As a Sanders supporter who thinks Clinton is the favorite and who will vote for the nominee, please

[Attorney in Texas]

get your campaign on course!

Hillary is the favorite. Her path to the nomination is clear, and yet she seems unwilling to pilot that course.

Please, for the sake of the party, just consider this:

1. Address your greatest weakness - the widespread perception of untrustworthiness. When you withhold the transcripts from paid speeches to Wall Street, it makes it look like you are hiding something. Have you not learned anything from the phony email-"scandal" manufactured by the Republicans? The drip-drip-drip of trying to hide it is worse than whatever you are wanting to hide. Eventually, the drip-drip-drip will get so bad that you will HAVE to disclose the transcripts (either now in the primary or in the general election) or WORSE YET they will be leaked while you are still hiding them. Get out in front of this issue! Pull the band-aid off now during the primary. Similarly, stop making factually disputable attacks on Sanders (like the auto bailout bullshit). If you cannot beat Sanders honestly, you aren't going to win in November even if you win dirty in the primary. This sort strategy is beneath a front-runner and it feeds the pre-conception that you aren't very honest. Stop it (for your own sake).

2. Repair your second greatest weakness - the low favorability among independents. People like it when someone acknowledges another person's success and when someone shares the credit, especially when they give the compliment or share the credit with someone unexpectedly. Start complementing people more. Rubio is a dead man walking. Find something nice to say about him and his campaign. Build bridges with O'Malley and Chafee and Webb. Pick something they did that was a highlight for them, and toss them a gratuitous "attaboy" the next time you're on Meet the Press. Give Sanders credit for a couple of your flip flops. If you pretend that you haven't changed your opinions, you look dishonest and insecure to independent voters and your changes in position are easily percieved as flip flops. On the other hand, if you say "I got to thinking about Bernie's position on fracking (or whatever flip flop you want to justify) and I started to come around to the view that he's making a pretty good point." Independent voters love a candidate who is persuadable to reconsidering a poorly considered position, but they don't like a flip flopper. The only difference between those two is the confidence and humility of person who admits to being persuaded by an opponent.

3. Bridge the enthusiasm gap - fire up your supporters by embracing who you are - You are campaigning like a basketball team trying to hold on to a lead during the final ten minutes of the game. It seems like a safe tactic, but it's not actually all that good of a strategy, and -- for good or for bad -- it's hellaboring for the fans to watch that run-out-the-clock bullshit. Pick some interesting issues that speak to you and get out there on those issues. When picking these issues, ask your focus group guys for 10 suggestions and then cross them off the list. When you repeat over and over that you have been a life long advocate for children, that's just eye-roll inducing. Of course you support children. Everyone fucking supports children. You may as well come out in favor of puppies and Tom Hanks movies. The only thing this tells us about you is that you are overly focus grouped. Pick some issue (like guns, but an issue where you are to the right of Sanders) and just engage that debate. Pick something that affects everyday Americans which you are passionate about and where you have a genuine disagreement with Sanders and where the fight will position you well for the general election, and then make that a fight. If you picked some domestic policy issue where you disagree with Sanders and you showed some passion -- maybe enough passion that one of your endorsers said "I agree with Sanders about this and break with Hillary over this issue" -- you would generate much enthusiasm and get more credit as a result of taking a stand for what you believe in than it would cost you in losing one or two (of your 1,000) endorsements.

This race is yours to lose, and it seems to me that you are doing your damnedest to lose it.

[gcomeau]

1. In other words... transform into Sanders.

(You know, until the election is over)

[Fairgo]

11. well said

[Ferd Berfel]

19. Yeo 0 and at this point who is going to beleive

That much spin? It'll make people

[whatchamacallit]

22. In a nutshell

[ghostsinthemachine]

31. Ding a freaking ling

But she won't.

[CaliforniaPeggy]

2. This IS excellent advice.

Frankly, I hope she ignores it.

[arcane1]

3. "embracing who you are" isn't going to win over anyone, it will make it worse.

That's why she has so many other Hillarys to pretend to be.

[Attorney in Texas]

6. No one "likes" Trump, but he's winning because he's an authentic unlikable guy. If you are less

likable than Bill Clinton, you can at least be authentic.

[demwing]

5. "you are doing your damnedest to lose it"

Good! why in the work world you stop her?

[Attorney in Texas]

7. I want Sanders to win the nomination and I also want our nominee to win the general election.

It doesn't hurt to give the other side some friendly advice. It makes for a better race.

