Thursday, March 13, 2008
Wednesday, March 12, 2008
Sunday, February 10, 2008
Obama's Campaign Strategy
While Barak Obama’s performance to date has been impressive, two consistent weaknesses have persisted since the Iowa caucuses. With such quick success in creating a movement, perhaps it is natural to get caught up in one’s own rhetoric and not make a dispassionate evaluation of the weaknesses. Secondly, the campaign now needs to shift gears from being a movement only to a campaign to win which in essence requires Mr. Obama to dismantle the Clinton myth of experience and performance.
As Maureen Dowd has so well articulated in her column in the New York Times, to win the campaign, there is a need to ‘slay the dragon’; i.e. attack the Clintons’ lack of performance in specific areas such as Social Security, Healthcare, loss of Congress by the Democrats under Clinton’s watch. It must be remembered that movements alone do not win elections; the status quo needs to be brought down at the same time as one gives a message of hope and a new beginning.
The campaign has shown a surprising inability to see and address the weak spots which may well have resulted in the losses in large states like California, New Jersey and Massachusetts. If not addressed going forward, this will turn out to be Obama’s Achilee’s heel. While we harp on the message of change, we should be able to change our strategy and tactics in view of what has emerged since people started going to the polls in January. Contrarily, our opponent, Hillary Clinton, has been adept at changing her strategy and tactics whenever circumstances have warranted. It may help us to take a page from her book. Sometimes, recognizing the opponent’s strength and learning from it may be the best thing to do.
Here are a few thoughts to identify the weak points and the necessary, albeit slight, modification required in campaign strategy to address it.
A recognition of the failings would help. Firstly, two parts of the electorate are not responding to Obama as well as one would hope and require; these are working class folks (amongst whites and hispanics) and senior citizens. There is no need to surrender either of these groups to Clinton. Inroads need to be made within the Hispanic community, white working class women, teachers and senior citizens. We touch on this point later.
Last but not least the campaign must take to the airwaves and point out these flaws; a particular tactical advantage given Obama’s financial strength going forward. The much maligned negative campaigning always works if done right. The states of Ohio, Texas, Maryland and Pennsylvania offer great opportunity to dismantle the myth of Hillary’s supposed experience. Three cogent points can be made: 1) during the Clinton presidency, Hillary was given one major task; i.e. to come up with a health care plan. She bungled it and made no progress despite Democrats having control of Congress, lost governorships and many state legislatures and local governments, a loss from which iot took 12 years to recover 2) it is during the Clinton presidency that the Democrats became a minority party; a specter likely to repeat itself if Hillary wins; 3) no progress was made on Social security. Even now all Hillary offers is a bipartisan commission; a perfect hedge.
As mentioned earlier, Obama has been unable motivate men and women from the working class, particularly in white and Hispanic areas. Other than blacks, he has consistently lost in areas heavily populated by the working class. This became evident in Iowa (despite an otherwise impressive win) and New Hampshire, yet the campaign seems to have stayed oblivious to this weak spot and did not alter its campaigning style. He is never seen visiting a factory, a shopping mall, a Walmart, a diner, a coffee shop or a school. Although Obama has specific economic plans, he does not address the economic concerns of this class in any meaningful way during his speeches. Two states on super Tuesday , New Jersey and Massachusetts, could have been won if he had campaigned in areas like Camden and Edison (NJ) and Vooster (Mass). Hillary, on the other hand has proved to be very nimble: she immediately adopted the ‘change’ message after losing Iowa which along with her support in the working class women led to her narrow victory in New Hampshire. When the Culinary Workers Union endorsed Obama, she went straight to the culinary workers and campaigned amongst the workers making the union leadership’s endorsement ineffective. Obama needs to do the same if not more.
There is no need to surrender the older generation or the white women to Hillary. The issue of Social Security needs to be hammered in.
Dayle and Shafqat
P.S: This article is a bit incomplete, but we wanted to get our thoughts out there and will complete it as time goes by.
Please email this to your friends and family by clicking on the email icon below.
