Job One: Teach millennials about the real Hillary
And burst the mythology of the Bill Clinton economy.
![http://elections.huffingtonpost.com/pollster/hillary-clinton-favorable-rating](https://c3.legalinsurrection.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/04/Hillary-Clinton-Favorability-HuffPo-April-6-2015-w-border-e1428327650651.jpg)
When discussing Hillary Clinton’s email and server scandal, I dismissed arguments that the scandal in and of itself would sink Hillary’s impending campaign.
There are far too many powerful people invested in Hillary for President to let mere paranoid and obsessive control coupled with destruction of evidence stop Hillary. In fact, to Hillary’s core supporters, paranoid and obsessive control coupled with destruction of evidence is a feature, not a bug.
Rather, I argued that the damage from Emailgate (or is it Servergate or Deletegate?) was in shaping Hillary’s image for voters who never knew the Hillary older voters know:
While it’s way too early to assess the overall damage to Hillary Incorporated from the email, now document destruction, scandal, is does appear to be hurting Team Billary in ways that are hard to change: Public perception of a politician.
While Billary is dreadfully tiresome and transparently faux in its lack of transparency, to much of the electorate Billary is simply a nice old lady with a grandchild. Well, she does have a grandchild, but that’s about where the nice ends. And that unhappy end product of a secretive, controlling, fear-mongering, basically incompetent presidential candidate is coming into public view and that view may be hard to change.
And there seems to be dramatic movement in that direction, as Hillary’s favorability numbers have been dropping steadily.
You can see in this Huffington Post chart [Featured Image] that Hillary’s favorability has dropped dramatically, and is now positive (black line) by only 3%. And the trend is not good.
What is so surprising is that Hillary has been around for so long that you would think it nearly impossible to move her numbers much.
The reason Hillary is vulnerable on favorability is that the younger generation of voters don’t know the Hillary from the 1990s, the secretive control-freak of Hillarycare, the person who parlayed her husband’s political success into her own financial and law firm stardom, the Rose law firm record hider, the brutal White House bully of Travelgate, and so much more.
And of course, the original War on Women warrior who led the charge against Bill’s paramours.
The real Hillary, the one many of us remember, is nothing like the Hillary of the past few years, with the softened image of the doting grandmother and cell phone hipster:
Hillary has brought on Michelle Obama’s image consultant to remake Hillary. That Hillary needs an image consultant and a multitude of packagers and handlers, after all this time, shows how vulnerable she is.
Republicans need to focus like a laser on Hillary’s weakness, and right now.
The National Journal has an article arguing that the younger generation presents an opportunity for Hillary, In 90s Babies, Hillary Clinton Gets a Second Chance With Young Voters:
Republicans pounced on revelations that Hillary Clinton had used a personal email account as secretary of State not just to attack her aspirations to win the White House, but to evoke the worst aspects of the first time she resided there. Hoping to dredge up memories of the endless Whitewater-turned-Monica Lewinsky investigations of Bill Clinton’s presidency, GOP voices promised a 2016 run by the former First Lady would be plagued by the same problems that dinged her husband.
But the absolute youngest voters of the 2016 election don’t remember the “Clinton scandals” of the 1990s—they weren’t born yet. Even for slightly older voters, memories of the 1990s are dominated by lunch, recess, Nickelodeon, and the Spice Girls—a voter who will be 25 on Election Day was about 10 when Bill Clinton left office. Instead, their first memory of Hillary Clinton is not of the First Lady in a scandal-plagued White House. It’s of the woman who put “18 million cracks” in the presidential glass ceiling in 2008 and became a popular secretary of State shortly thereafter.
Among those young voters, Clinton and her team have a chance to define the 1990s and her role in it. As well as being a time of scandal, the Clinton White House era was also a period of great prosperity and relative peace, particularly compared to the turbulent decade that followed.
And if she succeeds in recrafting that image, Clinton can not only build on a traditional advantage in the Democratic election, she gets a second chance at a task on which she was thoroughly bested by then-candidate Obama in 2008: making a connection with the youngest segment of the electorate.
