Overarching Message Eludes Clinton Campaign - Boston Globe

[WillyT]

By Marcella Bombardieri, Globe Staff | February 3, 2008

<snip>

SAN FRANCISCO - Only 3 1/2 weeks ago, Hillary Clinton met the cheering crowd in a small gymnasium in Manchester, N.H., with a radiant smile. Jubilant at having pulled her political career from the brink of an abyss, she declared to the people of New Hampshire, "I listened to you and in the process, I found my own voice."

Since that night, Clinton has slogged from Las Vegas to Charleston, S.C., to San Diego to ask Americans to validate her bid to become the nation's first female president. Yet nowhere along the way have voters heard with true clarity that voice she said she found in New Hampshire.

With her early monopoly on the political establishment, with all her years of political experience and native intelligence, Clinton all along has been tantalizingly close to grasping her party's nomination for the presidency. To get to that gymnasium floor in Manchester, she endured half her adulthood in the harsh public limelight; a year on the campaign trail trying to light up crowds on little sleep; dark, humiliating winter days in Iowa and New Hampshire when the whole enterprise seemed near collapse.

And yet with so much on the line as 22 states go to the polls Tuesday, the passion that has gotten her through all those years in Washington, all those months on the campaign trail, has not yet come across in the form of a clear message to voters.

"She has not found the campaign theme yet," said David Gergen, a professor at Harvard's Kennedy School of Government who has advised four presidents, including Bill Clinton. "There's that old phrase, 'a certain trumpet.' You have to sound a certain trumpet to be heard."

Hillary Clinton's campaign has continued to try on - and then quickly sweep out of view - various themes and tactics, whether it was offering in-depth policy details, criticisms of her main rival Barack Obama, or attacks on President Bush.

And up on a stage, even in a sea of thousands of cheering voters, Clinton continues to seem emotionally far away. She promises to get up every day in the White House and go to work for the American people, yet in place of soaring rhetoric or quiet inspiration, her most urgent, feverish applause lines remain small-bore, even disjointed promises, like "high-speed Internet access across our country!" or "enforce the Equal Pay for Equal Work Act!"

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More: http://www.boston.com/news/nation/articles/2008/02/03/overarching_message_eludes_clinton_campaign?mode=PF

:shrug:

[TwilightGardener]

1. Yep. The usual Dem-platform laundry list. For all those who

are suspicious of Obama's lofty rhetoric, there are also those of us who aren't merely looking for our "gimme" boxes to be checked.

[FrenchieCat]

2. Bill was her silsta soulja moment. She should have put a muzzle on him

after his appearance on Charlie Rose!

[caligirl]

3. One has to wonder what stopped her from doing it,. People reveal

themselves to you if your willing to look and believe the truth they are revealing.
Our family will cast 4 votes for Obama.

[Drunken Irishman]

11. Because I think she thought it would work.

She needed to drag Obama down from being a figure of hope and clean politics and this was her way of doing it. If she could engage Obama into a fight, the aura that surrounded his campaign would inevitably falter and what would he have left? Except Obama never really got as dirty as she would have hoped and frankly, the attacks were seen as racist. I like to compare this moment with the one that involved Hillary in her campaign against Rick Lazio. If you recall, there was a moment in that tight race where Lazio abruptly went up to Clinton and began waving a paper in her face. It looked pretty bad and solidified the women's base against Lazio, who were not ready to accept Clinton's candidacy. A once close race turned for Hillary and she won by 12 points.

Now compare that to what happened with Obama and you'll see a striking similarity.

Clinton does something to anger the black population, who still were not completely sold on Obama. They rally behind him, carry him to victory and Clinton has not been able to rebound since. If she loses this election, it will be because of her husband giving her campaign the Rick Lazio moment.

[arewenotdemo]

6. You don't muzzle your biggest attack dog.

That was always gonna be his role.

[calmblueocean]

4. I don't think that's fair to Hillary.

IMO, Hillary definitely has a message.

Hillary's message has basically been, "I am what this country has been lacking -- competence." Her goal was to contrast her intelligence, attention to detail, and political experience with the past 8 years of dunderheaded idiocy. When voters felt like an adult was finally ready to take the reins of government, and give them the same sense of solidity they had during the 90s, Hillary would look like a glass of water in the proverbial desert.

Then Obama came along with his "We want change" message, which threw her off, because Obama's message is not centered around his own attributes as a candidate. It's centered around "we". And compared to that, her "I am competent" message now seems a little lackluster. It's hard to sell yourself to the voting public when your opponent is selling the voting public's optimism back to them.

But Hillary is a survivor. She will change what isn't working now until it does work. She won't do what Edwards did. She'll fight til the convention, and in the convention if she has to. Sometimes wanting it more is 9/10ths of the game. It was in 2000, when Bush and the Republicans were able to figuratively strip the football from Gore because they wanted it enough to do whatever it took to get it. I think Hillary is very similar. I know that's not really a complement, but it's not really an insult, either. It's meant as an acknowledgement that Hillary is a political warrior. Anyone who thinks she's out just doesn't know her that well.

[tishaLA]

5. but the problem with sen clinton's message--as

potentially powerful as it is after an administration in which incompetence seemed valuable--is that she has not been able to create a powerful narrative out of it. That is one of the things Edwards did effectively in 04 and one of the things Obama has done effectively this time around. Where Sen Clinton provides voters with a laundry list of things she wants to accomplish, Sen Obama provides a vision of what America can look like. That is what visionary leaders can do, it seems to me, and the policy falls in place to realize the vision.

Sen Clinton will have to solve this problem if she does win the nomination, as I suspect she might. She needs to have a compelling story to tell, not just a series of compelling policy statements.

[BootinUp]

8. I am surprised Clinton hasn't done a better job there

but I think it is because the opposition has successfully attacked them on each front they put up. The fact is, this was always going to be a tough primary for Hillary, from the IWR and because liberal activists have been attacking the Clinton legacy now for years.

[BootinUp]

7. Compare to Obama's "Hope and Change" its a lot easier to spit out

30 times an hour. lol.,

[ErnestoG]

9. Clinton's great overreaching issue: IT'S MY TURN TO BE PRESIDENT

[BootinUp]

10. Not really, for instance

there is a lot more meat than there ever was with Kerry.

Gore was the Environmentalist.

Hillary's overreaching issue is the economy and families and children.

And she has never leaned on the its my turn thing that I have seen.

[WillyT]

12. Kick !!!

:kick: