'New and Improved Presidential Candidate Hillary Clinton'

[grantcart]

I. THE CAMPAIGN THAT REFUSED TO GROW

The stark reality which no Clinton supporter ever addresses is that exactly one year ago Senator Clinton entered the campaign with 38%. Before Iowa that number was 42%. Through all of this campaign Senator Clinton has not been able to move her numbers at all. She has flatlined for the entire race and is always hovering between 42-47%.

In a 3 (or 8) person race a 42% level of support is a commanding lead. In a 2 person race it is a loss.

This primary cycle has had two over arching themes: the ascendency of Senator Obama and the rejection of the Clinton brand for the future of the Democratic Party. She did not pick up any of the other candidates for Presidency and she didn't pick up any of their supporters.


II. HILLARY THE GREAT

And here is the supreme irony. She was good enough and she should have had it. A few times the real Hillary Clinton slippped through, and no the tearful wispy cry in New Hampshire was not one of them. I saw her on Nightline. Fantastic. No packaging no spin. A smart relaxed funny confident woman. The kind of woman I want my daughters to be.

But Hillary the Great was put away. The Clinton team knew better they had won it before (but actually they hadn't they had won the 3 candidate race before and never in fact had won a 2 party national election and sadly poor Ross Perot declined to run again) and resorted to the Selling of Senator Clinton, the 'New and Improved Presidential Candidate Hillary Clinton'.

Had Hillary done what McCain had done and shucked the idiots that became her entourage and gone to town halls by herself and exhausted every question rather than planting them then she would be the nominee and the ticket would be Clinton/Obama. She is that good. But she would have had to walk into the den and made herself vulnerable and shown people she isn't the demon that she has been charachterized as. But she didn't.


III. SADLY THE TRUTH IS GOOD ENOUGH BUT IS NOT USED

And the whole sad affair can be boiled down to Bosnia snipers. The truth was good. The truth was fantastic. The truth proved her point that she has been around and knows where the problem areas were and because she saw how prudent and careful her husband had been that even in a war zone, a war zone that had not one single combat death, the first lady was safe enough not only to go but to take her daughter and get a poem right out on the tarmac - no need to worry or run from snipers.

But just as she feels that Hillary the Great is not good enough the story of First Lady safely arriving in a War Zone was not good enough. It raises the question why doesn't she just be herself and get rid of all of the packaging.


IV. THE PARTY DECLINES THE 'NEW AND IMPROVED' AND GOES ANOTHER PATH

The party has gone another path. It is not simply a different candidate it is a different strategy. The umbilical cord to the corporate universe has been severed and a mass base has been replaced. The plucky community organizer who added 400,000 Democrats to the polling rolls in Chicago has added 3 million in the primaries.

This summer they will add another 10 or 20 million people. That is where the real campaign is heading. One candidate will be doing undraisers and one will be changing the landscape with a completely new and reformed Democratic Party. Stronger and united.


V. SOME WHO LOVE HILLARY THE GREAT CAN'T UNDERSTAND THE REST OF US.

Some who fell in love with Hillary the Great and can't understand the rejection of 'New and Improved Presidential Candidate Hillary Clinton' cling to her candidacy and insist she absolutely must be on the ticket. If we could undue the marketing and some how find Hillary the Great that would have been possible.

Some of these supporters are the best that the party has. Some have been longtime and substantial supporters and some are fantastic writers. The party is not going back. We could no more go back than Europe could have pretended that Columbus hadn't taken a trip somewhere. It's not that we found a messianic candidate its that Senator Obama has shown us the new world of the Democratic Party and we like it.


VI. HOPE THAT YOU WILL COME ALONG

Hopefully everyone will want to come.

Sadly some are too bitter to make the trip.

Maybe they will take some time and join latter.

The party is not however, going to accept their intransigence as the obstacle to unity. Its up to them. They are welcome to come aboard. We like them and admire them we want them to come.



To the Lovers of 'Hillary the Great':

I hope to see you in the new Democratic Party that is being formed.

Peace


By letting it go it all gets done.
The world is won by those who let it go.
But when you try and try.
The world is beyond the winning.
Lao Tzu

[cliffordu]

1. Great piece, grantcart!!

KandR!!

