Hillary’s Lessons for John McCain
Barack Obama has won the Democratic nomination. Magnanimous Democrats might applaud Hillary Clinton for energizing the party and helping to register millions of new voters, but her contribution was not merely to her own side.
Clinton’s failures and successes provide some invaluable lessons for John McCain as well—if he’s alert enough to heed them.
Clinton’s most serious error, her delinquency in recognizing that this is the greatest “change” election in a generation, should serve as a warning to McCain, who is already saddled with the most damaging label in this election season: “Republican.” The winning message in this election is not likely to be “Experience” or “Ready on Day One.” And it certainly won’t be “How to Build on the George Bush Legacy.”
In every poll, voters overwhelmingly tell us that they think the country is on the wrong track and want someone who can take us in a new direction. McCain might be able to argue that Obama’s direction is faulty or even dangerous. But McCain is unlikely to convince voters that the best reason to vote for him is, as Obama ever so indelicately points out, his “fifty years of service to his country.” (Conversely, Obama’s own modest résumé never seemed to bother most voters.)
If the McCain camp had been paying attention, they might also have noticed that Clinton got nowhere with cynical attacks on Obama’s inspirational rhetoric. “Change you can Xerox” will go down as one of the lamest debate insults in modern times. Whining about his big rallies and fancy phrases sounded envious and small-minded and severely underestimated Americans' desire to be inspired by leaders. Republican heirs of Ronald Reagan should know better than anyone that politics is the art of inspiring people to join your cause. Grousing that Obama does it exceptionally well is not a recipe for success.
But Clinton did not just leave the campaign trail littered with mistakes and miscalculations. In her run of successes through Texas, Ohio and Pennsylvania, she also carved a path that a savvy McCain team might follow.
While some conservatives are loath to admit it, millions of working-class Americans don’t feel like they have benefited from macroeconomic growth, free trade and globalization. By identifying on a visceral level with these voters, pledging to fight for them and offering specific policy prescriptions aimed at their daily concerns, Clinton found her greatest electoral success.
If McCain commits to expanding and reinvigorating the American dream of upward mobility and to ensuring that the playing field is at least level for these voters, he stands a chance to inherit these voters who, Clinton has shown, admire a feisty, combative and world-wise champion.
Clinton also showed the weakness in Obama’s conflict-adverse personal style. Debates are not his forte. When she, with some help from debate moderators, pressed him both on values issues (she wouldn’t have stayed in that church) and substance (doesn’t raising the cap on payroll taxes hurt people who aren’t rich?), she made headway, cementing her image as the tougher and more aggressive of the two. (It wasn’t coincidental that he gave up debating after Pennsylvania.)
McCain, too, will need to walk a tightrope (one he didn’t always traverse successfully in his own primary’s debates). In the debates against Obama, McCain will need to appear assertive but not nasty in order to convince voters that he really is the “take charge” candidate, the most credible leader. And Clinton showed that Obama can be made to seem defensive, even irritable when pressed.
Clinton also bequeathed McCain one very large gift in the form of her “3 a.m.” TV ad, leaving behind a healthy dose of doubt about Obama’s ability to assume the role of commander in chief. She did a fair job of rattling voters by suggesting that Obama just might not be tough enough or prepared to be a wartime president. (And McCain will not be hobbled by fake memories of sniper fire, nor will he be limited to an electorate purely of Democratic primary-goers.)
Now, it is an open question whether the McCain camp has learned all or even most of these lessons. It may be easy for them to discount Clinton’s experience as the legacy of a flawed and failed candidate. But she turned out to be a pretty formidable campaigner who fought Obama to a near-tie. McCain’s team could do worse than to learn from her example.
- Poll
- Obama (D)
- McCain(R)
- Spread
- RCP Average
- 49.6
- 43.8
- Obama +5.8
- Candidate
- Favorable
- Unfavorable
- Spread
- Obama
- 54.9
- 36.1
- +18.8
- McCain
- 50.7
- 39.6
- +11.1
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HILLARY HAS RUN AN INCOMPETENT CAMPAIGN for all the hoopla about the Clintons being such great politicians.
