Hillary Clinton is about to make a huge mistake: Here’s what she needs to learn from Bernie Sanders

[Catherina]

Saturday, Sep 12, 2015 04:30 AM

Hillary Clinton is about to make a huge mistake: Here’s what she needs to learn from Bernie Sanders

In 2008, Clinton tried to dismiss Barack Obama while playing up her experience. She can't afford to do it again
Conor Lynch

....

This unconventional strategy is obviously working, and polls continue to look better and better for Sanders. According to the Huffington Post, he has gone from polling 4.9 percent on March 2 to 23.9 percent on September 2, while Clinton has dropped from 60.2 percent to 46.1 percent during the same period. The Clinton campaign appears to be sinking slowly like ravaged ship in the frozen Atlantic, while Sanders seems to be just hitting his stride.

...

It seems more and more likely that Clinton will be taking the same personal approach toward Sanders that she did with President Obama — i.e., that she is experienced and pragmatic and knows how to get things done in Washington, unlike the idealist Sanders. (Remember when Obama was the liberal idealist?)

This would be a serious mistake for the Clinton campaign. Not only did this approach fail last time around, but the political atmosphere in America has become even more anti-establishment over the past few years. Just look at the GOP race, where the two outsiders, Donald Trump and Ben Carson, are currently ahead of the establishment. The current disenchantment with the political status quo appears on both sides of the aisle, but the GOP establishment seems to be finally grasping this reality, and caved in to the Trump phenomenon. It is time for Clinton and the Democratic establishment to accept the reality that establishment politics are quickly losing their appeal to the American people.

...

Clinton was obviously operating in hyperbole that day, but of course, the hope and change that the ’08 Obama campaign sold has proven to be naive, as Clinton predicted. This does not mean, however, that Clinton should approach 2016 with a kind of “I told you so” message, and double down on her pragmatic realism. As I said above, the America people seem to be tired of the phony realism that basically assumes the establishment is invincible. But even more important is the fact that Sanders is not running a campaign in the style of Obama’s ’08 campaign, even though it may seem like it to some observers. He has been very consistent in his message, telling his massive crowds that to accomplish the policies he is fighting for, whether it is overturning Citizens United and getting money out of politics or breaking up the too-big-to-fail banks, a “political revolution” is necessary. Unlike Senator Obama, Sanders is not selling optimism, but realism.

“The American people in my view are sick and tired with establishment politics, they are sick and tired of establishment economics, and they are sick and tired with establishment media,” said Sanders in Iowa last week, “I am asking you to get involved in a political revolution, a grass-roots movement which transforms America.”

The Vermont Senator is under no illusion that he could accomplish his proposals by simply becoming president (he has been in Washington for some time), which is why he is calling for a grassroots “political revolution” that demands it. You do not hear Clinton calling for a “political revolution,” and why would she? The establishment has been very good for her and Bill. But going after Sanders as an arm-waving idealist will do nothing but lower Clinton’s favorability ratings. Back in the nineties, Bill Clinton presided as a pragmatic centrist, and at that time Americans ate it up — but today, the centrist and right-wing policies of neoliberalism have created the many problems that Sanders is now running against. If Clinton wants to recover from the current downward spiral, she may want to avoid playing politics as usual and debate the ideas, as Sanders has been.

...

http://www.salon.com/2015/09/12/hillary_clinton_is_about_to_make_a_huge_mistake_heres_what_she_needs_to_learn_from_bernie_sanders/

[reformist2]

1. "sinking slowly like ravaged ship in the frozen Atlantic".... Yep.

Honestly, I don't know what she can do to change stylistically at this point. She is who she is, and she has too much history to ignore. The only way she can win this nomination is with big money, surrogates, brute force.

[roguevalley]

8. she won't do anything. She is caught in the inertia of her own bubble

thank goodness.

[hootinholler]

2. The real question at this point is

Is it still early enough for her to pivot and appear genuine about it?

I don't think so, I think that horse left the barn a couple of months ago, but we will see.

[CoffeeCat]

13. It looks like she will be trounced...

...in Iowa and NH. Bernie is drawing big crowds in the South and he's focusing on SC now. He'll have so much positive buzz and momentum if he wins the first two states.

[KoKo]

3. It will be interesting to see how things turn out when Bill comes in this week

to fund raise and do some campaigning for her as several articles have reported.

I wonder if he will be viewed with the enthusiasm that her campaign hopefully expects or, instead, be a reminder of a time long past that doesn't quite achieve the boost they might be hoping for. It seemed more a sign of desperation in the campaign than a positive move.

And, this from the article:

Unlike Senator Obama, Sanders is not selling optimism, but realism.

“The American people in my view are sick and tired with establishment politics, they are sick and tired of establishment economics, and they are sick and tired with establishment media,” said Sanders in Iowa last week, “I am asking you to get involved in a political revolution, a grass-roots movement which transforms America.”

[Hell Hath No Fury]

4. The fact that they are pulling Bill in at this early stage --

really says something to me. If she is such a weak candidate that she HAS to bring him in to turn her tanking numbers, then I am not sure that she really deserves to win the candidacy.

[bigdarryl]

6. Bill is a former President married to one of the current democratic party candidates

That's a asset regardless what people say about Hillary bringing him in

[R. Daneel Olivaw]

7. I'm not so sure that I agree.

Disn't BC say some dispariging things about candidate Obama?

If that kind of rhetoric is used again it might appear in people's minds that it is a repeat of '08.

Also, Clinton gave us NAFTA. I'm sure that people will not have forgotten that.

[jwirr]

9. There are a lot of us who no longer see him as an

asset. In his administration he did a few things that we link to the problems of today.

The monopoly in the media was gained through the Communications Act that he signed.

Glass-Steagall may not have caused the 2008 crash but it was the cause that a lot of us lost our pensions and savings through risky bank investment we would never have made on our own.

His welfare reform hurt a lot of us by not allowing any exemptions. In my case I was lucky that my state made exemptions. My disabled child would have gone into an institution at a much higher cost if I would have had no welfare to keep us going.

And then there are all the tough on crime acts he passed that have led to mass incarceration.

So in an era that is looking at reality he has some issues that do not make him an asset. One wrong move and he will be the opposite.

[CoffeeCat]

5. I don't think anything that Clinton does will work...

The underlying problem, which cannot be fixed--is that Americans are through with the establishment. Just look at what is happening on the Republican side with Trump. They'll ignore Trump's misogyny and narcissism, but he's from outside the system and he's honest…so they're running to him. I abhor Trump, but I do get why the other side is drawn to him. Republicans and Democrats don't trust the clowns who have been decimating this country and our middle-class lives for decades.

We are sick of establishment politicians, and Hillary epitomizes establishment politics.

If Hillary were to focus on her "experience" I think it would only backfire. Her experience underscores the fact that she's been in DC for decades, and things have only worsened. Secondly, while gaining this experience, DC has gone from bad to worse. Not that it's solely her fault. It's not. However, she has not been a champion for meaningful, real change and for stopping the corruption that has swallowed our government. In fact, she's participated it and protected the system.

That's why "I have more experience" won't work.

Sanders has experience too. Lots of it. And he's consistently stood up for the issues on which he is currently campaigning. He's authentic, he means what he says and he cares about the issues that people have on their radar.

I think we'll see Joe Biden surface and most likely run. He's the establishment's Plan B, and it looks like they're going to need it.

[reformist2]

10. It's almost Tragic what happened to Hillary. She used to be an idealist, but she made too many deals

along the way and now everyone sees her as compromised. Even if there still is that young idealist inside waiting to spring back to life once she's elected, how are we to know?

Let this be a lesson. If you would be an idealist in government, you always have to be true to your cause - you can never sell out, even if you think you need to in order to advance your cause.

[hifiguy]

11. She represents the Status Quo - big time.

And people have reached the Popeye Point (I've had ALL I can STANDS and I CAN'T STANDS NO MORE!) with the Status Quo in all its manifestations.

And she just doesn't get it. She has a tin ear as a campaigner.

[CoffeeCat]

12. Try living in Iowa...

...and having a front-row seat to the disaster that is her campaign. I thought that it couldn't get worse than 2008, but I think this time around will be much, much worse.

Today she met with a small-group in Eastern Iowa. She doesn't even appear to be doing larger-venue events. I think she's afraid of the optics. Bernie is drawing record crowds and she's not.

I got a call from a Hillary volunteer last night. They asked who I was caucusing for and when I said, "Sanders," she sighed. She sounded so disheartened when she thanked me for talking to her. I have a feeling that she'd been hearing that from others who were supporting Sanders too.