[grantcart]

4. thanks clifford

[roguevalley]

23. whoa. good stuff, grantcart. ties it up just fine and dandy. :-D You

are a good writer.

RV, a teacher for 27 years and who knows good writing.

[geiger]

2. insightful analysis.

[grantcart]

6. thank you poli

[PoliticalAmazon]

113. But is it helping or harming our chances in November?...

We can't win without the Hillary supporters. That's a fact. Now, of all times, posting this type of article is counterproductive and just feeding the Hillary supporters disappointment and anger, making it harder for Obama to do his job: winning them over to his campaign.

Hillary and her campaign is no longer a threat to us. We don't have to keep feeding her anger-bait politics, and without anger and hate, Hillary cannot survive in politics.

Hanging on to bad feelings about Hillary and what she's done empowers her. It also anchors us to forever looking backwards, instead of what Obama is doing: ignoring Hillary, and looking and moving forward.

Hillary and her surrogates cannot harm us. There is no need for us to defend ourselves by attacking. That tactic served us well in the past, but it is the wrong tactic now.

As each new Hillary anger-bait arrives, we can simply regard it for what it is, perhaps comment on it in passing or, better yet, ignore it. Recognize it for what it is, and then let it pass.

The true test will be as this month wears on, because the more Hillary's anger-baits are ignored, the more out-there she will get. But that is no threat to us, either. That is actually a benefit for our big-picture approach: the more out there Hillary gets with her anger-baiting, the more she will up the volume, and as she does so she will nudge her supporters closer to reconsidering Obama as a candidate. While this is happening, I know Obama is going to be working his ass off to win over the Hillary supporters.

But it all hinges us on rising to the new challenge, uniting the party, and using new tactics. Using the old defense-by-offense tactics, while invaluabe earlier, will just keep us anchored down to the anger-hate of the Hillary campaign, and keep us from achieving our goal: uniting the party, winning in December, and them rebuidling our country, from the ground up if necessay.

[Occam Bandage]

3. A wonderful piece. Thanks.

[grantcart]

8. Tks Occam.

[WannaJumpMyScooter]

5. Great summary... One thing I think hurt her

and continues to hurt her is the ambiguity of Big Dog's role in a Hillary Clinton administration.

Nothing?

Advisor? Openly or behind-the-scenes?

Ambassador to the world?

I feel that many people wonder about this, and the questioning leads to more questioning.

That said, I do not think she is "that good" as you said. She is adequate, but not aware of changes in the sands of politics.

[grantcart]

9. Perhaps we can be magnamous in victory

[goclark]

7. Lao Tzu and grantcart know how to make it a Recommend

I agree completely with your post.

I just read today, after she promised that she would support the Democratic nominee, that she put her foot in her mouth again ~ going on and on about her White Base that Obama can not hold.

If she becomes the nominee or if she doesn't, her message will be used to stop CHANGE in American politics.

Why can't she let the darker side of her personality go!

By letting it go it all gets done.
The world is won by those who let it go.
But when you try and try.
The world is beyond the winning.
Lao Tzu :patriot:

[grantcart]

10. Its not so much the darker side its that she doesn't trust how good she really is

and the fact that they used a formula that won for them in the 90s. Without Obama it would have won again.

[goclark]

12. That is it grantcart ~ she doesn't understand how good she is

and she is stuck on a day that WAS instead of enjoying the day that IS.

America now is better than the day she is clinging to.

I pray that she can let it go and let it go quickly.

Not just for the contest but for her personal well being.

Right, she would not have to do this if Obama was not in the race.

Edit to ADD: Maybe it is a blessing that Obama is in the race,now we see how her team would have handled her and how they would have handled the WH. :sad:

[grantcart]

11. ..

[redqueen]

13. K&R

[grantcart]

16. tks

[Scurrilous]

14. Great post.

K & R :thumbsup:

[grantcart]

18. tks

[JBoy]

15. I really enjoyed this, grantcart. Spot on. REC-of-the-day.

[grantcart]

20. tks jboy

[NatBurner]

17. rec'd

i can't find anything in here to disagree with

[grantcart]

21. thanks Nat

[Window]

19. K/R.

:kick:

[Phillycat]

22. Two factual errors in your post:

1. That Hillary did not pick up any other candidates' supporters. I am an Edwards supporter who switched to Hillary when he dropped out. There are many more like me on this website.