There’s another lesson in that National Journal quote: Hillary will exploit the mythology of Bill Clinton’s economic success and claim it as her own. The story almost never told is that Clinton inherited an economy bouncing back out of recession and left office with the high tech bubble already bursting. Moreover, the economic reforms of the Clinton era were driven by Republicans. Timing is everything, and Bill Clinton had impeccable political timing.
Show who the real Hillary Clinton is, and deflate they mythology of the Bill Clinton economy.
It will not be easy, but there is time before the voters start to focus on Hillary, particularly if there is no meaningful Democratic primary. There is time to shape how voters perceive Hillary.
All we need to do is get the truth out before Hillary’s image consultants and handlers rule the day.
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Comments
“And of course, the original War on Women warrior who led the charge against Bill’s paramours.”
I’ll pick at that word choice, Prof. SOME were “paramours” in the sense they were at least nominally willing.
Most were pure victims of Ball-less Bill, the serial sexual abuser.
And, of course, Ol’ Walleyes knew it and enabled it.
No matter how bad it got under Barry, you’re gonna love Hillary. She’ll bring you all the same domestic and foreign policies that you loved under Barry, plenty of free stuff, freedom to engage in any perversion you like, America was and is always wrong when dealing with folks overseas, but without the catastrophic results.
When Hillary tells you “If you like your healthcare plan, you can keep your healthcare plan”, “The deaths of four Americans in Benghazi, Libya, including the US Ambassador was all the result of some anti Muslim film trailer..” “I fell asleep with th my finger on the delete key and accidentally erased 35,000 secret State department e-mails” or “I did not have sex with Huma!” you’ll know she means it
I don’t know. Considering the moral train wreck that is Bill Clinton has received “Man of the Year” awards and is treated as an elder statesman, I have my doubts about this. Facing the truth is hard; accepting handouts is becoming easy. I’m afraid that the Immigration and Nationality Act of 1965 pretty much sealed our fate demographically. And, given who is in charge of the academy, the young are taught well to follow their masters. The inmates outnumber us and are in total control of the asylum.
Nice graph, Prof. What do the lines and dots represent? Is there a key somewhere that I missed?
Heh. Quite by coincidence this came up at Casa Hawkins (aka The Hawk’s Nest) this weekend as my 20 yr old daughter was home from UNC-CH where she’s a junior. Hillary’s face came up on the TV and I asked what she thought of Hillary Clinton. Her response, paraphrased: “She’s probably a nice lady and all, but she’s, like, really old, and I’m not sure being someone’s wife belongs on a resume.” (‘Holy crap!’ thought Dad).
I asked her if her school buds felt the same. She said, “Well, Dad, out of five of us, one feels like me, one loves Hillary, and the other three don’t care about politics.”
I know the four she speaks of. Three are her roommates and the fourth is sort of the group mascot (though a very promising young man). All five are ‘Big Bang’ types in terms of ubersmart nerdosity, but with complete social skills. I know three of their majors: psychology, astrophysics, and pre-med.
If they are at all representative, not only is Hillary-awareness indicated, but so is a general political awareness and engagement.
I can’t believe it hadn’t occurred to me sooner, but I gave her the College Insurrection URL with a strong recommendation to follow it and share it. (Likely forgotten ten minutes later. A 20 yr old is gotten by mixing equal parts of a 30 yr old and a 10 yr old.)
“(Likely forgotten ten minutes later. A 20 yr old is gotten by mixing equal parts of a 30 yr old and a 10 yr old.)”
I loved this. Just the other day, I said to my husband (referring to our 12-year-old), “I never know when she is going to be 25 or 6. When does the averaging stop, O Wise Mr. Hawkins?
I have six. I’d say mid-30s (when their own kids go all schizy).
SIX ! … what happened Henry? Didn’t you read (and fall for) Zero Population Growth?
No wonder you are so wise … I thought it was the science blog, or the counseling … Congrats.
The twenties seem to be when we find the free world and fall for the old utopian lies most, based on my experiences, not kids. The yard gate is open and we “run wild”.
Reality comes later now, arrested development so to speak, for those bought with entitlements at least. It’s still the thirties for those subjected to real life, but the subsidized and public union peeps can live in cognitive dissonance till death, thanks to selling their soul for entitlements.
Also altering maturity, is being conditioned with the “you’re in the victim class” mentality, where souls are drafted into the culture wars. Those are ties that bind, as I see it.
