2007: Remember when Hillary defeated Obama

[Cosmic Kitten]

April 26, 2007 – Orangeburg, South Carolina, South Carolina State University

A poll of 403 South Carolinians who watched the debate indicated a belief that Obama won the debate, with support of 31% compared to Clinton's 24%. However, journalists Tom Baldwin, of The Times, and Ewen MacAskill, of The Guardian, both reported that Clinton appeared to retain her frontrunner status. Political pundits such as Chris Matthews, Howard Fineman, Keith Olbermann and Joe Scarborough declared Clinton the most "presidential", stating that her appearance and answers were: succinct, within the time limit, unambiguous and thorough.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Democratic_Party_presidential_debates,_2008#April_26.2C_2007_.E2.80.93_Orangeburg.2C_South_Carolina.2C_South_Carolina_State_University

A few 'highlights' from that debate:

Remember Mrs. Clinton accusing
Obama of associating with a “slum landlord”?
Now that's some serious dog whistle politics.

Or when Hillary said “You know, Senator Obama,
it is very difficult having a straight-up debate
with you, because you never take responsibility
for any vote, and that has been a pattern”

Bwahaha, Hillary actually said that!
She took a page from Rove's dirty tricks and
smeared Obama with her own weakness...

For a look into Hillary 2008 "battle Plan"
here as a good read, and is relevant to
2016 as well
http://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2008/11/17/battle-plans

Whats old is new again

Back in the 2008 campaign Hillary's plans
were similar to what we are seeing today.

In a memo dated March 19, 2007, Penn laid out an “Overall Strategy for Winning” built upon a coalition of voters he called “Invisible Americans,” a sort of reprise of Bill Clinton’s “forgotten middle class”:

As this race unfolds, the winning coalition for us is clearer and clearer. There are three demographic variables that explain almost all of the voters in the primary—gender, party, and income. Race is a factor as well, but we are fighting hard to neutralize it.
We are the candidate of people with needs.
We win women, lower classes, and Democrats (about 3 to 1 in our favor).
Obama wins men, upper class, and independents (about 2 to 1 in his favor).
Edwards draws from these groups as well.
Our winning strategy builds from a base of women, builds on top of that a lower and middle class constituency, and seeks to minimize his advantages with the high class democrats.

If we double perform with WOMEN, LOWER AND MIDDLE CLASS VOTERS, then we have about 55% of the voters.

The reason the Invisible Americans is so powerful is that it speaks to exactly how you can be a champion for those in needs [sic]. He may be the JFK in the race, but you are the Bobby.

Clinton was already under attack for an attitude of “inevitability”—the charge being that she imperiously viewed the primary process as a ratifying formality and would not deign to compete for what she felt she was owed. Penn’s memo makes clear that what she intended to project was “leadership” and “strength,” and that he had carefully created an image for her with that in mind. He believed that he had identified a winning coalition and knew which buttons to press to mobilize it:

1) Start with a base of women.
a. For these women you represent a breaking of barriers
b. The winnowing out of the most competent and qualified in an unfair, male dominated world
c. The infusion of a woman and a mother’s sensibilities into a world of war and neglect
2) Add on a base of lower and middle class voters
a. You see them; you care about them
b. You were one of them, it is your history
c. You are all about their concerns (healthcare, education, energy, child care, college etc.)
d. Sense of patriotism, Americana
3) Play defensively with the men and upper class voters
a. Strength to end the war the right way
b. Connect on the problems of the global economy, economics
c. Foreign policy expert
d. Unions

Contest the black vote at every opportunity. Keep him pinned down there.
Organize on college campuses. We may not be number 1 there, but we have a lot of fans—more than enough to sustain an organization in every college.
http://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2008/09/the-front-runner-s-fall/306944/

Seems Hillary has recycled her losing campaign
and is working to repackage a campaign that
voters previously rejected.

Her campaign thinks she can sell us a
retreaded campaign, because Bernie Sanders
is no Barack Obama

Further reading on the 2008 campaign
http://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2008/09/the-hillary-clinton-memos/306951/

[Logical]

1. Her supporters forget how she lost a 30 point lead in 2008! They hate that! Nt

[CoffeeCat]

4. I live in Iowa...

...and she has lost 40 points since May, in our state alone. We are the first to vote and she's not going to win here. She's also losing in NH, the second state to vote.

