Personally, I don't think Hillary's dilemma is such a tough one. She
will continue wooing the Bush People while aiming her ads and door
knockers at the "Wanna bees'", the techies and the materialists.
These are the Working Class folks who think they are better than
common labor. They have no collective bone in their bodies, and would
turn on their own mother to get one more rung up the ladder they
believe will lead to success. The disillusioned Bernie Faithful will
simply do what they always do, fail to vote. And frankly, why should
they pretend to have a vote in a rigged game that never wanted them as
players in the first place? So Hillary's advisors will continue on
the same old plan, move to the Right and expect those to the Left to
vote for her in hopes that they will find some relief if she is
elected. Her only dilemma is whether her smooth talk and her troops
can get out enough votes.
Trump, on the other hand, has a tougher road to travel. His Faithful
Worshipers are much louder than numerous. Trump will be wooing the
same uncommitted people as is Hillary. But he will be at a
disadvantage due to his, "tell it like it is", style. Hillary will be
the smarter campaigner, changing colors as she needs, forcing Trump to
swing wildly and doing all she can to help him look the part of the
big mouthed buffoon.
Assuming she comes out of Convention as the Democrats candidate, she
will win the election. And we can eagerly look forward to 8 more
years of the same old same old. Meanwhile our Ship of State will move
steadily toward the rocky reefs.
Carl Jarvis
On 5/6/16, Miriam Vieni <miriamvieni@xxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:
Published on Alternet (http://www.alternet.org)
Home > Hillary's Big Dilemma
________________________________________
Hillary's Big Dilemma
By Robert Kuttner [1] / The American Prospect [2]
May 5, 2016
Hillary Clinton and her advisers now face an excruciating dilemma for the
November election. Go left or go center?
Typically, a Democrat moves left to win the nomination and then moves
center
to capture swing voters in the general election. But this is no ordinary
election.
For starters, the Sanders campaign has been the source of energy and
excitement-not just the kids, but the white working class voters whom
Hillary will need to win back.
Polls suggest [3] that few Sanders backers will defect to Trump. That's not
the problem.
The problem is how many will just disengage, stay home, refuse to work hard
for the ticket, or even vote for the Green Party candidate, Jill Stein.
And what it would take for Clinton to win over disaffected blue-collar
voters who were once Democrats but who now are inclined to vote for a
pseudo-populist Republican?
Those concerns suggest that Hillary Clinton should move to the populist
left. However, most of the insider advice she is getting urges the
opposite-move to the center to persuade moderate Republicans disgusted by
Trump to vote for a Democrat this time. If she moves left, according to
this
advice, the moderate Republicans and traditional swing voters stay home.
One of the first signals she will send will be her choice of running mate.
For a while the moderate of choice seemed to be Housing and Urban
Development Secretary Julian Castro. But Clinton doesn't really need a
Hispanic running mate. Trump will take care of Hispanic turnout for the
Democrat.
Now the moderate of choice is Virginia Senator Tim Kaine. He's a popular,
well-liked, centrist Democrat from a swing state, who is also a Catholic
and
a former governor. Kaine would reassure moderates-but do nothing whatever
for Sanders supporters.
If she goes the other way, and names Sanders himself, or a progressive like
Al Franken or Elizabeth Warren, that could mobilize some Sanders voters-but
not win the hearts of those elusive moderate Republicans.
She might declare the platform process open to convention delegates and let
them define the party program. That could well give Sanders supporters the
sense that they succeeded on pushing the Democrats to the left. The trouble
is that hardly anyone reads platforms other than Republicans looking to
ridicule positions that sound extreme.
Clinton could also adopt more of Sanders's policy positions. She has
already
shifted to opposing Obama's pro-corporate trade deals and now (sort of)
supports [4] a $15 minimum wage.
She might come out more unequivocally for a $15 minimum, for more far
reaching student debt relief, and tougher regulation of Wall Street. But
those and similar policies would contradict the strategy of moving to the
center.
Face it: There is no good way of reassuring both Sanders supporters and
Republican moderates.
Let us count the things that could go wrong.But does that matter really?
Don't the polls make clear that Hillary wins in a landslide against Trump?
What could go wrong?
It's true that the polls show Clinton beating Trump nationally, and even in
must-win states like Michigan, Ohio, and Pennsylvania, which have lots of
disaffected blue-collar voters. However, Trump has been underestimated ever
since he declared, and imagine any of the following:
A major terrorist attack. Even though Clinton is hawkish on national
security, she is still female. And Trump would exploit all the latent
misogyny that signals the need for a tough man in charge during a crisis.
Some unexploded bomblet from the email mess or the still undisclosed Wall
Street speeches. We just don't know what's in there.
Bill goes rogue. We do know that Trump will keep baiting Hillary Clinton
for
being a faux-feminist and political opportunist because she stayed married
to her alley-cat husband. Hillary may well have enough self-discipline not
to take the bait. But Bill is capable of saying anything. Which would drag
everyone in the mud, a venue where Trump is a champion wrestler.
So the nail-biters in the Clinton camp are right to worry. Yes, she is
probably on track to win, but she needs every vote she can get, especially
if she expects to govern effectively-which will take a Democratic Senate
and
ideally a Democratic House.
Threading that needle, and attracting both Sanders voters and moderate
Republicans, will be no mean feat.