4 bio, 1 adopted native American (my wife has high cheekbones and is Cherokee, but is not Elizabeth Warren), and 1 adopted Yankee. Age spread 20-38. None in prison. No wait… nope, none in prison.
I said I had six, but I didn’t say I raised them right. One’s a Democrat (((shudder))) and another is…. gasp! …. a registered Republican.
Credit Mrs. Hawkins. I’m more like the house mule, kept in a stall until the garbage needs to go out (Wednesday night for 6 am Thursday pickup), or the lawn needs mowing, a spider needs killin’, that sort of thing. I also serve her family by doing all the driving and handling all the luggage on air and road trips. Mostly, I stay in my stall munching my oats/molasses mix and daydreaming, plus I have a keyboard for posting at LI.
I am the proud father of eight. All with the same lady, who is out of a mixed marriage (Swedish and Norwegian).
A very interesting group of personalities and talents, all of whom I love fiercely.
Ten grandkids. To date…
Paraphrasing Groucho:
“Eight! I like my cigar but I take it out of my mouth once in a while!”
We planned each and wanted each, and none are closer than eighteen months. No surprises. I was present at each birth, including our first. Since that was our “Army baby” that involved a job of convincing, since fathers in the delivery suit was NOT in vogue.
Plus, being that I was a pre-vet guy, I could draw you anatomically correct pictures and outline the endocrine system of both males and females WRT reproduction.
Wow, that went from father of eight to offers of pornography real quick. Dude.
(lol)
Wonderful. Congrats to you and Henry. It must be why you are both so wise, as Midwest Rino said.. 😉
Rags is wise. I’m just a smartass. Thanks, tho!
It will be an up Hillary battle but we can do it.
(((groan)))
If there be gods, ye shall pay for that one.
“I’ve (((groan))) accustomed to your avatar.”
Groucho shot an elephant in his pajamas. How he got in those in threads I’ll never know.
I have four kids. A woman has to know her limitations.
Say the magic word and the duck will come down and give you one hundred puns.
Say goodnight Henry.
Good Night all, and remember, tune in again tomorrow night, same URL, for the next episode of Hen & Jen, also featuring Rags and sometimes CoolHandLuke.
“One day, Jen! POW! To the moon!”
I think in a previous life, Ms. Jennifer was my x-wife.
Polling also says the young have no idea, at all, of how old Hillary really is.
If I recall correctly, when you’re 20 years old, everybody from 50-110 is sort of lumped into the general category of ‘old’.
When I was that age, we didn’t trust anyone over thirty.
Given all of the above, if I may say “What difference does it make?” If Hillary is torpedoed, the Dems will run someone like Warren. The Dems run candidates on optics, not on experience, accomplishments, or viable policies/platforms. And people vote for these candidates (case in point – the twice-elected Obama, a candidate with no executive experience, no accomplishments, and whose personal background is every bit as opaque as any smokescreen laid down by Billary). It’s sad to say, but unless the Republicans run a truly stellar candidate (and what’s the likelihood of that?), we are looking at four, and maybe eight, more years of the same. (And that statement will be true even if a less-than-stellar Republican becomes president – e.g, Jeb Bush.)
I understand it’s difficult to run a successful campaign against a free lunch machine, but if Republicans can only compete successfully by being a lite version of the Democrats, then they’re contributing to the eventual downfall of this country too. Better to run on correct principles and lose than to win and continue ruinous policies.
Dude! We’re twelve seconds into the first quarter! Suck it up! We’ll have no quitters on this team! Take a lap!
BTW, I errantly caused one of your down thumbs because the Reply button is about 1/12,000th of an inch from the down thumb button.
The growth under Clinton had several sources: the natural recovery from the mild recession which ended in late 1991 began slowly and didn’t help GHWB get reelected, but it paid for Clinton’s then-record tax hike.
Then a Republican Congress ignited sustained growth by cutting capital gains taxes and forcing Clinton to agree to a balanced budget track. The boom from the freed resources of the cut came at the right time, boosted confidence from the budget deal and 401K plans brought millions of investors into the market just as the internet boom began.
Clinton’s only contribution was in finally caving to Congress on those two items.