution in September 2007.
Do we really want to go down the path of trying to make our candidates damaged goods should they win the nomination? Clinton and her allies says yes.”
I think he is too clean. Their efforts have fallen short so far and I don’t see that trend tapering off under any kind of 527 agenda.
I think Steve summed it up very well.
We have put Obama up there and mean to keep him.