Hillary is faring worse against Sanders, than she was against Obama. Her campaign sees the writing on the wall and they are terrified.

They are scrambling to do anything to save her crumbling campaign. That's why CNN and other other corporate media conglomerates are hiding those polls that show Bernie won the debate in a landslide. Time Warner is Hillary's 7th biggest contributor, don't you know. They have an investment that they need to leverage!

They incessantly bring up her national polls. They did that also in 2007--repeatedly insisting that she was "inevitable" and "the most electable."

Well guess what. National polls mean squat. The only polls that matter, are the polls in the states that have primaries coming up. People responding to national polls have not been subjected to the brunt of either campaign yet. So far, 2015 is deja vu for Hillary.

The backroom of her campaign must be in a tailspin. Can you imagine going through this all over again?

[Cosmic Kitten]

6. Yes, of course. A look back shows why and how that happened.

Bernistas would do themselves
a solid by reading up on what
went down in 2007/2008 and
how the same strategy is resurfacing
in many ways; from women, children,
Poc, unions, etc.

A little bit of historical perspective
will go a long way to demolishing
their talking points.

[marym625]

2. K&R!

Awesome post Cosmic!

#FeelTheBern

[Cosmic Kitten]

7. Thank you

We need to learn from history
because it is repeating in this
election cycle.

Hopefully with similar results

[marym625]

10. not even a little bit worried

#FeelTheBern #Bernie2016

[azmom]

3. America rejected her in 08 and will again.

[tularetom]

5. America WILL reject this hack but it is important we do it in the primary

Otherwise she'll be rejected in the general election and then god knows what we'll wind up with.

[rhett o rick]

8. k & r. Thanks for posting. nm

[Cosmic Kitten]

18. My pleasure

[restorefreedom]

9. wow...like stepping into a time machine

thanks for the dig, cosmic kitten!

[workinclasszero]

11. Its unfortunate for Bernie fans

that Bernie is no BHO then eh?

[Scuba]

12. I'm real glad he's not.

[Fearless]

13. Yeah, support for the TPP is a sticking point for me

I'm glad he is more liberal than the president.


Also why are you using the right wing Obama middle name slime?

[frylock]

15. What's unfortunate is that people continue to trot this crap out without explaining why.

Why don't you tell us exactly how Bernie Sanders is no Barack Obama? Because from where I'm sitting, candidate Sanders has surpassed candidate Obama in pretty much every metric.

[workinclasszero]

24. Ok lets see Bernie at least equal what President Obama

has done twice. Get elected President of course.

Good luck with that Bernie. (not really)

[erronis]

31. And Hil has been elected? Only in your mind.

I like Hillary and would support her if that were the dem choice. However stools like you don't do her campaign any service.

I hate to parrot a horrible meme, but "Yawn".

[Cosmic Kitten]

16. Yeah, it's 'unfortunate' lol

What's more unfortunate is how
Camp Weather Vane is regurgitating
the same divisive politics of gender and
race while disingenuously pandering to
"hard working white people".

AND...she's still the champion of "Invisible Americans"


And we are soooo grateful for her representing
Wall St and sternly telling those guys to
"knock it off" right before they crashed/looted
the economy, which created even more Invisible Americans!

Boy she sure did a "great" job championing us Invisible Americans.

[Logical]

19. Lol, typical "it wasnt hillary, it was obama" cracks me up!

[Tierra_y_Libertad]

22. As a Bernie supporter, I think it's fortunate that Bernie is no BHO.

Which is one of the reasons I'll vote for him.

[MissDeeds]

28. Bernie is no BHO

That's true. He is far, far better!!!!

Thanks for pointing that out.

[frylock]

14. The parallels to 2008 are quite remarkable.

[Cosmic Kitten]

17. They can only repackage her "brand"

They cannot reinvent her.

Seems her soft white underbelly is
her rage and anger.
She responds poorly to pressure
and seems to lash out when her
tricks are no longer effective.

