A Campaign Retools to Seek Second Clinton Comeback

NYT: A Campaign Retools to Seek Second Clinton Comeback
By PATRICK HEALY and JOHN M. BRODER
Published: January 5, 2008

MANCHESTER, N.H. — Bill and Hillary Rodham Clinton have been in career-threatening scrapes before, but never quite like the one they face in the New Hampshire primary on Tuesday, when nothing less than their would-be dynasty will be on the line. In trying to battle back from her loss in the Iowa caucuses to Senator Barack Obama of Illinois, Mrs. Clinton is recalibrating her message in hopes of producing Comeback Kid: The Sequel — achieving the reversal of fortune her husband pulled off with his second-place finish here in the Democratic nomination contest in 1992.

Mrs. Clinton, after arriving here at 4 a.m. Friday, used a rally in Nashua to begin focusing on young voters and independents, two groups that flocked to the Obama banner in Iowa. She said she wanted to appeal to young people, and surrounded herself with them at the rally, in contrast to her caucus night party where older, familiar faces from the Clinton administration and her political team stood out. Yet many of the challenges and questions she faced in Iowa — like Clinton fatigue and the generational showdown with Mr. Obama — remained part of her baggage as she flew east. While she is ahead in public polls here, she faces a popularity contest against Mr. Obama. There were empty seats, for instance, at a rally Mr. Clinton held with students at the University of New Hampshire on Friday afternoon.

And her campaign, while trying to fine-tune its strategy, is also engaging in some finger-pointing. Some advisers say that the campaign miscalculated in having Mr. Clinton play such a public role, that Mrs. Clinton could not effectively position herself as a change agent, the profile du jour for Democrats, so long as he stood as a reminder that her presidency would be much like his. Other advisers say that Mr. Obama now owns the “change” mantra and that Mrs. Clinton needs a Plan B....

Beating a sunny, charismatic opponent like Mr. Obama — especially given his embrace by such a cross-section of Iowa voters — is not part of the Clinton experience. When facing political crises, the couple’s modus operandi has been to attack their attackers and question their motives. But Mr. Obama is not Kenneth W. Starr, Newt Gingrich or Paula Jones; a presidential campaign is not a Washington scandal; and the Clinton strategy of attacking Mr. Obama’s readiness for the presidency did not work in Iowa....

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/01/05/us/politics/05clinton.html?_r=1&oref=slogin&ref=todayspaper&pagewanted=all

Basically, I've got this creepy feeling after all the insane corruption and voting machines and this and that...It seems to have all gone away, and this anti-war candidate is sailing right through, and its all about hope, and its all too damn good to be true. Hillary should make the case that it is. The words I would use about Obama is that its "Rolling the Dice" to vote for him. We HOPE for a certain outcome, but we have no idea what we'll get with him due to his record, which is bad because the repukes tend to be the ones running that casino.

She should make the case that America is in extremely dangerous times with all the corruption, energy issues, etc. She should say that there is a real core /energy/environment/war complex, that needs to be addressed at a fundamental level and that she's the one to do it, but her opponents only have superficial solutions that don't get to the root of the issue. And play up the whole thing that Hillary KNOWS the root of the issue, unlike them, because she practices the politics of knowing rather than hoping. It could be said that those in the know trust her, and then bring in all the major support she has in senate and so forth. And for fighting Obama, she needs to just be the person MAKING the change, without pomp and great speeches, while Obama is all about the feeling good. She must acknowledge that Obama does indeed, talk a great game. (He does)

Basically she has to get out the message that she is the real deal and the other guys are fake, or she's toast.