What would you say if you were Hillary's adviser? Here's what I'd tell her

[Armstead]

Here' my advice to Hillary if I were advising her. (My advice is free and worth every penny.) What would you tell her?

"Okay Hillary, here's what you've gotta do. You have considerable political skills and a lot of fans. But you're going about this all wrong. Forget about trying to placate the right wing. They don't like you and they never will. Ferget it. The GOP could run Fred Bassett against you and get the conservative vote. So don't even bother."

You've gotta go for both the center and the left. But, instead of trying to drag liberals to the conservative end of the center, do the opposite. Bring the center further to the left. Go for the base. Become a proud liberal with no apologies. And sell what real liberal/progressive politics means.

The CONventional wisdom from the Beltway Elites is that to win national election, Democrats have to become pseudo-conservatives. They claim you have to support the Neo-Con aggressive foreign policy, keep your mouth shut about the destruction of domestic civil liberties. More important, on a fundamental level, the so-called strategists from the DLC claim you have to side with the Corporate Status Quo against the vast majority of the population on issues of Money nd Power....Support phony "free trade" policies, don't try to protect American jobs and workers. Allow continued corporate consolidation. Echo the nonsense that what Alan Greenspan and Wall St. describe as economic success is really good for the middle and lower classes.

Toss that crap out. Stop worrying about what the Washington Elites and your husband tell you about the "center."

Instead, if you are going to pander, pander on the side of real LIBERAL Democratic traditions. Don't be ambiguous. Come out for universally available and affordable health care. Restoring economic diversity and challenging the Corporate Oligarchy. Stop support unsupportable Bush foreign policies. Stand up for Civil Liberties and bring some decency and sanity to foreign policy....Start listening to people like John Conyers, Teddy Kennedy and the other liberals and progressives in the Congress.

If you do that, two things will happen. One is that you are going to piss off a lot of people on the right. The GOP will have a field day. The Washington Pundits will say "Tsk,Tsk, the old 'liberal' Hillary is resurfacing. She's making a serious mistake."

But so what? You know what else will happen, if you play your cards right? You could energize the liberal and progressive factions of Democrats, bring in potential Green supporters and other disaffected progressives. AND, most important, you will likely appeal to enough more of the "center" to win in 08. All of the people who sense what the conservativsm of the last 30 years has done, but have not heard any liberal alternatives articulated in a national election in a long time....The "average person" or swing voter is thirsting for change. And you could bring it, if you stop waffling and start really championing the resurgence of a Liberal Democratic Party."

That's what I'd tell her. What advice would YOU give?

[ruggerson]

1. Do not under any circumstances, EVER talk loudly

your voice, when you raise it, is like a chalk on a blackboard, the screeching sound is unbearable and embarrassing and you will be Howard Dean-ized by the press quicker than you can say "tack to the right."

[Armstead]

2. Well, that too

But I'm not a voice coach. :)

[havocmom]

5. Yep, she is extremely bright & savvy, but she does NOT come across well

Better to remain the power behind the throne. Some of the best minds come in packages which are just not remarkably sell-able.

She sounds shrill and nagging even when voicing the most brilliant words. Sadly, that will cost LOTS as people tend to stick with their impressions and miss the message.

[colbushwhacker_2000]

3. Don't run for President,

but stay in the Senate !

[Warpy]

8. I echo that advice

She's fine where she is and represents her largely yuppie constituents well.

She's a disaster at the national level for many reasons, not the least of which is that she'd be defeated just on the basis of name recognition.

[Armstead]

10. I have mixed feelings on that

Personally, I think a "fresh face" would probably be better in 08.

But Hillary is likely to run(and be pushed into running). And she could be a good candidate potentially. So the question is how she does it. That's the framework of the advice I gave.

[Solo_in_MD]

14. I agree

She would lose us the presidency for another term or two

[Burma Jones]

4. Concentrate on being one of history's most powerful Senators

She has the potential of being counted amongst the greats in the Senate.....

[yellowdogintexas]

9. I agree, and we need her in the Senate, even placating the

right she is an improvement over what could be there, and she is a Dem for head count purposes.

