Former Obama Campaign Manager Jim Messina Led Austerity-Loving Tories to Victory

[KoKo]

Published on
Friday, May 08, 2015
by
Common Dreams
Former Obama Campaign Manager Led Austerity-Loving Tories to Victory

After bringing American-style negative campaigning to the UK, Jim Messina says he's coming home to throw his weight behind Hillary Clinton

After the surprise win of the United Kingdom's Conservative Party in Thursday's national election, the spotlight has now fallen on American political operative Jim Messina, who led the pro-austerity party to victory.

Prior to working the British political machine, Messina served as campaign manager—or self-described "mastermind"—of U.S. President Barack Obama's successful 2012 election bid and, before that, White House deputy chief of staff under Rahm Emanuel from 2009 to 2011.
Before his appearance on MSNBC's "Morning Joe" on Friday, host Joe Scarborough introduced Messina, who was hired as an official adviser to the party of Prime Minister David Cameron, as "the man being called a traitor by liberals worldwide."

During the interview, Messina credited the victory of the austerity-driven Conservative Party to a "resounding economic mandate for the prime minister."

"First of all, the prime minister laid out a compelling economic vision, and second you had a campaign that tried to take us back to the 1970s and 1980s," Messina said of Cameron's liberal Labour Party challenger, Ed Miliband.

"All elections are always about the future, especially an economic future," Messina continued. "We won that choice by over 20 points last night and that's why we stunned the world. And it looks like he'll have an absolute majority, which I don't think many people thought we'd have."

When asked if he has "seen the light" and plans to support a Republican candidate for the 2016 U.S. presidential election, Messina said that he will throw his full weight behind Democratic candidate and former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton. Last year, Messina became co-chair of the pro-Clinton Super PAC Priorities USA.


"I am all Hillary all the time," Messina said. "Whatever its going to take to get Hillary."

In a recent profile of Messina, The Intercept's Ken Silverstein wrote that the consultant was known for his "scumminess," and that he rose to prominence after producing "one of the more homophobic ads of modern political times" during Idaho Senator Max Baucus's 2002 reelection campaign. The piece outlines the piles of money that Messina has amassed in speaking and consulting fees, which Silverstein describes as "astonishing, even by Washington standards."

Messina joined the UK's Conservative Party in 2013 as a paid consultant and, as Time reports, "worked to export the latest innovations in American-style campaigning to the UK."

In a much-publicized match-up, Obama's former senior adviser David Axelrod also took part in the UK election, serving as a consultant for Labour Party leader Ed Miliband.

Ahead of the elections, Nigel Farage, leader of the UK's Independence Party, blamed the "Washington spin doctors" for bringing an unwelcome negativity to UK politics.

"What I’m seeing in this election is the influence of these big American advisers and it’s becoming the most negative, personal and nasty campaign I’ve ever seen," Farage said.

Politico reports that Messina and Axelrod weren’t the only ones taking part in the campaign. Obama’s former body man, Reggie Love, also reportedly helped the Conservatives with their field and social media efforts.


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http://www.commondreams.org/news/2015/05/08/former-obama-campaign-manager-led-austerity-loving-tories-victory

[Scuba]

1. Shocking no one, an austerity supporter also supports Hillary.

[roguevalley]

9. another reason to not support Hillary. Good going, scummy guy

[bloomington-lib]

13. +1

[Doctor_J]

11. A TORY supporter is now Hillary's brain. Gonna be tough for the hillarians to spin this one

And the BOG, come to think of it.

[FlatBaroque]

2. I recall a time when this

would have been scandalous. What a freaking ghoul.

[BrotherIvan]

32. that might be the perfect description

[n2doc]

3. Our Turd Blossom n/t

[carolinayellowdog]

4. Nigel Farage knows negative, personal and nasty!

My favorite Gregory Brothers Autotune the News clip features him in the opening sequence, followed by a great duet between Katie Couric and Joel Madden.

[Mika]

5. A rerun of: Our Brand Is Crisis

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Our_Brand_Is_Crisis

[stillwaiting]

6. He speaks of the Tories as "we". And he supports Hillary.

That's another minus/negative for Hillary as far as I'm concerned.

He seems thrilled that he helped a pro-austerity government assume power, and he needs to go to the Republican Party which is where he belongs.

Hideous.