As Maureen Dowd has so well articulated in her column in the New York Times, to win the campaign, there is a need to ‘slay the dragon’; i.e. attack the Clintons’ lack of performance in specific areas such as Social Security, Healthcare, loss of Congress by the Democrats under Clinton’s watch. It must be remembered that movements alone do not win elections; the status quo needs to be brought down at the same time as one gives a message of hope and a new beginning.
The campaign has shown a surprising inability to see and address the weak spots which may well have resulted in the losses in large states like California, New Jersey and Massachusetts. If not addressed going forward, this will turn out to be Obama’s Achilee’s heel. While we harp on the message of change, we should be able to change our strategy and tactics in view of what has emerged since people started going to the polls in January. Contrarily, our opponent, Hillary Clinton, has been adept at changing her strategy and tactics whenever circumstances have warranted. It may help us to take a page from her book. Sometimes, recognizing the opponent’s strength and learning from it may be the best thing to do.
Here are a few thoughts to identify the weak points and the necessary, albeit slight, modification required in campaign strategy to address it.
A recognition of the failings would help. Firstly, two parts of the electorate are not responding to Obama as well as one would hope and require; these are working class folks (amongst whites and hispanics) and senior citizens. There is no need to surrender either of these groups to Clinton. Inroads need to be made within the Hispanic community, white working class women, teachers and senior citizens. We touch on this point later.
Last but not least the campaign must take to the airwaves and point out these flaws; a particular tactical advantage given Obama’s financial strength going forward. The much maligned negative campaigning always works if done right. The states of Ohio, Texas, Maryland and Pennsylvania offer great opportunity to dismantle the myth of Hillary’s supposed experience. Three cogent points can be made: 1) during the Clinton presidency, Hillary was given one major task; i.e. to come up with a health care plan. She bungled it and made no progress despite Democrats having control of Congress, lost governorships and many state legislatures and local governments, a loss from which iot took 12 years to recover 2) it is during the Clinton presidency that the Democrats became a minority party; a specter likely to repeat itself if Hillary wins; 3) no progress was made on Social security. Even now all Hillary offers is a bipartisan commission; a perfect hedge.
As mentioned earlier, Obama has been unable motivate men and women from the working class, particularly in white and Hispanic areas. Other than blacks, he has consistently lost in areas heavily populated by the working class. This became evident in Iowa (despite an otherwise impressive win) and New Hampshire, yet the campaign seems to have stayed oblivious to this weak spot and did not alter its campaigning style. He is never seen visiting a factory, a shopping mall, a Walmart, a diner, a coffee shop or a school. Although Obama has specific economic plans, he does not address the economic concerns of this class in any meaningful way during his speeches. Two states on super Tuesday , New Jersey and Massachusetts, could have been won if he had campaigned in areas like Camden and Edison (NJ) and Vooster (Mass). Hillary, on the other hand has proved to be very nimble: she immediately adopted the ‘change’ message after losing Iowa which along with her support in the working class women led to her narrow victory in New Hampshire. When the Culinary Workers Union endorsed Obama, she went straight to the culinary workers and campaigned amongst the workers making the union leadership’s endorsement ineffective. Obama needs to do the same if not more.
There is no need to surrender the older generation or the white women to Hillary. The issue of Social Security needs to be hammered in.
Dayle and Shafqat
P.S: This article is a bit incomplete, but we wanted to get our thoughts out there and will complete it as time goes by.
Please email this to your friends and family by clicking on the email icon below.
Tuesday, January 29, 2008
Confessions of former Clinton Supporters
During the 1990's the Republicans came to control both Houses of Congress. Their overly partisan behavior and single-minded pursuit of ways to discredit Bill Clinton made us rally behind the Clintons. Our Clinton defense intensified in response to the zealous and widely discredited actions of the special prosecutor, Kenneth Starr. During the last few years of the Clinton presidency, we Democrats spent more time and energy fighting for him rather than him fighting for us.
The support of the Clintons, in my family, translated into unquestioned votes—twice for Bill Clinton and twice for Hillary Clinton. We, husband and wife, are neither political operatives nor do we work in the political trade; we are ordinary citizens who consider ourselves politically aware solid Democrats. We have become, stunningly disappointed former Clinton supporters who have witnessed their perversion of, what we thought was, a lifetime of progressive activism.
