Hillary's campaign advisor, Benenson, tells "How to Beat Hillary Clinton"

[GreatGazoo]

8 years ago HRC was assumed to be the frontrunner for the Democratic nomination even as she lost in Iowa (3rd) and other early primaries. One of the people on Obama's team has been hired by team Clinton this year, Joel Benenson. Benenson is the guy who yesterday said that 'Sander is running the most negative campaign' (hard to square that with Sanders' "America" ad but...)

Benenson was instrumental in writing the strategies that defeated Hillary in 2008 and this article explains indirectly why Benenson thinks that labeling Sanders as a "negative" campaigner will hurt him -- it something that worked for Obama when done in a subtle way but if it goes over a certain line it becomes counter-productive:

The next section was headlined, “The Fault Line: Hillary’s the Problem, Not the Answer,” and the strategists laid out the case against Clinton in stark terms, explaining that everything in Obama’s campaign, including his slogan—“Change you can believe in”—was meant to provide a contrast with Hillary, not on policy, but on character:

“Change you can believe in” was intended to frame the argument along the character fault line, and this is where we can and must win this fight. We cannot let Clinton especially blur the lines on who is the genuine agent of change in this election.

• The reason Clinton can’t be trusted or believed when it comes to change is that she represents, to a great degree, the three sources of discontent formulated in our premise.
• She’s driven by political calculation not conviction, regularly backing away and shifting positions on issues ranging from war, to Social Security, to trade, to reform.
• She embodies trench warfare vs. Republicans, and is consumed with beating them rather than unifying the country and building consensus to get things done.
• She prides herself on working the system, not changing it—rebuffing reforms on everything from lobbyist donations to budget earmarks.
...
Attacking Clinton as “driven by politics, not conviction” and arguing that she “puts preserving political power ahead of reliable principles or progress for the American people” was a tricky for Obama. After all, if he represented a new way of doing politics, he couldn’t sound like a traditional politician on the attack.
...
Another former senior Obama adviser argued that the same vulnerabilities that the Obama team seized upon still exist and are just waiting to be exploited by Bernie Sanders or Martin O’Malley or her other opponents. “Her greatest vulnerability in this primary is on shifting positions,” the former senior adviser said, adding that her recent announcement to oppose the Trans-Pacific Partnership, which she previously supported, was a mistake. “Her decision on T.P.P. is a fairly significant error. She is going to get attacked either way, so she might as well get attacked while having a sincere position.”

http://www.newyorker.com/news/news-desk/how-to-beat-hillary-clinton


(In my experience, attempts to analyze strategy on DU always fail. They become a discussion over the messages that make up the strategy rather than the strategy itself, but I try again...)

[ErisDiscordia]

1. Great Review of the things we know

I trust Bernie's instincts. His campaign is flawless.

[GreatGazoo]

6. Told me some things I didn't know

1) That HRC hired one of the guys who helped Obama beat her in 2008, and

2) it explains, to a degree, why team Clinton thinks that their claim of 'Sanders being a negative campaigner' will hurt Sanders. Eg, if you flip over Benenson's 2008 strategy then you see what he and team Obama thought was a potential liability -- that frontal attacks on Clinton would seem to divisive and open a flank for them to attack Obama as someone who can't unify. We are hearing echoes of this now as Clinton runs scared in Iowa:

- asking for single payer is "too extreme", "unrealistic", and 'won't make it through a GOP congress

- claiming that the Sanders campaign has crossed the line that Obama refused to in 2008 even though Sanders' "contrast" ad never mentions HRC:

The Sanders ad never mentioned Clinton by name, but it did take an implicit shot at the Democratic front-runner for her support on Wall Street.
...
Although Sanders' commercial is tame compared to the brutal attack ads seen elsewhere in politics, the Clinton campaign organized a phone call with reporters on Thursday to accuse Sanders of breaking his pledge to not run negative ads.

"We were very surprised today to see that Bernie Sanders had launched a negative television advertisement against Hillary," Clinton campaign manager Robby Mook said on the call.

http://www.businessinsider.com/hillary-clinton-bernie-sanders-wall-street-ad-2016-1

So Benenson sees the same dynamics, he just playing for the other team now.

[BigBearJohn]

2. some great ideas

[Dretownblues]

3. Now I understand why all the talk of

The Sanders campaign going negative, but I'm not sure it will work. One of the most iconic moments in the whole primary has been Sanders letting Clinton slide on the email issue in the first debate. I think it will be very hard to frame him as attacking Clinton when most of his ads have been positive. What people will notice, I think, is Clinton and her people talking about how negative Sanders is and how he won't be able to accomplish any of his plans. We will find out if that will work in a couple of days.

[GreatGazoo]

7. Me too.

I found the Benenson stuff while researching what the HRC claims of Sanders "going negative" were based on. In light of the 2008 notes in the OP, we see how this Jan 15th attack on Sanders fits their counter-strategy:

Mook suggested that the ad was a sign that Sanders isn't the "different kind of politician" his campaign had promised Democrats. The Clinton camp also said that it was very clear to both reporters and voters that the Sanders ad was attacking the former secretary of state — even if it didn't mention her by name.

http://www.businessinsider.com/hillary-clinton-bernie-sanders-wall-street-ad-2016-1

[Dretownblues]

8. Thanks

For the links they give great insight into her strategy. I think one of the reasons the negativity angle worked so well in 2008 was because people already had a negative view of the Clinton's. If you had reversed it, I don't think would have worked against Obama.

[Gregorian]

4. Nailed it! Now out with the old, and in with the new.

These old stale conservative idea have crushed Americans. Lead, follow, or get out of the way.

[Kokonoe]

5. Bernie is on a campaign for us and we.

Hillary can just join the background noise of wall street outrage.

[KoKo]

9. K&R...Interesting read on strategy.

And, how she has changed so little in her vulnerabilities.