[demwing]

9. I admire your equanimity

but all things aren't equal. Why prop her up now while we can still take the win?

[Attorney in Texas]

12. Improving her campaign will better focus both candidates on the issues. That's good for everyone.

In the end, Progressives (like me and you) will support the progressive candidate.

Centrists and those who are satisfied with the establishment status quo will support Hillary.

The nomination will be decided along these lines.

Clinton making adjustments to strengthen her campaign for the general election will do nothing to harm Sanders' chances at winning the nomination; they will only make Hillary stronger in the general election in the event that Sanders does not win the nomination.

I want to see Sanders win, but I also want to avoid a Cruz administration. I see the Clinton campaign on a path where her winning the primary is a possibility but her winning the general election is not likely. That's an outcome I'd like to avoid at all costs.

[demwing]

14. I respect you, Attorney in Texas

but we're going to have to respectfully agree to disagree on this. If Hillary has a chance of failing, let it happen NOW, before she secures the nomination.

[Attorney in Texas]

16. We can agree that Sanders is a better candidate both for the primary and for the general election!

[musiclawyer]

29. Almost no one under 30 will vote for her

Democratic Party lost the kids long ago. They will never be democrats. They will stay independent. The older independents are starting to go Bernie in Critical mass. Huge Trump turnout. It's over. Cake is baked. Hillary and Bill already lost. The ultimate insider v the outsiders in a tidal wave outsider year. It's a matter of to whom? Bernie or Trump. That's the question all Dems in upcoming primary states need to ask themselves, real hard ....

As the boomers die off the millennials will take over electorally. And they ALL want the country to be run for people and not corporations. They will demand on oath to people. It's coming.

So do you wait for that inevitable seismic shift ( corporations not people) now with Bernie or do you let Trump win and wait for years for Bernie's successor to do it? It's really up to people like you reading this Board.

I find all this hand wringing amusing because the Democratic Party ( the corporate one ostensibly in charge now ) is dead. It just doesn't know it yet

[demwing]

30. I'm doing no hand wringing

did you mean to reply to me?

[Attorney in Texas]

33. I know Ted Cruz. His heart is full of spiders. We had better hope that Trump wins the nomination.

[0rganism]

8. aka "get your shit together"

somehow this seems appropriate:

[BernieforPres2016]

10. Hillary can't overcome the issue of untrustworthiness

She has a 25 year history with the American public. Her negatives are high and don't go down. Most who dislike her have tuned her out and few are going to be persuaded by what she says during the middle of a political campaign in an effort to get elected.

That basically wipes out your points #1 and #2.

As for #3, I don't see it. Hillary doesn't generate a lot of real enthusiasm. She is not a natural politician like her husband.

I think the better solution is for Hillary supporters to recognize she is a deeply flawed candidate who is particularly vulnerable to Trump on trade and Wall Street in states Democrats must win in the general election, and to switch to Bernie who is more progressive, correctly perceived by voters as honest and principled, and a much stronger general election candidate.

[Attorney in Texas]

13. That's possibly true, but it shouldn't stop her from fucking well trying.

[BernieforPres2016]

17. It's obvious when she tries on a new personality or tactic

And it just reinforces what people think about her. After 25 years, you are what you are.

I think she will try to do what you suggest and she may hang on and win the nomination, but I don't think she can do much to shore up her vulnerabilities.

[liberalla]

32. We know her too well. In her case, that's a real obstacle.

How do you UN-know her?

[Mike__M]

15. Absolutely

I'd rather the campaign lost honestly, than self-immolate in a smoldering mess of lies and innuendo. Clinton could retire with honor, and be more popular than ever.

[BernieforPres2016]

21. I agree, but the Clintons just aren't wired that way

Look at that smear she laid on Bernie after he has taken the high road on the email issue.

Hillary thinks she's entitled to the office and it is win at all costs. This is her last shot.

[fun n serious]

24. No you don't. You really don't. nt

[Waiting For Everyman]

18. She is the wrong candidate at the wrong time.

Your suggestions were good ones, but nothing can fix that.

I submit the first thing she'd need to do is mend fences with Dem progressives, but she has dug that hole a lot deeper by the shady stuff she and the DNC (at her behest) have done during this campaign.

Bill blocking the polling places in Massachusetts was pretty obvious, and so was her gambit with the auto bail out at the debate.