2. We did not go from "the corporate universe" to a "mass base". We went from one corporate candidate to another corporate candidate, the new one with better packaging (at least to some).

[grantcart]

26. Thank you for your reply

1) Hillary's polling at 45% actually goes back 3 years. Statistically speaking she has not gained any new voters. When those statistics literally represent 50 million voters it is not meant that literally every single person that was for another candidate didn't support her but statistically speaking she made no significant change.

a) This Fox poll from June O5 shows Hillary at 45%

http://www.foxnews.com/projects/pdf/pdf1.pdf

b) This Pew poll from August 2006

http://people-press.org/reports/questionnaires/285.pdf

c)This Fox poll from June 07

http://www.foxnews.com/projects/pdf/062807_release_web.pdf

d) 50 polls from 3rd quarter 2007 showing HRC at 45% range

http://www.pollster.com/08-US-Dem-Pres-Primary.php




2) Even James Carville admits that a systemic change has occured away from a corporate base to a mass bass:

http://youtube.com/watch?v=4ACAOYv3DKk

at 1:40

[Phillycat]

36. You listen to James Carville?

There's your problem right there. :D

Your # 1 point makes sense, but that is NOT what you stated in the OP. You said she hadn't picked up any supporters from other candidates. You didn't say "statistically".

Re: #2, that is subjective. I find Obama to be every inch the untrustworthy corporate candidate that used to be reviled on this website. But times and people change, and he's our candidate now, apparently, so I should just suck it up, eh? And so I shall.

[grantcart]

42. Did you listen to the lecture by Carville

apparently when he is not spinning he actually can be objective and intelligent - who knew?


1,500,000 contributors is not subjective.


What you 'find' and what you can show in a logical dispassionate discourse with fact are two entirely different things. You can just suck it up or you can actually consider the possibility that he is trying an entirely different strategy.

Here is an article that shows he was reshaping the landscape of the political system 15 years ago in Chicago. The result is that it has elected 2 out of the 3 African American Senators the Senate has seen.

http://www.chicagomag.com/Chicago-Magazine/January-1993/Vote-of-Confidence/

If you mean that he is a corporate candidate that he basically supports capitalism then that is true. So did FDR. FDR saved capitalism. If you mean that he is a corporate candidate in that he is payed for by corporate interests that simply is not true. His campaign is the most non corporate in the modern era.

[eridani]

65. Obama's corporate platform isn't much different from Clinton's

It's the campaign organization of Obama that is mass-based.

[grantcart]

67. Oh well now we are talking about platforms

some arcane discussion about how inventory values should be considered in calculating the rotating value of capital gains tax?


The issue always has been who pays the ticket. Who are you beholding to.

We are not in a parlimentary system where the winner gains control of both legislative and executive branches and passes their platforms.

Its a list of priorities and a general idea of how you are going to attack it. Then it goes to Congress where two houses mash it and compromises are reached. In this case we are going to have a President who isn't going to have to check in with the money men to find out how his position is going to effect his next fund raising campaign.

[eridani]

68. I support him because of his campaign organization n/t

[bhikkhu]

24. K&R

It's not hard to see the positives on which Obama has become our presumptive nominee, and the negatives we will have to address going into the GE. It is only fair to say that Hillary has a balance as well - that is, positives that are to her credit, and negatives that are not all the fault of others.

Its not really for me to say to Hillary's supporters (and premature or not, depending on how one feels about math), but unity might begin with acceptance of the loss and a critical overview of why that happened, as you have begun here.

[grantcart]

28. and a balance reply from bhikkhu is what you would expect

[goclark]

25. solid post k

[grantcart]

29. thanks goclark

[Irishonly]

27. K&R

You wrote an excellent piece and I agree with what you said.

[grantcart]

30. thanks Irish

[NanceGreggs]

31. Incredibly insightful piece!

I truly miss the old Hillary.

:kick: & REC'D!!!

[ekwhite]

88. I think the old Hillary will return in time

We need to give her a little space and a lot of compassion (never my strong suit, I admit). It must cause a lot of suffering for her to see a dream slip away when it was so close. Perhaps we need to send her our good wishes, prayers, Metta, or what have you.

May she be safe
May she have mental happiness
May she have physical happiness
May she live with ease.

