Picture of the Day - 2
(NYTimes) After Obama Victory, Clinton’s Camp Seeks Gentler Role for Ex-President
(Hillary Rodham Clinton listens to a question from the audience during a speech 26 January 2008. (AFP/Robyn Beck))
posted by mikevotes at
9:32 AM
6 Comments:
The conventional wisdom (for what it's worth) credited Hillary's shift to a kinder, gentler style as being what pushed her (barely) into the winners circle in NH. It's beyond my simple reasoning skills to understand why they did a complete 180 in the run through NV and SC. And so aggressively so as well.
Was it an experiment? Was it Bill taking charge and sidelining paid campaign staff and managers?
American politics should be a college major in abnormal psychology... (speaking broadly, not the Clintons)
By
-epm, at 9:09 AM
Bottom line....I think Bill just couldn't stop himself. One would have thought the business with Ms. Lewinsky had taught him self-restraint.
By
Anonymous, at 9:32 AM
EPM, I think they like everyone else didn't expect to win NH and they were working on a big swing on Feb 5 strategy that involved remaking their candidate into a friendlier Clinton over the weeks between Iowa and Feb 5.
Then, they won NH, and tried to pivot. thinking they needed to diminish Obama's momentum.
What I'm saying is that NH caught them buy surprise in the middle of a monthlong strategy and they made mistakes as they tried to shift everything quickly.
....
Anon, I don't believe that, at least on the level of his statements. Bill Clinton was one of the most carefully shaded speakers we've ever had as president.
By
mikevotes, at 12:01 PM
I know he's always careful what he says. I meant he just can't stay out of the limelight.
By
Anonymous, at 12:28 PM
Maybe the Obama campaign deserves some credit for skillful political jujitsu, for turning what the Clintons probably thought were legitimate attacks into perceived racism.
Also, it may be that the Clintons thought a good cop/bad cop approach would work, but discovered that when the bad cop was talking, no one listened to the good cop.
By
Anonymous, at 12:40 PM
Anon, I'll certainly buy that. I didn't understand you.
The reports were that he was chomping at the bit after Iowa.
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Tom, Agreed. The Obama campaign has played all of this very well.
I don't know how much coverage you watch, but Obama has now transitioned his "change" message in the stump speech to be more about the Clinton's (referred to as the past vs. the future, and "those that tear people down.)
That's the thing about his "message." It's really a very vague thing that they can shape to what they want without the traditional complications of actually changing position or theme.
AND, as for good cop/bad cop, that might very well have been a great observation. I think the misjudgement might have been that they believed they could control the audience for Bill Clinton's comments.
I other words, they thought he could be used to say certain things to certain groups that Hillary Clinton couldn't.
By
mikevotes, at 2:08 PM
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