[FreakinDJ]

7. What did you expect of a 1%er candidate

[Historic NY]

8. Actually both sides hired American campaign expertise....

http://www.politico.com/story/2015/05/british-elections-jim-messina-david-axelrod-117759.html

[jalan48]

10. Simply wow! There really is only one major political party here in the USA.

[cstanleytech]

12. Keep in mind though while Hillary might not make the best president people she would probably be

a better option than any of the republicans who are running when it comes down to it.

[bloomington-lib]

14. We die more slowly.

Who knows, maybe that's the plan. If the conservatives took over, there would be a big shock from the faster decline/theft. A bigger group of people would make more noise and have louder demands. With a 1% Dem in there, they can cushion the blow. Keep the fingers pointing at each other instead of them. In the end, they get it all anyway, but with less fuss.

[Spitfire of ATJ]

16. Yeah, the 1% gets what they want and the GOP can tell the hicks in the sticks Liberals are to blame.

[Enthusiast]

25. Then there is this.

[Spitfire of ATJ]

27. And this...

"...am I the only person in the entire United States of America who likes both George Bush and John Kerry, who believes they're both good people, who believes they both love our country and they just see the world differently?"

-- Bill Clinton at the opening of his presidential library.

[Enthusiast]

28. Horrible

[Lydia Leftcoast]

21. It's the difference between heading for a cliff at 90mph and heading for a cliff at 30mph

All that Hillary would do would be to buy a bit more time.

[carolinayellowdog]

24. catering to homophobia in the 1990s vs. doing so in the 2010s

I guess that is progress, but... not encouraging. BTW the article identifies Baucus as from ID rather than MT. No Dem would ever be elected from ID and therefore be in a position to undermine the ACA in the ways Baucus did!

[cstanleytech]

26. More like its the difference of jumping out of an airplane with a parachute that may work

if Hillary is elected vs jumping out of an airplane with a parachute that is not going to work at all if any of the Republicans are elected.

[merrily]

41. That's a general election point. Weve barely started the primary.

It's also a point better made in GD than in this group.

Members of this group do not see Hillary as especially populist.

Please see also Reply 38.

[cstanleytech]

42. My post date Sat May 9, 2015, 12:07 PM

Yours Fri Jun 12, 2015, 12:41 PM

[merrily]

43. And? That does not negate either of my points. It only makes one of them stronger,

namely, it was too soon to be talking as though our next vote would be in a general election.

[cstanleytech]

44. Ok, for the record I am not saying your wrong nor am saying your right.

I am however pointing the fact that you are bumping a month old thread but hey feel free to continue padding your post count and annoying people by bumping old threads if you want, fortunately I wont be one of the annoyed ones after this post.

[merrily]

45. Yesterday was when I saw this thread. Your deciding the date is all that matters is on you.

[Thespian2]

15. Austerity

has really worked well in Europe...just ask a Greek...or German...or Italian...or almost anyone...

Seems this money-grubbing slime ball is ready for Hillary...HOOOHAA

[merrily]

40. Please see Reply 38.

[Spirochete]

17. The question that comes to mind is

was Kenny Loggins involved, too?

[WorseBeforeBetter]

18. Obama's 'surrogate son' Reggie Love reportedly in on the Conservative win, too.

Lovely.

[carolinayellowdog]

19. Where's Enthusiast to say this deserves hundreds of recs?

It sure as hell does, and I love his username and his enthusiasm

[LeftishBrit]

20. Jim Messina turned Jim Messin'-It-Up

Though Axelrod took the right, i.e. left, side.

'Ahead of the elections, Nigel Farage, leader of the UK's Independence Party, blamed the "Washington spin doctors" for bringing an unwelcome negativity to UK politics'

Umm, I would say that dear Nige did a pretty good job of bringing an unwelcome negativity to UK politics without anyone else's help!

Not sure what I think of our politics and yours getting merged to this extent; but it goes on in both directions. Liam Fox, Tory MP and former Defence Secretary, worked on the Romney campaign in 2012.

[BrotherIvan]

33. The wealthy and their minions have no country

As we can see, politics is just a game. Consultants get paid, media gets ad revenues and contributors get paid back ten fold for their investment. All while the little guy roots for his team. It's unspeakable actually.

[Jim Lane]

22. As if the Conservatives weren't bad enough, he seems to identify with UKIP

Messina says, "We won that choice by over 20 points last night...."

The popular-vote percentages were: Conservative 36.9%, Labour 30.4% -- a margin of 6.5 points.

So where does he get 20 points? Well, the Conservatives were in a governing coalition with the Liberal Democrats, but the Lib Dems got only 7.9%, so even if you count them in then "We" still fell well short of a 20-point margin.