[Dr Fate]

6. I'd say what you said- she is smart & popular enough to pull it off.

She can talk like a conservative all she wants, the MSM watchers & Rush-listeners aint buying...Meanwhile, the center & the left really are looking good leaders...

[Armstead]

7. It would sure be refreshing to get a Liberal unifier

Someone who could be enthusiastically embraced by both the Democratic Establishment and us cranky lefties.

[TallahasseeGrannie]

11. I still don't think she can win.

I think in today's political arena a person has to be squeaky clean to win. If you come into the race with baggage you are sunk. That's how Clinton won. His baggage was all in Ark and that didn't count. But she has an entire segment of the population who would vote for King Kong first.

Kerry had the same problem. The hatred and long memory of the US Military was underestimated. I can't tell you how much trash email I got about him from military family and friends. NOT necessarily even Republicans. He came in with baggage and it bit him.

[Armstead]

12. You may be right...But what if she does run?

If a Hillary run is inevitable, what would you suggest?

[TallahasseeGrannie]

17. Her only hope is with a killer

VP candidate. But it would be a Dem blunder to nominate her.

[autorank]

13. Don't run. You will lose and never have the chance again.

Me to Hillary:

"Look, you want it straight so here it is Hillary. You fucked up when you voted to authorize the war. That was just pathetic. There were 21 old dudes, guy's who've been around, who told you, "forget about it, this one stinks." But you didn't listen. It was your choice. Now Iraq is a disaster. The people know it, it's in the polls but the papers aren't covering it. So what. It's still there and it will get about twice as bad. You know that the fundamentalists are taking over, you know it, don't kid yourself. When that happens, and let me say this clearly and slowly, THE AMERICAN PEOPLE ARE GOING TO GO BAT SHIT. They will put it all together--we gave up finding Bin Laden, we lost thousands through death and injury, we lost billions in a war where only Bush's friends made out...AND what did we get--a fundamentalist regime aligned with Iran that's telling us to leave. That will all happen before the primary season. If you run, you're right there, public political enemy number one; you'll be a public pinata for expression of rage.

Don't let the polls fool you. It's all name recognition. Your core support is thin and the activists are not too fond of you. Where are your troops? Where will they be when the Iraq "Full Monty" bears its face.

Hang back, correct yourself, and stop being such a fucking weak kneed politician."

(This is where I get fired, but it was worth it, wasn't it. But I told her the truth and it's a great story to tell forever.)

[autorank]

15. I love it...

...she wouldn't get it. She's not nearly as smart as the PR says. If she were, she wouldn't have made the killer mistake of becoming a centerist and voting for Iraq. But at least she wouldn't fire you. Great advice, btw.

[Poppyseedman]

16. Keep your day job

Bring the center further to the left. Go for the base. Become a proud liberal with no apologies. And sell what real liberal/progressive politics means.

Good advice if the country all voted like people here do.

The reality is elections are won in the center. Pandering to the left will not sell to the huge block of american voters who consider themselves moderate centrist.

For Hillary to win is simple.
1. Never forgot 50% of voters are male and she must speak to them in their language. The first time you remind them of their mother or their wife, you are toast.
2. Tap into the youth. Nothing else inspires young people to think they are part of something special. Helping the first women to win the Office of the President.
3. Stop for the love of God, wearing pants suits. Wear a dress.
4. Divorce Bill, he's an anchor the rightwing will weigh you down with daily. It will show women you are your own person.
5. Resign from the Senate to show people you are serious about winning.

IMHO

[Armstead]

18. I'll keep mine if you keep yours

That is a really stale argument that the "center" is this distorted version of Corporate Conservatism that has been imposed in the last 30 years.

The center is a wide berth, but one thing they have in common is that they are WORKING PEOPLE WHO ARE GETTING SCREWED by the current ecnomic values and policies.

Ignore that at your peril.

[Poppyseedman]

19. Gee, you asked for my opinion. I gave it.

"That's what I'd tell her. What advice would YOU give?"

So the "center" doesn't win elections? No matter how much a "distorted version" of their reality is, they still aren't buying into the progressive message, not so much because it's the wrong message, but because it's communicated rather poorly by democratic leadership.

Personally, people like Reid and Pelosi should spend a lot more time communicating a democratic party vision rather then just being anti-bush. Not that bush doesn't need to be opposed, but it shouldn't be all anti-bush all the time.

