Discussion for article #230447
Running away from Obama worked so well for Congressional Democrats this year.
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“Reagan was polling at 51 percent in October 1988”
Ah, but we forget that right wing talk radio only started to become pervasive in 1988, polarizing the electorate to the point that it just may be that now, once actual governing begins, 50% approval could be the ceiling for anyone.
The “Both Siderism” of main stream media will keep it there for the mushy middle who think that if only "he/she would “lead”, the other side would come along, and stop the gridlock.
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Hillary Clinton is unique because she is a known candidate. Also, who knows where Obama’s approval rating will be in the Fall of 2016.
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If democrats turn out she will win. She should stay with President Obama and her base to turn out. Republicans are loyal to republicans. Married women will not turn out for her anymore than they did for President Obama. She should go after blue collar single women, latino’s, Asian, AAs, young people, and old liberal people like me. She should not run from President Obama. If possible she could say he wasn’t liberal enough. DUH!
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Jesus, a “Democrats are screwed in 2016” piece already.
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President Obama knows where his fans live and how to speak to them without crossing over into negative territory.
As long as Hillary puts a lid on her own peoples’ media exposure and lets the President stump for her where he knows it will help, she will be fine. But if some of those self-serving loudmouth micromanagers start criticizing Obama to the press because they aren’t in charge of his schedule and his speeches, it will go south very quickly.
Those people represent one of Hillary’s biggest challenges.
She needs to put a muzzle on her staff, particularly about the President, and don’t let the oldstream media and rightwing webbots have any ammo to load their guns with.
No doubt they will shoot blanks, regardless of what is said, but Hillary needs to make certain none of her bitterheads promotes and perpetuates some sort of image that they are running away from Obama, or she will lose more points than she can afford.
There is still an abiding resentment on the part of a fraction, maybe even a faction, of her 2008 supporters, because they think she should have been “next in line.” And they tend to want retribution for their disappointment, which is selfish and counterproductive.
We have seen it right here on TPM.
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so well put…
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Exactly which racist old white men does Hillary need more than her own base?
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The point of this article is America is a racist center right country where only old white men vote. This is one of the worst pieces ever published here. Poorly thought out opinion.
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Dylan, it is just too hard for Hillary to win. She and the Democrats need to surrender and let the Republicans rule for the next 1000 years.
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Every single Democrat who has gained the White House since FDR and was not the incumbent running for reelection was an outsider dark horse candidate. LBJ was supposed to get the nomination in 1960, or Adlai Stevenson again failing that. JFK was a long shot, as was Carter in 1976. Nobody had heard of Clinton a couple of years before he was elected. And Obama. If it is Hilary in 2016, she will almost certainly lose. She has been wrong on so many huge issues–Iraq, the 2002 bankruptcy bill, the tar sands pipeline…She apparently has no real convictions, and is not a particularly gifted politician.
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Looks like the Right-Wing Conventional Wisdom that “President Obama is unpopular” has taken root here, too. The only polling service that is ever consulted for this is Gallup, a pollster with a known +3-5 GOP bias ever since they “recalibrated” the site in 2012.
Rasmussen polls the Presdient, too, and the President’s numbers have never varied much there and on other polling sites. He has a floor of support around 42, and a ceiling of about 55, because the real 20% who are wingnuts will not approve of him even if Jesus himself told them to.
His numbers, like all Dem politicians’ numbers, are going to be lower in the South. So what. The floor is lower there. These are not Hillary voters anyway.
HRC has to play to her strengths, and in these same Redstates there are millions of Democrats who need to be inspired, led, energized, and supported, and stepping away from the President is not going to help Hillary or these Democrats who need a reason to keep voting Democrat in the face of all the abuse they take daily.
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Dylan,
Isn’t it a bit early in the 2016 campaign for the Obama-bad-for-Hillary concern troll piece? Or do you just got nothing to write about?
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His voters have a list of grievances against him that they will make her pay for. Some of them will say they will vote for her “while holding my nose” as a sign of their obsession with their own moral superiority, but many others will not and do so out of spite. Hillary’s biggest problem (besides liberals) is how to avoid a Nader-repeat of 2000.
however the Obama presidency is faring like in its final months
Please, God, send TPM some editors for Christmas or Hanukkah or whatever. Or if that’s too much to ask, please send Dylan to the Indianapolis Star.
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If Hillary distances herself from Obama she will lose.
There are tons of factors behind the original Hillary Obama schism.
You can be 100% sure that the incredibly brilliant GOP strategy will be to divide the left by creating a wedge between Hillary and Obama.
So please TPM do NOT fall pray to this GOP strategy.
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Gore distanced himself from Clinton and look how well that turned out
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I often feel like the TPM crew is wholly entrenched in the DC memes.
These types of headlines, are in my opinion proof.
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Number one – Why did TPM choose a picture of Obama looking like the ominous “Other?”
Number two – Hillary Clinton would do well to position herself as a progressive Democrat. If she tries to be Alison Lungergan Grimes redux, she will lose the all-important African-American vote as well as the progressive wing of the Democratic Party.
Hillary Clinton’s people need to understand what the Democrats want and what America needs. The Democrats do not want a waffling, timorous presidential candidate, one who’s reactionary and reflexive regarding the Republican narrative. If she begins to construct convoluted word salad to questions regarding President Obama, her campaign will wilt. Her campaign will do well not to construct itself based on the separating-from-the-president premise.
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