The recent behavior of Hillary Clinton, her husband and her campaign tactics in general have made us look at other candidates. It has become clear that the Clinton’s will do anything to win. Not in our wildest dreams could we imagine that they would stoop so low as to pit one ethnic group against another; that challenges the very core of the Democratic party. Their cynical use of diverse groups within the party, their shifting position on the Iraq war and their propensity to misstate facts in typical Clinton doublespeak has led us to the conclusion that Anyone But Hillary would be a better choice for Democrats. We come to this conclusion with a dispassionate review of the Clinton presidency, Hillary’s wrong judgment on the seminal issue of our time, the Iraq war: in her own words ‘she voted for the war with conviction’ and now her tortuous explanations that the yes vote did not mean yes is too reminiscent of the “depends on what the meaning of the word ‘is’ is”. We also believe that ‘character’ matters for a Presidential candidate and unfortunately they do not exhibit many signs of that. Instead, their recent behavior shows a narcissistic power grab irrespective of the long term damage they can inflict on the party. In a recent televised debate, Mrs. Clinton herself suggested that a person’s past behavior and performance is a precursor as to how one would behave and perform in the future. Unfortunately, their recent and past behavior does not augur well for the party nor the country.
Now benefiting from a clear-eyed view of the Clintons, we are able to perform a more matter of fact assessment of President Clinton's performance which was not quite possible during his period in office. During the 1990s and beyond, our energy stayed focused on defending Bill Clinton against the Republicans and Ken Starr. Like the Republicans, we too developed a partisan zeal and none of us stepped back to scrutinize the performance of the Clinton presidency. Perhaps, we should have followed the advice of a historian from the Roman times who stated that ‘truth helps a story along’. We are now attempting to face the truth, as painful as it may be.
With the benefit of hindsight and by virtue of enough time having passed, it is now not only possible, but necessary to examine Mr. Clinton’s presidency (and Mrs. Clinton’s role during that period) in an analytical framework. Sadly, on close examination, the view of Mr. and Mrs. Clinton that emerges is not very flattering to either. In fact, the more we look at the period from 1992 onwards, the more it becomes evident that we, as Democrats, lulled ourselves into constructing, believing , lauding and propagating what can more aptly be described as a fairy tale, particularly with regard to the large issues confronting our society. Moreover, during the 8 years that Mr. Clinton was in power, the party spent more time and energy being apologists for the Clintons.
When Bill Clinton was inaugurated, the Democratic Party had held a majority in the House of Representatives since the New Deal. Given the then dominant election themes,
it can be stated that he was elected with a mandate from the Democrats to: 1) fix the
healthcare system as at the time 25 million Americans were without any health insurance, 2) fix the looming shortfall in Social Security, 3) see emerging global economic trends and prepare the work force against its adverse effects and 4) lead and govern in a way to enable Democrats to win control of the Senate so that meaningful and progressive reforms could be undertaken. It is with sadness we note that in three of the above four there was total failure. There were more Americans lacking health insurance when Bill Clinton left office than there were when he was inaugurated; the looming cris in Social Security remain unfixed and the Democrats lost control of Congress under his watch and the country paid a very heavy price for that loss. There was some partial success in recognizing emerging global trade trends, even though the administration failed to prepare or retrain the work force subjecting the work force to the vicisstiudes of globalization.
When all is said and done, in historical terms, Mr. Clinton did fight a good rearguard action against the Reaganite and Newt Gingrich onslaught. For this he should be lauded. However, this was too meager an achievement compared to the price that we paid in lost opportunities to address our major issues. Since then they had a chance to lead during the anti-war movement ; instead, both husband and wife chose to go with Mr. Bush as part of a political calculus. Now their political calculus requires race baiting, cynical use of ethnic minorities and gender. Their calculating style has certainly lost our votes.
