Hillary Clinton
In reply to the discussion: Sanders to Clinton: 'Excuse me, I'm talking' [View all]MADem
(135,425 posts)"Borg of Supporters," if you will. One says it, a bunch repeat it, and they're having to live with their cries of "DWS BAD! MORE DEBATES!" We'll give ya more debates, we'll give you just what you're demanding....aka "Come into my parlor, said the spider to the fly."
His staff are just not very good at running the MESSAGING for a national campaign. He is doing -- if not well, OK -- despite them, not because of them. They got the target audience right, but they don't know how to talk OVER the target audience to a wider audience of those who need to be convinced. They never get ahead of anything, they're always in reactive/pander mode. It's why the My Black Friends Tour at the HBCUs went over like a lead balloon, and it's why the "Feisty Bernie" isn't selling, either. You can criticize or challenge without coming off like a boor. He didn't manage to do that, though. That was his Rick Lazio moment.
Al Gore's people told him to loom and intimidate too--it didn't work for him, either, not because of sexism since he was running against Bush, but because it went against his essential demeanor, which was that of a guy who cared deeply about things and was an astute student of them, too. He wasn't a bully so it came off as forced.
In Sanders' case, he came off as someone who has YELLED LIKE THAT BEFORE. It was a complete and total mistake--but who knew it was that easy to trip that guy's wire? Not a good look for him at all. The sexist tinge accusation has more to do with the fact that pretty much anyone who has been in a situation where it's mostly men, and one or two women, in leadership roles, that they've either been the woman on the receiving end of that shit, or seen the woman get treated like that. Dismissed, denied, "Shut up - my opinion is more important than yours" kind of thing. And it doesn't really matter, at the end of the day, if his dismissive snarling was about her gender--it's obvious that he prefers the TRANSMIT mode to the RECEIVE one. And that is NOT a good default setting for a Chief Executive.
He lacks the temperament of a successful candidate for a job where listening to people trying to give you advice is key.