OBAMA HAS RUN A BRILLIANT CAMPAIGN and has shown that he knows how to both lead and manage.
Hillary's brand of race politics has FAILED. McCain does NOT have to be taught that lesson!
Seen once again from the sad, confused and liberal prism of NYC. You all talk to yourselves so much that you miss the train wreck coming down the track. McCain wins easily and sooner than you think you will be comparing Obama to McGovern, Dukakis and Kerry. Thank you NYC!
I am sure the real lesson will matter. The GOP has lost three seats in the house in 3 months.
Americans are not HAPPY.
I see three standing senators running for office. Each Senator is personally responsible for the current STATE of America. Both parties are responsible yet who will hold them accountable? What is the lesson here? Hillary will lose and so will McCain.
McCain addressed the nation this morning and he is incapable of walking a tightrope (he needs a walker). He can barely talk using a teleprompter. His true ideas are never the source of the words he uses to talk to the nation, somebody is writing it but McCain never intends to do it. This scares people because they can sense this now? The guy looks on camera now like a deer in the head lights of a Mac truck.
Obama is great to watch and will most likely trash McCain in any public forum or contest of ideas. I personally think Obama is the next jimmy Carter dipped in Bill Clinton Teflon. God Help us because we are about to experience 1929 again.
Funny thing is the GOP still has a guy that gets people on their feet screaming (some to shutup) he brought in millions of new GOP followers, Raised more money than any GOPer has more YouTube videos and BLogs but in line with the infinite wisdom displayed by the party of ideas they asked all those folks to LEAVE.
What is the lesson in that?
I think the American people will start getting a better idea of what type of candidate and person Obama really is. The MSM will do their best to sugar coat the man, but that will only work so much.
McCain's best strategy is to avoid getting personal with Obama and just let his record (or lack thereof) speak for itself. I am sure the Dems would love to see McCain go "Howard Dean" on Obama. No need, he can't run from who he is.
Obama needs to convince middle-class America that he is their man. From what I have seen it is going to be harder than some may think. Middle-class people are pretty good as seeing a phony.
Jennifer, are you a cheerleader for McCain.The article reads like you are one of his consultans. McCain and Bush are joined at the hip, if McCain tries to run away from Bush, he will lose some of the 27% deadenders that believe Bush is a great president. I'm not sure the neo-cons give a hoot if McCain wins or not. They've never accepted him. Couldn't the gop find a candidate older and more wrinkled? He's tied to lobbyists, married to a heiress that won't release her tax returns, and wants to stay in Iraq for 100 years. And keep the tax cuts for millionaires. I'm sure that resume is a winner with the American people. Are you paid by the McCain campaign?
Jennifer, are you a cheerleader for McCain.The article reads like you are one of his consultans. McCain and Bush are joined at the hip, if McCain tries to run away from Bush, he will lose some of the 27% deadenders that believe Bush is a great president. I'm not sure the neo-cons give a hoot if McCain wins or not. They've never accepted him. Couldn't the gop find a candidate older and more wrinkled? He's tied to lobbyists, married to a heiress that won't release her tax returns, and wants to stay in Iraq for 100 years. And keep the tax cuts for millionaires. I'm sure that resume is a winner with the American people. Are you paid by the McCain campaign?
If USA shall avoid superficial presidents, smoothtalkers without substance and value, walking catastrophs waiting to happen - like George W. Bush; Americans must stop voting for people they like, and vote for the policies and experience of the person.
90%+ voters of one demograph one way or the other is not democracry, it is identity, and it threaten the core of elections: People must vote for political solution. For me that would have been Hillary. Obama didn't even have (as only Dems candidate when they started) a universal healthcare policy. He still hasn't. So why is he leading?
I'm sorry, did I miss the announcement that BO won the nomination???? Or is someone suffering from premature electation?
Are you a Democrat party hack?
>McCain and Bush are joined at the hip,Non-sense. Repeatedly saying it doesn't make it so.
>Couldn't the gop find a candidate older and more wrinkled?There you go. Important criteria for electing a president.