No, the only way to make his numbers work is to conclude that he saw himself as helping all the parties to the right of Labour -- including the UK Independence Party, which got 12.9%. The Scottish National Party, at 4.7%, is a social democratic party. If you take Messina's "We" as Cons plus Lib Dems plus UKIP, fighting against Labour plus SNP, then Messina's side won, 57.7% to 35.1%, a bit more than 20 points.

Who is UKIP? UKIP is generally seen as being to the right of even the Conservatives, with a platform that calls for anti-immigrant measures, abolishing the estate tax, etc. These are the people Jim Messina is now calling "We".

Either that, or he can't count.

[whereisjustice]

29. Thanks for this, I didn't understand his statement at all

[LeftishBrit]

34. I don't think he would include UKIP or the LibDems; certainly not together

Last edited Sun May 10, 2015, 08:18 AM - Edit history (1)

What is more likely is that he's referring to parliamentary seats rather than popular votes. The Tories actually have a majority of 12, not 20; but some of the others include Northern Ireland DUP MPs, who would support the Tories; so he might be referring to those likely to oppose the government. The Tories got 331 seats (ugh!) Labour got 232. SNP got 56. LibDems (likely now to be against the government) got 8. Plaid Cymru 3. Greens 1. SDLP 3 (Northern Ireland equivalent of Labour). In all, the active Opposition will be 311, or exactly 20 less than the Tories. If one or two LibDems continue to support the Tories, that would make it 'more than 20'.

[Jim Lane]

35. My reasoning was that he said "points" not "seats"

Another fact that cuts against your interpretation is that after saying "20 points" he then discussed the Parliamentary seats as a separate topic. From the linked article:

"All elections are always about the future, especially an economic future," Messina continued. "We won that choice by over 20 points last night and that's why we stunned the world. And it looks like he'll have an absolute majority, which I don't think many people thought we'd have." {emphasis added}

Even if you think that it was never in the cards for UKIP and the Lib Dems to be part of the same coalition, they can both be considered to the right of Labour. For example, with regard to the NHS, the Lib Dems were part of the Cameron coalition that instituted some partial privatization measures, and UKIP would apparently be on board with even more: "Leaked documents show Ukip leaders approve NHS privatisation once it becomes more 'acceptable to the electorate'". It wouldn't be surprising for Messina, as an American, to be focused on economic issues where the U.S., even under Obama, is well to the right of what any significant British party dares to advocate publicly. (The flip side, of course, is that very few Democrats, and certainly not including Obama, would dare to advocate publicly for an NHS-style system here.)

[merrily]

38. Hillary and the DLC strike again.

In 1998, with First Lady Hillary Clinton, From began a dialogue with British Prime Minister Tony Blair and other world leaders, and the DLC brand – known as The Third Way – became a model for resurgent liberal governments around the globe.[17]

In April 1999, he hosted an historic Third Way forum in Washington with President Clinton, Prime Minister Blair, German Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder, Prime Ministers Wim Kok of the Netherlands and Massimo D'Alema of Italy.[18]

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Al_From

But, their liberals apparently learn a hell of a lot faster than ours.

http://www.democraticunderground.com/12778559

[merrily]

39. Please see Reply 38.

[onecaliberal]

23. Great.

[whereisjustice]

30. Democrats are doubling down on right-wing strategy because neither party wants

liberals to vote. Seriously, they don't. We demand change. We challenge the status quo. The DNC can't stand the petulance and civil disobedience. They are hoping we stay home.

It's now politically correct in both parties to blame liberals for everything that's wrong in the world. Obama's just following the easy path paved in asphalt by our right-wing corporate-owned media.

It's much easier than fighting for justice and doing the right thing.

Remember the Democratic Party is a corporation like Nike. It takes care of itself first, investors second. There's not much leftover after that. Snuggling up to Wall Street insures objectives 1 & 2 are met with certainty and that means conservative politics for all.

[KoKo]

31. This does lead one to wonder...... But, I'm voting and everyone else should NOT GIVE UP!

To make Change we need to get out there....! But, damn....they sure make it hard...don't they...

[sabrina 1]

36. Get ready for the smear campaigns against Bernie.

I hope Bernie will be able to hire a 'fast response team' because people like this play very dirty.

And it says a lot about Hillary too, that she needs this kind of campaign. Because she knows she can't win on the issues.

[merrily]

37. You didn't have to wait too long for the smears.

Anti-minority. Lie. And ironic, considering the source.

Dual citizenship. Anti-Semitic liie.

Anti-immigrant. Lie.