People turn a deaf ear eventually

[Armstead]

20. I don't mind your giving your opinion...

...But the "keep your day job" was a bit snide.

I'll agree with you that the progressive mesage is communicated poorly by the Dem leadership. But that's a matter of style rather than substance. Instead of changing our policies because we don't communicate well, it seems to me that it would make more sense to concentrate on communicating a positive progresive agenda better.

[welshTerrier2]

21. the great "run to the center" myth

they keep telling us that if the right moves left or the left moves right, they will position themselves right under the dead center of the bell curve ... and the argument is that the center of the bell curve is where most of the voters are at ... that's actually sort of the main idea of bell curves ...

this, of course, does not do a particularly good job explaining how extreme right wing republicans have done as well as they have ...

the reality is that what voters in the center really don't like is extreme partisanship, negativism and sniping back and forth rather than taking care of the nation's business ... this does NOT mean that they necessarily are turned off by either extreme right wing or extreme left wing IDEAS ... that's the great fallacy of the "run to the center" political strategy ... there is absolutely nothing sacred about the center anymore than there is about any other idea ... ideas are judged on their merits; not their position on a political spectrum ...

and there is the great myth of the "run to the center" political strategy ... candidates who choose the center for political reasons used to be seen as fence-sitters ... they were seen as the wishy-washy, could-go-either-way, no-real-strong-ideas-one-way-or-the-other center ... there is nothing wrong with holding centrist views anymore than there is holding any other views ... but the corollary is true as well ... there is nothing special about holding centrist views either ...

what voters are looking for are candidates with the courage of their convictions ... voters want to know that their candidates are passionate about their beliefs and they have taken the stands they have because they are committed to bringing about the vision they have for the country ... the worst candidates are the phonies who are "selecting a bell curve position" to "look popular" and attract more voters ... doing this is seen as phoniness and weakness ...

Hillary is a third way candidate ... her belief that she can run a phony centrist campaign without the support of the Party's left will not succeed ... my advice is the same as yours ... tap into the Party's great energies and let loose a firestorm of campaign energy ... putting on bell curve airs ain't going nowhere ... worse yet, it may go somewhere but not where we need ...

[AtomicKitten]

22. The centrist election tact you mock worked for Bill Clinton.

And Hillary has plenty of support on the left should she get the nod.

Don't exaggerate the few percentage points you hardliners constitute with false bravado. It would behoove those to work to change the party from within, otherwise all that energy will be for naught. You simply cannot ignore and continue to denigrate the majority of voters within the Democratic party.

[Name removed]

24. Deleted message

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

[AtomicKitten]

25. down boy, someone might turn the hose on you. n/t

[martymar64]

30. Not one Repug would vote for HRC, not one

That is why the move to the center strategy would not work for her. If you think she is divisive here at DU, there is absolutely no division on the other side, they hate her worse than Bill! Her pro-war, more-war stance will not get her very far with this party, at least not this anti-war Democrat. Why do you think the talking heads are trying to get her to run? Because it is a sure recipe for a permanent Republican presidency.

[SONUVABUSH]

23. I'd say.......

Don't run for president wench, the Democrats don't want to lose again.

[ddeclue]

26. I like it..

[Hippo_Tron]

27. Hillary you are a fighter, why aren't you fighting?

I think that Hillary is too concerned these days with what the right wing thinks of her. She is the type of person who would be liberal and not be afraid to show it either.

But not only that, though, she was the type of person who would defend herself by playing the same game that the GOP does. If Rush Limbaugh makes a comment about her, call him a fatass drug addict. If Jerry Falwell makes a comment about her, call him a nutcase who uses god's name to make money.

I don't mean this literally, but it really bugs me that democrats that I used to know as attackers are now appeasing the right wing. Much of the GOP are human scum, yet we appease them because we somehow think that Americans share their views. Americans don't share their views and the ones that do aren't voting for us anyway.

So Hillary quit the appeasing. Start fighting.

