Posted on 01/10/2008 7:42:33 AM PST by jdm
Hillary Clinton stands behind no Democratic presidential candidate in her scorn for George W. Bush – but that isn’t stopping her from implementing Mr. Bush’s 2000 primary strategy. In one notable consequence of the front-loaded 2008 political calendar, she implemented it before the New Hampshire primary, not after.
Recall that in 2000, John McCain smashed Mr. Bush in New Hampshire by dominating the votes of independents. But Mr. Bush wore down Mr. McCain in subsequent contests with a two-pronged strategy. He co-opted the Arizona senator’s “reform” mantra by calling himself the reformer who would actually produce results, and sharply criticized Mr. McCain in ways that deepened the doubts of Republican regulars. It worked, especially well in contests limited to GOP voters.
After her Iowa defeat, Mrs. Clinton adopted precisely the same approach against Barack Obama in New Hampshire. She co-opted Mr. Obama’s “change” theme but argued that she could act to produce it, while her less-experienced rival could only talk. She and her husband, former President Clinton, bluntly attacked Mr. Obama for having waffled on issues.
The strategy succeeded. The former First Lady won Democrats by a robust 45 percent - 34 percent margin, which overcome the Illinois senator’s twelve percentage-point margin among the smaller bloc of independent voters. Team Clinton will attempt to emulate that formula in the long march through Feb. 5, just as Mr. Bush did eight years ago.
The peculiar contours of 2008 lend Mr. Obama one critical advantage in states beyond New Hampshire that Mr. McCain didn’t enjoy: support from a core Democratic constituency that has played virtually no role in the first two contests.
(Excerpt) Read more at thecaucus.blogs.nytimes.com ...
FWIW, I don't remember Bush crying in 2000, in an effort to pimp up his votes.
The Clintons have been at this for 30 + years now.
See what works for the opposition, STEAL IT, at least rhetorically.
The speed with which her campaign adapted, successfully, to what happened in Iowa is amazing.
They didnt make a single mistake in recallibration. Not one. That’s how 10-12 points down pollster-wide turned into a 3 point win. She stole that much support from Barack, and probably Edwards, in a matter of days precisely because they’re probably better and more refined at this than they ever have been.
We need to knock the Clintons out before the General.
I don’t remember Bush crying in New Hampshire, either. Also, I don’t remember him flooding out-of-state voters over the borders in order to turn looming defeat into victory.
As she would be the first to say, hillary ain’t no Bush!
“Hillary Clinton stands behind no Democratic presidential candidate in her scorn for George W. Bush”
Her scorn is NOTHING compared to the scorn I have for Her Hideousness.
So the article's author, John Harwood, is apparently making the argument that white Democrat primary voters are not voting on the basis of the race of the candidate, but he fully expects black Democrat voters to vote on the basis of race. It probably never even crossed his mind that he is in effect calling black Democrat voters racists...
What bothers her the most about Bush--the fact that here have been no attacks here since 9/11, the fact that Afghanistan has been stabilized by the removal of the Taliban, or the fact that a dangerous, murderous thug has been removed from Iraq and that country is on its way to being a democratic presence in the most dangerous part of the world? These accomplishments pale next to those of the Clinton Administration, which include--- (somebody help me here--I can't think of any.)
“These accomplishments pale next to those of the Clinton Administration, which include-— (somebody help me here—I can’t think of any.)”
Their main accomplishment: they soiled and sullied the presidency and the White House.
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