Bill Clinton's advice to Barack Obama

[DeepModem Mom]

Politico: Bill Clinton's advice to Barack Obama
By: John F. Harris
September 12, 2008


AP

There they were in Harlem on Thursday, the 42nd president and the Democrat who hopes to be the 44th, for a two-hour lunch hour chat at Bill Clinton’s office. It is not at all clear that Barack Obama particularly wants Clinton’s advice about how to win the presidency — after all, he kept the former president at a cool distance, with just occasional phone calls, for months — but many Democrats believe it is increasingly clear that he could use it. The fact that Obama is even with or behind John McCain despite so many favorable trends for Democrats shows that there is still plenty he could learn from the master — the political Houdini who is the only Democrat since Franklin D. Roosevelt to win two terms....

The Clinton-Obama meeting was closed. We don’t know for sure what they said. But it is not hard to make an educated guess. Here, based on 16 years experience watching Bill Clinton campaign — and interviews with a half-dozen veterans of his political teams — is a reasonably safe bet about his campaign advice to Barack Obama:

1. Don’t make this about you.

Clinton is always skeptical of politicians who try to win races on the basis of their life story or supposed personal virtues. Those can be nice side dishes (“The Man from Hope”) but they can’t be the main entrée. Voters just don’t care that much about you. They care about themselves and what you will do for them. Clinton believes, plausibly, that this is why he emerged from sex scandals and all manner of other controversies with his job approval ratings intact....What’s more, the politics of biography can turn in an instant, as happened to John F. Kerry in 2004 when what was supposed to be an asset — Kerry’s Vietnam service — was turned into a distraction and even liability by the Swift Boat Veterans.

Clinton thinks Obama has erred by putting too much focus on himself and on his supposedly transformational brand of politics — it’s too airy, and it puts him at risk of being branded a hypocrite when, as inevitably happens, he needs to play rough.

2. Define yourself through policies — yours and theirs....

While Obama has plenty of policy proposals, there are not many that he has managed to make recognizable signatures, the way Clinton promised to “end welfare as we know it” in 1992. Most people know Obama claims to represent “Change you can believe in.” But Clinton believes people won’t believe him — or any politician — unless change is defined with specificity. That means describing, in language that sounds plausible rather than partisan, what you believe in versus what the other guy believes in.

3. Have more fun....

4. Make the election about something big....

5. Spend more time speaking to your opponents....

6. Don’t take Hillary voters for granted....

7. Stop smoking whatever it is you are smoking....

In his cool treatment of both Clintons over the summer, and in the way he allowed expectations among Democrats and the news media to build, Obama has acted as if he were on a glide path to a relatively easy victory....One important thing to remember: Obama has never faced a serious race against a Republican. His important victories in Illinois and this year have all been against other Democrats in nomination battles. Some Clinton allies say this may tend to warp his perspective about how politics works and what kind of issues and stories matter in a presidential context.

8. And while you are at it, give me an apology....

(John F. Harris, the editor-in-chief of Politico, has written two books about Bill Clinton and his politics, “The Survivor: Bill Clinton in the White House,” and “The Way to Win; Taking the White House in 2008.”)

http://dyn.politico.com/printstory.cfm?uuid=54989EA1-18FE-70B2-A8871BF732F498A1

[flamingdem]

1. Bill has a big ego but I don't think he would be as condescending as this made-up list describes

Just more excuses to dump on Obama. Every asshole and egomaniac out there is throwing in their 2 cents.

[Faygo Kid]

2. OK, I went to the link, and don't freak out about number 8. We have bigger issues.

There is some good advice here. But Barack has got to be his own man, and the Clintons have to decide what kind of USA they want to see. I think they are way, way more on the same page than excerpts allude to.

We have to fight Rove/Cheney/McCain. Period. (Forget Palin; get serious).

Kick 'em down the chute, Barack Bunny.

[DeepModem Mom]

4. I think Obama is doing many of the things mentioned -- like using humor,

and making the election about something big, like the place of the U.S. in the world, etc. This was a lengthy piece, and, of course, I couldn't excerpt it all, but I agree: I think they're on the same page in many respects.

I posted the part about Obama's never having run against the GOP not as a slam at him, but because I'd never thought of that. That is a very big challenge for anybody -- to run against the GOP for the first time in a Presidential race.

[Orrex]

3. The article continues...

Clinton saved his most vaulable advice for last. Leaning in close to the Senator from Illinois, Clinton spoke in a whisper, to emphasize the importance of his words.

"For God's sake," said the former President. "Make sure that she washes the god damned dress."

[Name removed]

5. Deleted message

Message removed by moderator. Click here to review the message board rules.

[Claire Beth]

6. YOU are the liar...take your post and go

back home to the freepers.