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Hillary Clinton’s best frenemies (Politico)
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Hillary Clinton’s best frenemies (Politico)By Ben Schreckinger February 11, 2015 Politico What makes Jim Webb a better presidential candidate than Hillary Clinton? “I really don’t have an answer for you on that,” the former Virginia senator told NPR late last month. Where does Martin O’Malley differ from Clinton as a leader? “My mind is not even in the compare-contrast mode,” O’Malley told the New York Times. How does the bombastic Bernie Sanders feel about the candidate he’s planning to challenge for the Democratic nomination? “This is a woman I respect, clearly a very intelligent person,” Sanders said Monday. With enemies like these, who needs friends? Time and time again, when invited to criticize Clinton, her potential Democratic primary rivals have ducked, deflected and dodged. They’re trying to present themselves as viable alternatives to the daunting frontrunner without addressing the obvious question of how they stack up against her. “At the end of [interviews], somebody has to ask me a question about Hillary, and I try not to attack her. Usually, no matter what I say, it becomes ‘Hillary Clinton,’” said Sanders, raising his arms in a sweeping gesture as if to indicate that Clinton’s name becomes the banner headline. “What I’m running on are the issues … Her name recognition is about 10 times greater than mine, so if I run, it would take a lot of work getting around the country introducing myself to people.” With Elizabeth Warren continuing to resist entreaties to enter the race, liberals are still waiting for a serious challenger to Clinton to emerge — if only to ensure the party’s progressive wing gets the attention and respect it believes its views deserve. At this point in 2007, President Barack Obama was declaring his candidacy and drawing a contrast with Clinton on issues like the Iraq War and the politics of triangulation, pioneered by Clinton’s husband in the 1990s. This time around, would-be Clinton spoilers are not so far along. The outspoken Sanders deflected a question about Clinton posed by POLITICO late last month. “All I know is if I run, I’m not running against Hillary Clinton,” protested the Vermont senator, who if he runs, almost certainly would be running against Clinton. Over the weekend, he did engage the prospective match-up more directly, telling MSNBC that it would be a “real clash of ideas” on issues like trade, climate change and infrastructure investment. But at an event at the Brookings Institution this week, Sanders made it clear he had little interest in going after the former secretary of state. “It is not my style to trash people,” he said. Clinton’s other two most likely rivals haven’t even gone that far. Before Webb dodged a Hillary question from NPR’s Steve Inskeep (“If I were to run, it would not be sort of as a counterpoint to her”) he ducked a similar one put to him by Yahoo’s Matt Bai in late December (“I’m not running against Hillary Clinton”). When an O’Malley operative began talking about Clinton to a New York Times reporter last fall, the former Maryland governor’s communications director “jabbed him in the side” to make him stop, according to the newspaper’s account. The repeated questions and dodges underscore the unusual nature of the Democratic race. Though Clinton is a private citizen who has not declared she is running, she has cultivated an aura of inevitability so strong that, “She’s tantamount to an incumbent,” in the words of Democratic consultant Tad Devine. Naturally, voters will want to know how lesser-known candidates compare to Clinton, but advisers to those candidates argue that talking about the former secretary of state would be a mistake. “It makes no sense, whether it’s Webb, Sanders, or O’Malley, to start a campaign by going on the attack,” said an adviser to one Democrat considering a 2016 run who was not authorized to speak on the record about messaging strategy. “It would be putting the cart before the horse a little bit to start lobbing bombs at Hillary Clinton before you even enter the race.” “You need to make an affirmative case before you get to the contrast,” said the adviser, who added that Mitt Romney erred in 2012 by focusing on Obama before he had articulated a positive vision of his own candidacy. Devine, a longtime Sanders ally who will advise the senator’s presidential campaign should he launch one, conceded that conflict generates coverage, a precious commodity for lesser-known candidates. But he said that the Vermont senator would try to attract attention by targeting the forces of runaway capitalism rather than his primary opponents. “It’s a huge challenge,” said Devine. “It’s a different kind of conflict than the press is used to covering and perhaps than voters are used to hearing.” “Governor O’Malley is looking forward to introducing himself to Democrats outside of Maryland and talking about his own affirmative ideas for the future,” wrote O’Malley spokeswoman Lis Smith in an email. Candidates on the livelier Republican side of the presidential fieldhave been a lot more willing to snipe at both Clinton and each other. Jeb Bush and Florida Sen. Marco Rubio have both characterized Clinton as old news, with Rubio calling her a “20th century candidate.” Kentucky Sen. Rand Paul regularly trolls his presidential rivals on social media and recently released a gag audio recording of a Jeb Bush impersonator conspiring with a Hillary Clinton impersonator. But the Democratic field faces something of a Catch-22. Because no challenger has gained traction, Clinton feels little pressure to campaign and is reportedly considering postponing an announcement until July. But the longer Clinton stays out of the race, the longer she can avoid taking positions that opponents can attack to gain traction. “They don’t know what she’s going to say,” said Democratic strategist Bob Shrum, who worked on the presidential campaigns of John Kerry and Al Gore. “And it’s hard to define yourself without knowing what contrast you want to draw.” Webb, Sanders and O’Malley are all planning to travel to early primary states in the coming weeks and months, and the pressure to define themselves in contrast to Clinton will only intensify. For now, though, they’re content to play nice. “The Beltway media might want a food fight right now,” said Smith, the O’Malley adviser, “but that won’t do anyone — let alone Democrats — any good.” Directory: wp-content -> uploads -> 2016 -> HRC -> HRC1 Clips 2016 -> An introduction to centre’s interventions expanding access to justice 2016 -> Sanchar Shakti 2016 -> Unit analysis should help here. We want number of bananas 2016 -> The Autobiography of Elder Joseph Bates 2016 -> The Great Heat and the Rhode Island Deep Water Bay Scallop (Argopecten irradians) Fishery 1875-1905 HRC1 Clips -> Office of Secretary Clinton News Analysis HRC1 Clips -> Hrc clips October 19, 2016 hrc HRC1 Clips -> H4a news Clips [May 1, 2015] Summary of Today’s news HRC1 Clips -> H4a news Clips [April 26, 2015] Summary of Today’s news HRC1 Clips -> H4a news Clips [April 11, 2015] Summary of Today’s news Download 146.45 Kb. Share with your friends:
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