Dayle and Shafqat
The support of the Clintons, in my family, translated into unquestioned votes—twice for Bill Clinton and twice for Hillary Clinton. We, husband and wife, are neither political operatives nor do we work in the political trade; we are ordinary citizens who consider ourselves politically aware solid Democrats. We have become, stunningly disappointed former Clinton supporters who have witnessed their perversion of, what we thought was, a lifetime of progressive activism.
The recent behavior of Hillary Clinton, her husband and her campaign tactics in general have made us look at other candidates. It has become clear that the Clinton’s will do anything to win. Not in our wildest dreams could we imagine that they would stoop so low as to pit one ethnic group against another; that challenges the very core of the Democratic party. Their cynical use of diverse groups within the party, their shifting position on the Iraq war and their propensity to misstate facts in typical Clinton doublespeak has led us to the conclusion that Anyone But Hillary would be a better choice for Democrats. We come to this conclusion with a dispassionate review of the Clinton presidency, Hillary’s wrong judgment on the seminal issue of our time, the Iraq war: in her own words ‘she voted for the war with conviction’ and now her tortuous explanations that the yes vote did not mean yes is too reminiscent of the “depends on what the meaning of the word ‘is’ is”. We also believe that ‘character’ matters for a Presidential candidate and unfortunately they do not exhibit many signs of that. Instead, their recent behavior shows a narcissistic power grab irrespective of the long term damage they can inflict on the party. In a recent televised debate, Mrs. Clinton herself suggested that a person’s past behavior and performance is a precursor as to how one would behave and perform in the future. Unfortunately, their recent and past behavior does not augur well for the party nor the country.
Now benefiting from a clear-eyed view of the Clintons, we are able to perform a more matter of fact assessment of President Clinton's performance which was not quite possible during his period in office. During the 1990s and beyond, our energy stayed focused on defending Bill Clinton against the Republicans and Ken Starr. Like the Republicans, we too developed a partisan zeal and none of us stepped back to scrutinize the performance of the Clinton presidency. Perhaps, we should have followed the advice of a historian from the Roman times who stated that ‘truth helps a story along’. We are now attempting to face the truth, as painful as it may be.
With the benefit of hindsight and by virtue of enough time having passed, it is now not only possible, but necessary to examine Mr. Clinton’s presidency (and Mrs. Clinton’s role during that period) in an analytical framework. Sadly, on close examination, the view of Mr. and Mrs. Clinton that emerges is not very flattering to either. In fact, the more we look at the period from 1992 onwards, the more it becomes evident that we, as Democrats, lulled ourselves into constructing, believing , lauding and propagating what can more aptly be described as a fairy tale, particularly with regard to the large issues confronting our society. Moreover, during the 8 years that Mr. Clinton was in power, the party spent more time and energy being apologists for the Clintons.
When Bill Clinton was inaugurated, the Democratic Party had held a majority in the House of Representatives since the New Deal. Given the then dominant election themes,
it can be stated that he was elected with a mandate from the Democrats to: 1) fix the
healthcare system as at the time 25 million Americans were without any health insurance, 2) fix the looming shortfall in Social Security, 3) see emerging global economic trends and prepare the work force against its adverse effects and 4) lead and govern in a way to enable Democrats to win control of the Senate so that meaningful and progressive reforms could be undertaken. It is with sadness we note that in three of the above four there was total failure. There were more Americans lacking health insurance when Bill Clinton left office than there were when he was inaugurated; the looming cris in Social Security remain unfixed and the Democrats lost control of Congress under his watch and the country paid a very heavy price for that loss. There was some partial success in recognizing emerging global trade trends, even though the administration failed to prepare or retrain the work force subjecting the work force to the vicisstiudes of globalization.
When all is said and done, in historical terms, Mr. Clinton did fight a good rearguard action against the Reaganite and Newt Gingrich onslaught. For this he should be lauded. However, this was too meager an achievement compared to the price that we paid in lost opportunities to address our major issues. Since then they had a chance to lead during the anti-war movement ; instead, both husband and wife chose to go with Mr. Bush as part of a political calculus. Now their political calculus requires race baiting, cynical use of ethnic minorities and gender. Their calculating style has certainly lost our votes.
Dayle and Shafqat
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