Soccer Dad

Tarnishing the clinton brand

E. J. Dionne argues that the way that Sen. Clinton has been running, has been doing Damage to the Clinton Brand (or here.) His op-ed includes this observation:

Yet much of this has been lost. Bill Clinton's approach to the South Carolina primary, the Clinton campaign's effort to ignore everything it once said about the irrelevance of the Florida and Michigan primaries, Hillary Clinton's willingness to say (or imply) that John McCain is more prepared to be president than Obama -- all this and more have created a ferocious backlash against the Clintons. The result is that when the word "Clinton" crosses their lips, many Democrats sound like Ken Starr, Bob Barr and the late Henry Hyde.

You read that and then recall that Richard M. Scaife (he of the original vast right wing conspiracy) has reconsidered Hillary (via memeorandum)

Her meeting and her remarks during it changed my mind about her.

Walking into our conference room, not knowing what to expect (or even, perhaps, expecting the worst), took courage and confidence. Not many politicians have political or personal courage today, so it was refreshing to see her exhibit both.

Sen. Clinton also exhibited an impressive command of many of today's most pressing domestic and international issues. Her answers were thoughtful, well-stated, and often dead-on.

Particularly regarding foreign policy, she identified what we consider to be the most important challenges and dangers that the next president must confront and resolve in order to guarantee our nation's security. Those include an increasingly hostile Russia, an increasingly powerful China and increasing instability in Pakistan and South America.

Like me, she believes we must pull our troops out of Iraq, because it is time for Iraqis to handle their own destiny -- and, more important, because it is past time to end the toll on our soldiers there, to begin rebuilding our military, and to refocus our attention on other threats, starting with Afghanistan.

Or that Clinton supporter Gov. Rendell of Pennsylvania is calling Fox News the "most objective."

This isn't tarnish. This is triangulation. Sen. Clinton isn't just running a race for delegates. She's running a race for November. She needs to position herself to the center for that. It's a bit early, I suppose. But at this point she has nothing to lose. And positioning herself for November gives her the added argument of 'electability" that she hopes will help her capture enough delegates to have the opportunity (though a slim one) in November.

hillary clinton
(via memeorandum)