>He's tied to lobbyists,So, who isn't? Obama certainly is...so is Hillary
>married to a heiress that won't release her tax returns,...and who isn't running for office
>and wants to stay in Iraq for 100 years.like we've stayed in Japan, Germany, etc. since WWII. He didn't say he wanted the Iraq War to last for 100 years. Big difference.
>And keep the tax cuts for millionaires.No one in this country pays too little in taxes.
>I'm sure that resume is a winner with the American people.We'll see in November.
McCain has had a nice, long Democratic primary and a conversely short Republican one to observe Obama and note his weaknesses. The media treating Obama with kid gloves actually hurt him, because he still can't take a punch well. Obama will try to muddy the waters with identity politics, bringing up the Keating Five scandal (to which McCain can point to reform) and attacking McCain's war record (Obama surrogate Rockefeller already started it) and his age (as Ms. Rubin pointed out.)
There is plenty more dirt on Obama, but McCain doesn't have to dig for it. It'll all come out in the wash, and McCain will go on to the White House smelling like a rose. He just has to go on his actual record as a bipartisan leader, portraying himself as the maverick who courageously defied his own party, and hammering away at Obama on policy. The personal politics should be kept very subtle, and it should work like a charm.
in nov DON KING, O.J, flaver flav, rev wright, fat cow oprah
fat supper cow richardson has better chance of wining then mr hussien obama/
"While some conservatives are loath to admit it, millions of working-class Americans don’t feel like they have benefited from macroeconomic growth, free trade and globalization"
This is not a feeling or a belief!! This is a statement of fact.
I truly respected and voted for McCain in the 2000 primaries. then we see the great shift to the right to pick up the base, Now the great shift to the center because the republican party has to rebrand " a better term would be decieve"
I doubt people are going to accept this
go clinton the only hope we have
Firat McCain was born in the Panama Canal, he is not eligible.
He was a POW for 8 years, no one knows what he agreed to etc, brainwashed, hypnotised, chip inplant, he should not be eligible to run, also Liberman has to whisper to set him straight, sign of age
Are you talking about the same train wreck that led Republicans to recent humiliating defeats by losing three major republican house seats???? And you all ran those Rev. Right ads in those States. Great strategy. Keep it up and keep dreaming.
Get used to this: PRESIDENT OBAMA
you give way too much credit to Clinton's throw everything in the kitchen sink strategy. After a 100 throws she got a little lucky, dividing the party all the while.
McCain should do his own thing and try to be decent and positive. Let him and Obama move on from the Bush/Clinton/Bush/Clinton dramas to a new campaign.
Obama won most of the midwest states that are filled to the brim with Hillary's so called "hardworking" whites. America needs unity fast.
Thank you NY Observer for great advice. McCain needs to adopt liberal policy ideas to win! Wow! Thanks!
Obama will become President in January.
Clearly you missed the announcement because he basically already is the democratic nominee. Might I advise you to get some hearing aids.
My friends, John McCain is Bob Dole without the charisma.
I don't think this nation is going to elect a dim witted, badly aging warmonger.
One thing Sweet Jennifer that McCain needs to do is show how destructive this "Anti-Corporate" mentality of the Democrats is. It is the Michael Moore's of the party and a 35% corporate tax rate that does not allow Americans to benefit even more than we do from "globalization". McCain needs to show he can fight the Pelosi and Reid and Barney Frank idiots in the house and senate even better than Bush was able to do. How does he do it without being labeled the "third term of Bush" is the trick. The only thing scary about the Bush presidency to me is the evil GREEN LAWYERS have a bigger regulatory stranglehold on our economy than they did eight years ago. It is Big Oil and Wal- mart and Microsoft and GM and these corporations that if taxed at low rates would grow enough to give more money to the Welfare State that Obama types love so much. It is not a coincidence that the Great Society stuff started at the height of corporate America's affluence. When a lobbyist is hired by big business to beg a Liberal HIllary Clinton not to regulate tem into oblivion this is seen as "powerful corporate interests" to the Hollywood and academic type. The fact is it shows how weak business has become and how powerful left-wing politicians really are. I don't care if Obama wants to hire more social workers and "community activists" if his party quits attacking private coporations. The fact is government only consumes it never produces anything. Civil rights and food stamps may be based in "compassion" and supposed morality but they are still nothing but consumption. The Democrats will close down this economy and the xenophobia that both Hillary and Obama have displayed in regards to trade are going to start a new trade war if they get in the White House. If the Democrats want a bigger welfare state than we need a bigger private economy. WE have got to stop this idiotic form of environmentilism that sprung out of the sixties and start making our tax rates the lowest in the world again and then the liberals will have plenty of money to go hog wild again on re-habbing violent criminals and feeding poor kids who have druggies for parents.
lead and manage>>>>>>>>an empty suit
and you served your country where ?????