[EFerrari]

32. I think that's exactly right. It's like she surrounded herself with thugs

that highlighted all the wrong things about her when there was PLENTY to work with. I honestly don't get it.

[goclark]

35. I don't get it either ~ even if they were BFF

Over the years you get to know what friends have real skills.

She is either not a good judge of character or she doesn't care.

Here she is saying she will support the Democratic candidate and smashing Obama and the civil rights of all of us.

[thoughtcrime1984]

33. K and R

I enjoy reading your posts, grantcart, you are an asset to DU!

[liberaldem4ever]

34. Great post-happy to K&R

:kick:

[grantcart]

43. thanks lib4ever

[The Night Owl]

37. Hillary Clinton did not cry. You should retract that. {EOM}

[grantcart]

38. If you prefer teared up that's fine. It is not material to the point.

[The Night Owl]

39. I didn't see any tears. Keep going. You're moving toward reality now. {EOM}

[grantcart]

41. The sentence is not inherently critical to the point of the section or the point

of the post which was that there was a much better Hillary Clinton that was not shown to the American people. The post is complimentary to Hillary and refers to the real Hillary as Hillary the Great without sarcasm.

The reference to the moment in NH is clear and my point is that many people thought that was the real Hillary and I go on to say that the real Hillary is "A smart relaxed funny confident woman. The kind of woman I want my daughters to be".

The event referenced was well known and everybody reading it knows what it was:


Here are woman reporters who report it as Hillary crying:

http://abcnews.go.com/Politics/Vote2008/story?id=4109322



By quibbling on a not very important detail in the piece you have, however, illustrated the point I was making in section V.

[The Night Owl]

49. I am well aware of the fact that you aren't the first to push the lie that Hillary Clinton cried.

Anyone who watches the video of Hillary Clinton in New Hampshire can see that she did not cry. And yet you describe her as tearful. I guess words don't matter to you.

[grantcart]

52. do you have any sense of the word 'irony'

[phrigndumass]

40. Excellent writing, gc! K/R ... I might add:

... if the kitchen sink had been thrown at McCain instead of Obama, she could have shown that she is more of a fighter where it counts, and she could have swung enough Democratic votes in her direction to win. When your opponent is ascending, negativity toward him can seem misplaced in the eyes of the voters (particularly in the same political party) and this is why some of it backfired. McCain would have been a much more proper target, and a definite vote-getter if Senator Clinton had chosen that path and succeeded.

If I had to pick one area where Senator Clinton's campaign went off track, I would say it was her Strategy.

:thumbsup: :thumbsup: :thumbsup: :thumbsup:

[hisownpetard]

44. Thanks, grantcart. I love your logic and manner of writing. No histrionics, no fat, no gristle.

Good job, as usual!

:headbang:

[grantcart]

48. and no carbs thanks

[hisownpetard]

45. 50th Rec.

[grantcart]

56. tks

[reflection]

46. Excellent piece. Not much I can add to the other kudos. n/t

[grantcart]

55. thanks for the reflection

[casus belli]

47. Love the quote. :) And thanks for another good read. n/t

[grantcart]

54. thanks CB

[akbacchus_BC]

50. Grant, Excellent unitary piece and well written as always. K&R

[grantcart]

51. thanks

[shomino]

53. Great post. K&R. - n/t

[ProSense]

57. Excellent. n/t

[grantcart]

60. from you a great honor

[mamalone]

58. I have a daughter that struggles with telling the truth sometimes...

One of the things I tell her over and over again is "The truth is powerful enough."

Truth is a funny thing... when you try to add to it, you only succeed in weakening it.


Hillary is a brilliant woman. It's inexpressibly sad to see her in these straights, and I hope she can get herself out with a shred of her dignity and good name intact. We're gonna need her over the next few years.


Thanks for an absolutely wonderful post...

[grantcart]

59. thanks and have a great mom's day

[dbmk]

61. K/R - The world is won by those who let it go. - indeed

[grantcart]

62. tks

[eridani]

63. Since you are in to Lao Tzu

To lead people, walk beside them.
As for the best leaders, the people do not notice their existence.
The next best, the people honor and praise.
The next, the people fear; and the next, the people hate.
When the best leader's work is done the people say, 'We did it ourselves!

Yes we can!

[ekwhite]

92. Lao Tzu, Bhikkus, and Buddhist Democrats

This thread is truly enlightening. :thumbsup:

[eridani]

64. The "managed" Clinton campaigned on the Rethug fear frame

That is a big FAIL, both in the primary and the general election.

[me b zola]

66. KnR!

:thumbsup:

[grantcart]

71. gracious er merci

[Alexander]

69. K&R

[Stephanie]

70. Well said, except that Hillary the Great disappeared sometime around 2002

That's when the Great Pandering began (IWR vote was supposed to get her GE votes). This whole disastrous path, with the packaging and the handling and the polling and the personality changing began years ago, when she first started plotting this run. It didn't suddenly manifest in the late days of this campaign.

[bhikkhu]

73. Yes, the IWR vote. One case of poor judgment

probably cost her this primary. I know it bothered me back then, and even worse was her later defense of the vote rather than a simple "I made a mistake".

[grantcart]

76. yeah that was "pre packaging packaging"

[VolcanoJen]

72. Huge K&R

As John Cole wrote, this thing is starting to feel more like a hostage crisis than a nomination. :-)

:dem: :dem: :dem:

[grantcart]

74. thanks Jen

[democracy1st]

75. great post ur a asset to this site thanks

[gbrenna]

77. Wonderful post

It is completely accurate too.

[grantcart]

78. welcome to DU

apparently I overstated the crying lol

[gbrenna]

112. Thanks

I love your post!

[nvme]

79. do dems a favor stop with this crap.

It serves no constructive purpose to continue to be snarky with Hillary or her supporters. I am tickled pink at the prospect of seeing obama44, but lets work on healing the party after our continuous blood-letting. We will need it for The Republican.

[MirrorAshes]

80. this was relatively snark-free i believe

the "packaging" of Hillary vs the real Hillary is an incredibly important piece of the puzzle of her downfall. I suppose now I can be maligned for calling it a downfall, since we're on such volatile ground here, but there is no concievable way for her to come out of this looking good if she continues down the path she's on. There is real understanding in the OP, I think, that Hillary is a respectable and worthy candidate, but somewhere something went ary. Deconstruction on the whats and whys of what appears to be her eventual loss will continue on for years. That has already begun by many reasonable people, in reasonable fasion. I think this post qualifies.

[iconicgnom]

82. Oh no, that's totally wrong! Read this

Simply try to be objective when reading this account from Thomas B. Edsall via Huff Post
Obama Camp Faces Major Obstacles In Plan To Help Clinton Pay Off Debt

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2008/05/08/obama-camp-faces-major-ob_n_100928.html

Really, it amounts to Mark f*ing Penn, and the worst f*ing weasels that he represents, including who owns him and who all these scumsucking turds represent, like Blackwater for one, like McCain for another -- it amounts to such as these holding Obama's campaign to blackmail to pay off Hillary's debts to them, else they'll continue to egg her on to slime Obama to the end.

I mean, how can a person describe the awesome obscenity of it?

Oh no, I think Grantcart's analysis is perfectly legitimate, perfectly "clean", and that it's absolutely on topic in the current circumstances. Which appear, even from my remote observation post in Canada, to be insane.

[democracy1st]

87. Clinton's are doing the damage race baiting etc,until she calms down we must stay alert

[grantcart]

90. You obviously didn't read the OP

the point of the OP was that Hillary was indeed great but unfortunately in trying to market her they kept her greatness concealed.


Had she just shown up without her stupid handlers and did what McCain did then she would have been the nominee.


No snark but criticism of campaign strategy and her assistants.


Please reread the post

[krkaufman]

81. Except your post fails to address Clinton the Senator ...

... supporter of the Iraq war, war-mongering against Iran, and champion of illegalization of flag burning. The junior Senator from New York has made many missteps in the last eight years that have alienated those who might have been her supporters.

[grantcart]

91. Well at this point we are actually trying to find a bridge with Clinton supporters

things that we can agree upon.


but if pressed I would say the packaging started in 2002

[krkaufman]

109. Yep.

I saw someone commenting that Penn is to blame for her loss, owing to his misunderstanding on how Democratic delegates are allocated. However, that doesn't account for the general election positioning that began back in 2002, as you say.