She is just the wrong person. And this is definitely the wrong time for everything she is and stands for, and that goes for her friends in politics too.

[grasswire]

20. This could only happen...

...if American voters had no ears, no eyes, no memory.

What voters think of her is only going to get worse, as more and more connections between her acts and corruption surface, and then as she begins to flail and make errors.

She is simply too flawed to represent Democrats. She cannot be herself, because her self is abhorrent when people learn about it.

[beachbum bob]

23. I still find this all a bit funny as the rightwing media hasn't ramped up anything against bernie

for the most part....pretty clear they prefer sanders over hilllary as they know they posses the power and the reach to sway those voters in the middle....voters like soccer mom group....they are savoring the idea of another George McGovern type election where bernie goes down in an epic landslide to either trump or cruz. the bernie kids here haven't seen political campaigns yet designed to destroy the opponent and bernie is so vulnerable at so many levels.....

[fun n serious]

25. Yep, US democrats have been super soft on Bernie too.

Not like Bernie supporters on DU have been to Hillary. There is a slough of things Trump will bring up should Bernie be the nominee. We have been silent for the sake of the party for the most part Hillary handles scandal pretty well. We know that by history..

[Attorney in Texas]

35. When your Google gets fixed, you may want to do a news search for socialist Sanders. They've ramped

up plenty on Sanders.

The thing is, he's been consistent for over 40 years and so once they have blown their top over the fact that he does not run frightened from the democratic socialist label, they really haven't got much on him.

[BeyondGeography]

26. Great advice, Atty.

Her negatives have to be addressed in new and authentic ways (ie releasing the transcripts). If she doesn't get out of her comfort zone she's doomed.

[katsy]

27. If she is our nominee

I'd hope she would make Bernie VP.

That would heal the party and solidify her support among progressives.

[fun n serious]

28. This is great advice. Thank you. nt

[loyalsister]

34. I almost caught a glimpse of authenticity during the 1st debate

When she talked about changing positions she said something along the lines that gaining more knowledge led her to evolve. She wouldn't say she was wrong, though. It was more along the lines of racism, a lack of inclusion, perceiving black youth to be criminals, accepting what G.W. Bush said at face value were "just how things were in those days."

Admitting to being wrong goes against political orthodoxy but I would find it refreshing, and it would tell me that some real growth has taken place as opposed to a politically expedient shift.

On the other hand, that could be what authenticity is to HRC. It may be second nature to be everything that is wrong with politics.

[amborin]

36. Completely Disagree with this OP, sorry; releasing the transcripts does not absolve anything;

who knows what is in them. but even if she released them, and they are innocent, it proves nothing. This woman has personally profited to the tune of approx $23 million in speaking fees between 2013 and 2015, from various banks and mega-corporations. She is so beholden to them that there is NO way she could take objective regulatory action to rein them in.

She is not the inevitable nominee. The race is wide open after last night and will remain so.

She is unliked by Indies for many reasons. Chief among these is her neo con war mongering. Libya is a failed state and ISIS freely roams, thanks to her horrible and dangerous judgement.

There is no undoing that.

She's a repetitive liar. About almost everything. It's a character flaw. Those kinds of flaws are refractory to treatment.

etc......

[amborin]

37. ps: i find your OP troubling; Right after Bernie wins an historic, game-changing upset victory,

you are essentially saying Hillary will be the nominee and here's how she can make herself palatable

what's up with this?

[Attorney in Texas]

38. Sanders' historic win is Hillary's historic failure. When a candidate fails, she can either turn to

the negative with more false smears and distortions of the truth or she can embrace her strengths and walk away from the weaknesses that make some people mistrust her.

The OP is a plea that Hillary resist those who are urging her to double down on the smears and to listen, instead, to those who are advising that she work to improve her own image and stop the distortions to try to smear Sanders.

This is sincere advice. It would benefit Hillary.

This sincere advice would also benefit Sanders who wants a debate on the issues and not a mud slinging fight.

This sincere advice would also benefit the Democratic party because it would give us a stronger nominee in the fall -- regardless of whether that is Sanders (as I fervently hope) or Hillary.

This sincere advice would also benefit America because we do not want a Cruz administration.

I don't think Hillary will be the nominee, but I do want her to run a strong positive campaign instead of a weak negative campaign. Every Sanders supporter should agree with that.

[Nitram]

39. Great advice.