[winter is coming]

20. I haven't forgotten any of that.

I'm amazed and gratified to see her aiming straight for the same potholes.

[Cosmic Kitten]

25. It is an uncomfortable pleasure.

Not quite Schadenfreude
but it is approaching that
critical mass

[Tarc]

21. This is the kind of ugly rhetoric...

...that should be left to the Republicans. We should debate ideas and policies rather than engage in smug, rolling-on-the-floor smiley diatribes that bitterly attack a opposing Democratic candidate. Take O'Malley's closing statement to heart; if the candidates themselves can elevate the maturity of their discourse, then the DU can too.

I prefer Hillary will vote next fall for whoever wins the Democratic nomination.

Be spirited in your support of Bernie, but not hateful. Please & thank you.

[Cosmic Kitten]

23. Refute the post content, k

It's ugly rhetoric to compare
DU members to republicans.

[Autumn]

36. Are you saying that none of that happened in 2007? Why should we leave discussion of what

democrats have done to republicans? Hillary's words were hateful but someone posting them to discuss them is not hateful. You got a problem with people discussing her actual words then you feel free to defend them but don't play a dishonest game by saying that discussing her past actions is a republican trick. Be spirited in your support of Hillary, but don't try to shut down discussion of Hillary's actual history.

[hedda_foil]

26. Boy, does this ever bring back memories.

I quite honestly think she's a better candidate this year. It's just that this isn't a normal election year.

Surprisingly, Clinton herself, when pressed, was her own shrewdest strategist, a role that had never been her strong suit in the White House. But her advisers couldn’t execute strategy; they routinely attacked and undermined each other, and Clinton never forced a resolution. Major decisions would be put off for weeks until suddenly she would erupt, driving her staff to panic and misfire.


Above all, this irony emerges: Clinton ran on the basis of managerial competence—on her capacity, as she liked to put it, to “do the job from Day One.” In fact, she never behaved like a chief executive, and her own staff proved to be her Achilles’ heel. What is clear from the internal documents is that Clinton’s loss derived not from any specific decision she made but rather from the preponderance of the many she did not make. Her hesitancy and habit of avoiding hard choices exacted a price that eventually sank her chances at the presidency. What follows is the inside account of how the campaign for the seemingly unstoppable Democratic nominee came into being, and then came apart.

[Cosmic Kitten]

29. Yep, see also:

Above all, this irony emerges: Clinton ran on the basis of managerial competence—on her capacity, as she liked to put it, to “do the job from Day One.”

See Also:
> one phone vs two phones
> One email account vs separate email accounts

Both, she admitted were mistakes.
Hardly "managerial competence".

[AzDar]

27. K & R

[stonecutter357]

30. I am voting for Hillary Rodham Clinton....

[Cosmic Kitten]

32. Sorry to hear that.

level, true, and square

[BeanMusical]

38. My early condolences on your candidate not winning the nomination.

[LiberalArkie]

33. It was never that Obama won the debates, it was that HRC lost them. People just started

not liking her tactics. Those were the tactics of Arkansas politics and Daley politics back when. The conservatives generally like their candidates to go for the jugular and rip it out and leave the opposing person bleeding to death. Most other people tend to get turned off by it. How did Bernie win the debate (by most accounts)? It was being the nice guy. Liberals / Progressives generally prefer a civilized candidate.

[Cosmic Kitten]

34. That is certainly part of the calculus

Last edited Thu Oct 15, 2015, 04:18 PM - Edit history (1)

Maybe that's why two faced pundits
are saying she won...
because viewers weren't turned off?

[MissDeeds]

35. Excellent find, Cosmic Kitten

Thanks for posting!

K&R

[Cosmic Kitten]

37. Thanks. There is a weath of info about Hillary 2008

Most major players in her previous
campaigns have spilled the beans
about who, what, how, and why
her campaign failed.

It would be a missed opportunity
for Bernistas to not review their playbooks.

We are already seen old plays re-run,
and it's unlikely they can create many new ones.

It certain the republicans are studying up for the GE.

[BeanMusical]

39. Hillary teaming up with McCain to trash Obama: