How Hillary Clinton Can Help Prepare Bernie Sanders for the General Election

[portlander23]

The 2008 primary was a hard fought race for Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton was a very tough opponent. Mr. Obama was new to running a national campaign, and the Clinton campaign was a great sparring partner to prepare him for a run against the GOP. At one point Keith Olbermann accused Mrs. Clinton of "campaigning as if Barack Obama were the Democrat and you were the Republican.”:

While this may have been a fair criticism in 2008, I don’t think it’s fair to accuse Mrs. Clinton as running as the “Republican” this time, but in many ways she can serve as an excellent sparring partner to prepare Mr. Sanders for the general election.

The most obvious similarity to the eventual GOP contender is dark money. Super PACs affiliated with Mrs. Clinton have amassed more than 40 million dollars in donations. Now that Mr. Sanders is the front-runner in the early voting states, some of that money will be deployed against him.

That’s a good thing.

Mr. Sander’s strategy of not accepting Super PAC money is untested. It’s not clear if any candidate can be elected to higher office without the corrupting influence of large money interests. Mrs. Clinton’s affiliated PACs, while not amassing as much as the combined GOP field, is quite substantial.

With respect to dark money, Mrs. Clinton’s campaign can serve as an excellent surrogate for running against a Republican opponent in the general election.

Another promising sign is the extent to which Mr. Sanders has been able to alter the debate. It’s likely that Mrs. Clinton would not have taken a stance on banking regulation, free trade, or the fossil fuel industry had Mr. Sanders not been taking such strong, unambiguous stances on the issues. He’s also proving effective at combating "compassionate conservative" policies such as Mrs. Clinton's means-tested proposal for education.

Granted, Mrs. Clinton is under a fair amount of pressure to assume positions closer to Mr. Sanders’ considering the base of the Democratic Party is more in-line with Mr. Sanders, but this is also a good test case for the general election. Mr. Sanders has been extremely successful in not only putting out unapologetic liberal stances on key issues, but also forcing his opponent to address them. One would expect that the eventual GOP candidate would be much less likely to assume positions close to Mr. Sanders, but it’s not hard to envision a situation where Mr. Sanders can use his clarity on these issues to drive a very real wedge between voters and the GOP.

Another key way the Clinton campaign is helping Mr. Sander’s campaign is that it’s preparing him for the media landscape ahead. The media has lavished attention on Mrs. Clinton and hardly given any attention to Mr. Sanders. The attention that he has received has often been negative, but more of then than not it has been dismissive.

The media will certainly have to spend more time covering Mr. Sanders in a general election, but the primary is proving that Mr. Sanders has been able to thrive in a hostile media environment.

The one way where the Clinton campaign could do more to help prepare Mr. Sanders is by attacking him more aggressively. To date, Mrs. Clinton’s attacks have been tepidly delivered via surrogates, often backfiring:

Whether or not Mr. Sanders can overcome the label "socialist" in a general election is still unknown. So far, attempts to smear Mr. Sanders has been a failure, but a Republican candidate is going to hit a lot harder than Mrs. Clinton has to date. If Mr. Sanders prevails in the early voting states, we can expect such attacks to increase in frequency and intensity, which would be a good thing.

The first debate is going to be telling. I don't expect that Mrs. Clinton will directly attack Mr. Sanders, but I do think there will be some sparring.

It would be to Mr. Sander’s benefit for Mrs. Clinton to push as hard as she possibly can on any issue where there is an actual or perceived weakness- from drones, gun control, racial justice, the size and cost of social programs, being too liberal, etc. The Republican in the general election would attack Mr. Sanders from any angle, and Mrs. Clinton is the best practice opponent on the Democratic side.

I hope she takes the gloves off, because Mr. Sanders will need all the practice he can get.

[AtomicKitten]

1. Clinton ran a butt-ugly campaign in 2008. She worked in concert with McCain to attack Obama.

She stayed in the race long after it became mathematically impossible for her to win with no concern for damaging the obvious ultimate nominee. She will hang on like grim death and has no intention of helping anyone but herself; to suggest otherwise is ludicrous.

[upaloopa]

2. I could not finish this OP

This like what you would hear at a football rally where your team is the decided underdog.

[Gothmog]

3. If you really believe that Sanders will be the nominee, then place your bets on this result

You will get excellent odds because few other people believe this