[ekwhite]

95. That is part of the real tragedy of Hillary Clinton

If she had not poll-tested the AUMF vote and some many other positions, but instead voted for what was right, she would be the nominee right now.

[krkaufman]

108. Yep. If she had put up a fight anything like she is in this election ...

... she'd have had the nomination locked-up before the end of January.

[Major Hogwash]

83. Another outstanding post by the one and only - grantcart!!

Man, you are awesome.

[akbacchus_BC]

84. K&R to keep this thread alive. Brilliant piece! n/t

[bertman]

85. That about wraps it up in a nutshell

[grantcart]

98. thanks

[ekwhite]

86. An excellent post, Grantcart!

Joyfully kicked and recommended. The quote from Lao Tzu truly wrapped it up in a neat little ball.

[Dystopian]

89. Shine on grantcart!

K&R


Another awesome post...you are a gifted writer.



peace~

[barack the house]

93. A very enthralling post. k&r.

[DeSwiss]

94. Wonderful. Just Wonderful!!!

These are my sentiments, exactly.

- K&R!!!!!!!!!!!

[grantcart]

96. thanks DeSwiss

[LiberalLovinLug]

97. So True

Exactly what I have been thinking. In spite of all of the 'kitchen sink' ugliness, it is not anger but sadness I feel for her, in what she could have been. She had the smarts and savvy to give Barack a run for his money, if she had only directed her attacks at Sen. McCain, and the rest of the time vocalized her positive plans for the country, she would truly be neck and neck with Obama, maybe even winning. I so admired her before this whole nomination started and unfortunately she allowed Penn and Carville and others to drag her campaign down into the sewer. I hope she gets her real (and Great) mojo back!

[sonias]

99. Wonderful write up grantcart!

Bravo.

:applause:

Sonia

[futureliveshere]

100. Good one grantcart... Well thought out... K&R

[Tatiana]

101. OUTSTANDING POST! n/t

[quickesst]

102. "She was good enough and she should have had it."

Until a three year senator let his ambitions override his desire for a Democratic sweep in November. Not to worry. Obama supporters remind Clinton supporters every day that their vote will not be needed in the GE. Unless demonizing, false accusations of racism, and expressions of guilt through hateful words are the methods with which they intend to woo those votes. Keep trying though, someone, somewhere might enjoy being shit on. Thanks.
quickesst

[DeSwiss]

103. Oh yeah....................... K i c k k k k k k k k k k k k!!!!!!!!!!

:kick:

[nvme]

104. your post is on the money, but the timing is where I take issue

The Clinton supporters are emotionally invested. In poker terms they are pot committed. They cannot back down. Not yet at least. At a time when our candidates prospects look extremely positive, Why point out The negatives? Magnanimity is the way to show that in light of a serious win possibility, Obama can include all.
Talking about Obama's voter enrollment initiative this weekend, His economic policies, Strategies for including Clinton supporters. These are the things that matter right now. What could it hurt by selling Obama to those who didn't pick his brand initially

Maybe I am too soft for this site but I see this as a time to gain allies or dig trenches. Recall when the Wright mole-hill was towering. I was pretty upset about seeing a truly viable candidacy derailed by something that is beyond irrelevant. The discussions back and forth were appalling to say the least. I was truly upset about the thought of having to support the other candidate. Now tables have turned.

As a democratic party member it my duty to help those who are in a similar place as I was . I want to see their support so i will try my best to see that I will not add to an already unpleasant prospect. In the end the policies are similar if not the same for both candidates. I see a reconciliation as inevitable. Timing is what is important.

Do we gain support now or later. the longer we gloat and bemoan the evils that "the other side" committed, the greater the amount of time the Republican has to define himself and Us.

That is my objection. I truly appreciate reading your posts.

[dlfuller]

105. K&R

[Mongooseflies]

106. Let the healing begin

K to the R

[Major Hogwash]

110. Or the gloating.

Either way.

[Tarheel_Dem]

107. Great job GC. You are one helluva writer. kick

:kick:

[GetTheRightVote]

111. perhaps in the end we will have them both so that everyone is happy in the party

and we can begin to go after McCain.

[Egnever]

114. wow who the fuck are you!

LOL good stuff grant want to tell me who you write/gather stats for IRL?