Robert Kuttner is co-editor of The American Prospect and a visiting
professor at Brandeis University's Heller School. His latest book is
Debtors' Prison: The Politics of Austerity Versus Possibility. [5]
Share on Facebook Share
Share on Twitter Tweet
Report typos and corrections to 'corrections@xxxxxxxxxxxx'. [6]
[7]
________________________________________
Source URL: http://www.alternet.org/election-2016/hillarys-big-dilemma
Links:
[1] http://www.alternet.org/authors/robert-kuttner
[2] http://www.prospect.org/
[3]
http://www.nytimes.com/2016/05/02/opinion/a-trump-sanders-coalition-nah.html
?_r=0
[4]
http://www.politifact.com/truth-o-meter/statements/2016/apr/15/bernie-s/does
-hillary-clinton-want-15-or-12-minimum-wage/
[5]
http://www.amazon.com/Debtors-Prison-Politics-Austerity-Possibility/dp/03079
59805
[6] mailto:corrections@xxxxxxxxxxxx?Subject=Typo on Hillary's Big
Dilemma
[7] http://www.alternet.org/
[8] http://www.alternet.org/%2Bnew_src%2B
Published on Alternet (http://www.alternet.org)
Home > Hillary's Big Dilemma
Hillary's Big Dilemma
By Robert Kuttner [1] / The American Prospect [2]
May 5, 2016
Hillary Clinton and her advisers now face an excruciating dilemma for the
November election. Go left or go center?
Typically, a Democrat moves left to win the nomination and then moves
center
to capture swing voters in the general election. But this is no ordinary
election.
For starters, the Sanders campaign has been the source of energy and
excitement-not just the kids, but the white working class voters whom
Hillary will need to win back.
Polls suggest [3] that few Sanders backers will defect to Trump. That's not
the problem.
The problem is how many will just disengage, stay home, refuse to work hard
for the ticket, or even vote for the Green Party candidate, Jill Stein.
And what it would take for Clinton to win over disaffected blue-collar
voters who were once Democrats but who now are inclined to vote for a
pseudo-populist Republican?
Those concerns suggest that Hillary Clinton should move to the populist
left. However, most of the insider advice she is getting urges the
opposite-move to the center to persuade moderate Republicans disgusted by
Trump to vote for a Democrat this time. If she moves left, according to
this
advice, the moderate Republicans and traditional swing voters stay home.
One of the first signals she will send will be her choice of running mate.
For a while the moderate of choice seemed to be Housing and Urban
Development Secretary Julian Castro. But Clinton doesn't really need a
Hispanic running mate. Trump will take care of Hispanic turnout for the
Democrat.
Now the moderate of choice is Virginia Senator Tim Kaine. He's a popular,
well-liked, centrist Democrat from a swing state, who is also a Catholic
and
a former governor. Kaine would reassure moderates-but do nothing whatever
for Sanders supporters.
If she goes the other way, and names Sanders himself, or a progressive like
Al Franken or Elizabeth Warren, that could mobilize some Sanders voters-but
not win the hearts of those elusive moderate Republicans.
She might declare the platform process open to convention delegates and let
them define the party program. That could well give Sanders supporters the
sense that they succeeded on pushing the Democrats to the left. The trouble
is that hardly anyone reads platforms other than Republicans looking to
ridicule positions that sound extreme.
Clinton could also adopt more of Sanders's policy positions. She has
already
shifted to opposing Obama's pro-corporate trade deals and now (sort of)
supports [4] a $15 minimum wage.
She might come out more unequivocally for a $15 minimum, for more far
reaching student debt relief, and tougher regulation of Wall Street. But
those and similar policies would contradict the strategy of moving to the
center.
Face it: There is no good way of reassuring both Sanders supporters and
Republican moderates.
Let us count the things that could go wrong.But does that matter really?
Don't the polls make clear that Hillary wins in a landslide against Trump?
What could go wrong?
It's true that the polls show Clinton beating Trump nationally, and even in
must-win states like Michigan, Ohio, and Pennsylvania, which have lots of
disaffected blue-collar voters. However, Trump has been underestimated ever
since he declared, and imagine any of the following:
A major terrorist attack. Even though Clinton is hawkish on national
security, she is still female. And Trump would exploit all the latent
misogyny that signals the need for a tough man in charge during a crisis.
Some unexploded bomblet from the email mess or the still undisclosed Wall
Street speeches. We just don't know what's in there.
Bill goes rogue. We do know that Trump will keep baiting Hillary Clinton
for
being a faux-feminist and political opportunist because she stayed married
to her alley-cat husband. Hillary may well have enough self-discipline not
to take the bait. But Bill is capable of saying anything. Which would drag
everyone in the mud, a venue where Trump is a champion wrestler.
So the nail-biters in the Clinton camp are right to worry. Yes, she is
probably on track to win, but she needs every vote she can get, especially
if she expects to govern effectively-which will take a Democratic Senate
and
ideally a Democratic House.
Threading that needle, and attracting both Sanders voters and moderate
Republicans, will be no mean feat.
Robert Kuttner is co-editor of The American Prospect and a visiting
professor at Brandeis University's Heller School. His latest book is
Debtors' Prison: The Politics of Austerity Versus Possibility. [5]
Error! Hyperlink reference not valid.
Error! Hyperlink reference not valid.
Report typos and corrections to 'corrections@xxxxxxxxxxxx'. [6]
Error! Hyperlink reference not valid.[7]
Source URL: http://www.alternet.org/election-2016/hillarys-big-dilemma
Links:
[1] http://www.alternet.org/authors/robert-kuttner
[2] http://www.prospect.org/
[3]
http://www.nytimes.com/2016/05/02/opinion/a-trump-sanders-coalition-nah.html
?_r=0
[4]
http://www.politifact.com/truth-o-meter/statements/2016/apr/15/bernie-s/does
-hillary-clinton-want-15-or-12-minimum-wage/
[5]
http://www.amazon.com/Debtors-Prison-Politics-Austerity-Possibility/dp/03079
59805
[6] mailto:corrections@xxxxxxxxxxxx?Subject=Typo on Hillary's Big
Dilemma
[7] http://www.alternet.org/
[8] http://www.alternet.org/%2Bnew_src%2B
