Hillary Clinton
Related: About this forumBernie-ing Out: Has Hillary Extinguished Her Primary Opponent? (Hillary Group)
In the last few weeks Hillary Clinton has seen her campaign buoyed by a very strong debate performance and a Benghazi committee hearing where she clearly got the better of her political tormentors. She quickly reaped the benefits of those political victories as two minor candidates, James Webb and Lincoln Chafee have dropped out of the race for the Democratic nomination, and one potentially strong candidate, Vice President Joseph Biden, opted not to run. Recent polls have reflected this as Ms. Clinton has widened her lead over Bernie Sanders, the leading challenger for the nomination.
Mr. Sanders, who for much of the late summer and early fall, appeared to be doing everything right, including raising substantial funds, and becoming a potential threat to Ms. Clinton, has been the loser in all these developments. Despite a good debate performance where he, not Ms. Clinton, got the line of the night, Mr. Sanders has seen his chances of winning decline and has, overall, received less media attention and generated less buzz over the last few weeks.
As a response to this, Mr. Sanders has done two significant things. He has begun to attack Ms. Clinton more directly, rather than just implicitly lumping her in with the corporate Democrats of whom he has been critical throughout his campaign. Second, he has hired a pollster. Neither of these things should be altogether surprising in a presidential campaign, but Mr. Sanders had told us that his campaign was going to be different....
The race is not over, and there are still scenarios where Mr. Sanders could catch up to the frontrunner, but these scenarios are much less plausible than they were even a month ago. Summer of 2015 was a very good time for Mr. Sanders and a very stressful one for Ms. Clintons campaign. However, it now appears that Ms. Clinton survived that summer of Sanders and has demonstrated her considerable resilience. It is also becoming clear that Mr. Sanders squandered his run of good fortune in the summer, making the mistake of thinking that it would last. When fortunes turned, Mr. Sanders inability to build a genuine well planned out presidential campaign, rather than an exciting, but often unfocused movement complete with large crowds at rallies and an active social media presence, caught up with him....
http://observer.com/2015/10/bernie-ing-out-has-hillary-extinguished-her-primary-opponent/#.VjFVDprWGsU.twitter via Observer
BooScout
(10,406 posts)....never take anything for granted. I won't rest easy until the GE of 2016 is done and dusted.
DeepModem Mom
(38,402 posts)workinclasszero
(28,270 posts)livetohike
(22,169 posts)the momentum going 😊.
Historic NY
(37,460 posts)Cha
(298,021 posts)a great VP out of one side of their mouth and the other side they're going to run over her with a mack truck if she dares bring up bernies's not perfect?
HAHA.. igits.
MADem
(135,425 posts)Sanders has lost the war--it's just that his warriors on the battlefield haven't been told yet that it's all over but the shouting.
Sanders was on Wolf Blitzer tonight, and he sounded angry, exasperated, tired and querelous. Not Presidential. I think he's on the downhill slide. So much for the "revolution" -- a "revolution with internal polling? Attacking your opponent? I thought that's what his SUPPORTERS were supposed to do. Mmmmkay:
It appears that Mr. Sanders has learned a key lesson of presidential politics-claiming you will run an unconventional campaign without a polished message, sophisticated targeting and the like is a smart move, but actually doing that is usually a mistake. Nobody understood that better than President Obama who in 2008 ran a modern campaign complete with sophisticated polling and hardball politics, while managing to convince a substantial chunk of the electorate that his was a genuinely different kind of campaign.
For Mr. Sanders, the task will be more difficult. To become truly competitive, Mr. Sanders will have to do many of the things that campaigns typically do, but that at first he eschewed.
This includes strategies like using political professionals to strengthen his message and figure out in more specific terms with whom it resonates best, but it also includes campaign tactics that may seem less distasteful to his base voters who are attracted to him precisely because he is a political outsider and an unconventional candidate. For example, it would be wise for him to begin investing in a larger field campaign, not just in Iowa and New Hampshire, but in South Carolina and Nevada as well because those are the states where Ms. Clinton will try to end Senator Sanders campaign.
http://observer.com/2015/10/bernie-ing-out-has-hillary-extinguished-her-primary-opponent/
Cha
(298,021 posts)a great VP out of one side of their mouth and the other side they're going to run over her with a mack truck if she dares bring up bernies's not perfect?
http://www.democraticunderground.com/?com=view_post&forum=1107&pid=24047
Tarheel_Dem
(31,257 posts)GusBob
(7,286 posts)Maybe before the debate, that's what I read. This could be a watershed moment for the campaign. Depends on how he plays it, and how the press covers it
MADem
(135,425 posts)Signs suggest the latter. There's entirely too much hectoring and negativity in that end of the corral. It's getting old.
Walk away
(9,494 posts)That should be on a tee-shirt!
Walk away
(9,494 posts)GusBob
(7,286 posts)"Sanders defends socialism"
"Bernie promises a socialist agenda"
You get the idea.
It could be ugly, again it's how he handles it. I guess the Senator is reluctant to even broach the subject
William769
(55,150 posts)okasha
(11,573 posts)Bernie is the boy you date because revolution is romantic.
Hillary is the girl you marry because she's scary smart, funny, compassionate, and competent.
Cha
(298,021 posts)appreciate it because it wasn't presto instant magic unicorn.
We actually have a process to go through.. and Hillary is the one who will further the progress that's been accomplished. Not berniebros.
Mahalo okasha~