Anonymous, you are a dork, but your message is almost perfect--perfectly wrong! (1) McCain and Bush dislike each other and have a number of policy differences (on global warming, for example). (2) Dedicated Bush supporters are dedicated Republicans who are going to vote for McCain. (3) I am not a neo-con, but I think they would prefer McCain to Obamanable, who can't wait to cave in all over the Middle East. (4) You're "older and more wrinkled" comment reminds me who has made this election season the most racist, sexist, ageist, and demoralizing election (disenfranchising voters, etc.) ever--the "Democratic" Party. (5) McCain is no more tied to lobbyists than Obama, just different lobbyists, and McCain has been there longer. (6) McCain's wife files a separate return, and she is not running for office, so why should she have to disclose her return? Were you clamoring to snoop into Teresa Heinz Kerry's return? (7) The 100-year comment was taken out of context, and you know it but apparently enjoy telling lies. (8) The Bush tax cuts applied to people making well under $50K a year, but don't let the facts get in the way. Anyway, people earning over about $200K a year pay a majority of the taxes but don't get anything more for it except jerks like you who whine about the "rich" but forget they create the jobs. I said you are almost perfectly wrong because you are correct that McCain's resume is a winner with the American people. And no, I am not a McCain consultant.
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America!
The New Messiah is going to stick it to you!
This race should be Hillary's. She was robbed because of the Hussein Obama machine keeping Michigan and Florida off the totals.
I'd rather vote for McCain than Obama. At least McCain is a war hero.
I supported McCain in 2000 and 2004 (wrote his name in both times), but he's not getting my vote this time because of being a total suckup to Bush and the party GOP hacks. Not sure who I can support now.
This election is hard to predict. Both McCain and Obama will do well (probably split) with independent voters. Both will have a hard time holding onto their base support, for various reasons. McCain will have to contend with former GOP Congressman Bob Barr's Libertarian Party bid (which will draw better than you would think). Obama will have to contend with the racist elements within the Democratic party. Anyone saying they know how this election will turnout is either drunk and/or or a fool.
As for Hillary ... it's hard to tell if she's just showing her stuff for future elections, or just trying to "tube" Obama's campaign. Either way I think it's kinda pissy of her, honestly. Throw in the towel, bow out gracefully, and call it a screwed up campaign that she ran. She SHOULD be the nonminee, but screwed it up royally.
Ha, nice picture, that is all.
Hillary suffered from the media being so in love with Barak Obama.
I will either withhold my vote or vote for John McCain in November. I cannot vote for the substance free shyster BO
You can't put a dress on a hippo but it's still a hippo.
The problem is that people want change and Obama is the best candidate to convey that.
Bill tried to convince voters that Hillary was an agent of change. This met limited success due to her history of being in the white house, having tried to remedy health care and failing, and being type-casted as a Washington insider by Obama when she resorted to politics as usual.
Can McCain be the candidate of change? I doubt it. Not if the Obama campaign does their job correctly.
McCain, like Hillary, comes with a lot of political baggage. Keating 5, flip-floping on the tax cuts, George Bush. I doubt the electorate will buy that he is the agent of change.
So there are 2 basic gambles: 1) McCain tries to sell himself as the agent of change and see how many people he can fool. or 2) McCain sells himself as the war time president we need in this time of fear. Both gambles don't give me real confidence of producing a winner and if he tries to do both he will only sound off message (as Hillary tried herself).
Unless there are some dramatic changes in Iraq or terrorist attacks, McCain's chances look dim (assuming there is no spoiler action on the part of Hillary).