[1Pangean]

28. Run for Prez from the proud left of center

Hillary would be a terrific candidate in 08 and she is smartly preparing the ground but she has one big problem: Her stance on the Iraq war. But there is a way out of that dilemma. She can't undo her vote and trying to re-define it will sound like unintelligible Kerry-like gobbledygook. Don't run away from the vote. Embrace it! But...use the "I've been had" escape. This is not brain surgery, really. We all know we have All been had. Even Republicans know this. (remember, they don't buy into nation building. So only the weapons of mass destruction had resonance with them, originally. Of course, now they are stuck and go with options they are given by their leaders...understandable...they need to be given an alternative and they will take it because it is consistent with their core beliefs) They sold us the war on weapons of mass destruction but, seeing that there aren't any, what did we expect them to say: Oops, sorry...nevermind?!?! The entire * opposition must drive the point home that the president saw different information that everyone else saw. Seriously, if you think that congress saw what the president saw, you have no understanding of this administration. Everything is secrecy and expansion of presidential power. How would that be consistent with sharing information with a notoriously leaky legislative branch? It's not! Therefore, what the president and his advisors saw was NOT the same that the legislative branch saw.

At any rate, the executive does not need to share how it runs the war with the legislative branch in all it's details. That is the argument the administration is constantly making. Let's believe them in this case. Therefore, Hillary has an escape route for her vote on Iraq: Any right thinking person, after hearing the arguments made by the administration and especially after Powell's powerful presentation at the U.N. would, of course, vote to prevent the Iraqi dictator from consumating his nefarious designs: Attacking U.S. interests with weapons of mass destruction. Vote explained.

If Republicans come back with some sort of flip flop argument embrace that as well. The analogy is the Used Car reply. You buy it under one assumption, say, you assumed it has a working engine. But the Used Car Dealer (Read: Administration) spiked the power plant with stop leak and disconnected the exhaust. You look at the car...looks good, runs ok and no funny smoke out of the tail pipe. Great! Say you urgently need this car to move your stuff from point a to point b because your lease expired and you have three days to move. Everything looks ok so, you go for it. You buy the car and on the way to your new place, oil pours out the bottom and blue smoke seeps from beneath the engine.

If you are a Republican you would say "too bad too sad" (which is exactly what they are trying to do) but...if you are that guy trying to move your stuff (or you are the American public)you know what is REALLY going on! You have been screwed! (Where is Perot when you really need him?!?!) People aren't stupid. They really do know what is going on here. But the true mark of political leadership is to voice self evident truth in an intelligible manner. People already know, you just have to say it clearly! Once you explain it this way, the Republicans would be in the place of the sheister used car dealer and 75% of the public would identify with the guy whose been sold a bill of goods. The guy that's been had.

Finally, if the administration tries to pry Hillary from the public with the argument that SHE, Hillary, personally (or her democratic leaders in congress) received different info from what the public received, call the bluff. Just say no, you didn't! What are they going to do? Release this "classified" information? Not likely.

The administration can't win on this score because the assumption of the public has always been that there really IS information that the executive has that it is not sharing with the public and with congress. Which means that there is a vague sense of incompetence attached to the whole affair. The administration saying that all the information was out there but was wrong runs counter to the general belief that all the information is NOT out there but father knows best and has all the right answers. To find out that they DIDN'T have the info and the answers creates a disconnect that goes a long way in explaining current poll numbers. Couple that with demonstrated incompetence for all to see in the wake of Katrina and you have a credibility gap the size of the Grand Canyon.

All this would insulate Hillary from a flip flop argument regarding her Iraq vote.

[Armstead]

29. IMO she should stop equating the Iraq War with "strong" national defense

That is the biggest trap the Democrats fell into. They assumed that to be "strong on dfense" they had to support a war that has actually weakened our national defense.

As John Murtha has correctly pointed out, one does not have to be a pacifist weenie to see that in terms of making the best use of American power, the Iraq Wsar has had the opposite effect. It has made us weaker.

Call a spade a spade. The US jumped the shark on the Iraq War. Now that we're there, we have to find a decent way out. But the underlying pretext was all wrong. If Hillary and other Democrats would follow the lead of John Murtha, they could retain their security "credentials" while also addressing the mitake they made in 2002-3.

[Bucky]

31. I'd say, "yes, run" coz she'd split the DLC vote with Biden

But then I'd be a very bad advisor.