WHAT HILLARY CLINTON NEEDS TO DO TO WIN IN 2016

…Hillary Clinton, the apparent Democratic choice for 2016

Keeping the White House in 2016 needs some serious coordination between Hillary and the president.

I’ve been very pleased that my blog has continued to gain some very respectable numbers for new readers and followers.  As expected, most of those following me are aware of how I feel about the Klown Kar of Republicans that will be running in the 2016 elections.  However, now I am getting requests about how I feel about Hillary Clinton’s chances as it appears she is the anointed one for the Democrats in 2016.

First, we need to consider how the voters are looking at who they want in the next election. 

Many of the voters in 2008 that went for Barack Obama, especially those younger voters, they also considered looking elsewhere in 2012.  Fortunately, their choice of Obama over Romney was always in Obama’s favor and he won with a plurality that totally stunned both Fox News and the Republicans, and especially the Romney family.

So, now we go to Mrs. Clinton and what she needs to do for 2016.

The first question is, what does it take for getting the nation’s voters to want to put someone from the same party currently in the White House, back in the White House after two full terms?

As it was back in 1988, when Bush I was able to keep the same party in the White House, he did it by promising to maintain a certain part of what Reagan had done, plus some of the newer areas that the public desired.  For instance, Bush I promised that he would be both an “education president” and an “environmental president”.  He also promised to offer a “kinder, gentler nation”.  This allowed him to call himself the new and improved Republican candidate.

Hillary’s job will be to also clarify that she is going to continue with the popular areas that have allowed the economy to get back on track.  She has to show that she is ready to change the status quo for the struggling middle class and the current increasing numbers of those living below the poverty line.  She has to show how she would go after the devastating budget that has been presented by the Republican House that wants to privatize Social Security and wants to de-rail or repeal Obamacare.

 

 

Hillary made it clear where she is focusing with her announcement video when she said, “Americans have fought their way back from tough economic times.  But the deck is still stacked in favor of those at the top. Everyday Americans need a champion, and I want to be that champion.”

She now needs to state how she would handle differently the nation’s relationship with Israel and Russia and Vladimir Putin and where she stands on the potential agreement being discussed with Iran.

The delicate area is, will she be able to distinguish herself for the Democratic Party today, and for the future, without totally distancing herself from President Obama?  Having a strategic distance is not the same as total estrangement.  But it must all be worked out together in advance. 

Just as it was for Bush I, the white, working class voters will be very important for Hillary.  But the change for today is how important the growing voter minority groups will be for all the candidates.  Obama obviously took over 95% of the Black vote in America, but he also took the majority of the Hispanic, Asian and women’s votes.  These will also be just as important for Hillary.

And there are some good things that are going for Hillary.

Hillary is a known entity and she has been fully vetted going back to the early 1990’s.  Being a very active First Lady, a twice elected New York Senator, a successful Secretary of State, she is more than qualified to be the nation’s president.  She is in many ways, much more qualified than most of the Republican presidential candidates.

Her liabilities are where the Republicans will be going after her such as the made-up Benghazi scandal, her issues with her e-mails as the Sec. of State, and they will unfortunately bring back all the non-scandal-scandals from her husband’s two terms.  Those include: White-Water Gate, Travel-Gate, Trooper-Gate and her having a former impeached president-husband, who, that if she’s elected, would become the first, “First Dude” in the White House.

But having this particular former president as a husband can also be a positive for Hillary.  The general public has always liked the Clintons, and Bill Clinton in particular as a former US president.  It is well remembered that for the Obama administration, Bill became the honorary “Vice President of Explaining Shxx”, when he did an excellent job of explaining to the nation how Obamacare would work for the people.

But right out of the gate, especially starting in Omaha, Hillary needs to take a straight aim at the radical form of conservatism that has engulfed the GOP.  She needs to be tough enough to state how she would end the polarization that has come totally from the Republicans not working with the Obama administration.

Hillary will have to go both to Obama’s left and to his right.  She needs to run hard against today’s income inequality, while pledging to get done the things that Obama couldn’t on family issues including family leave, pre-K and higher education. She will have to be strong on expanding the bargaining power of lower-paid Americans and dealing with the Trade issues such as the up-coming TPP agreement.  These will be tricky but necessary issues for her to deal with.

She needs to support Obama’s positives regarding foreign policy, but she must signal a personal toughness for reassuring the voters who are more hawkish than the president. Both Obama and Hillary need to find a way to orchestrate all of this, and that part won’t be easy. The current Iran negotiations will be the first, very challenging test.

Hillary will need to continually ask the American public: “Does this country really want to give control of both the White House and Congress to the right-wing ideologues whom most voters mistrust?”  Hillary is currently ahead in the polls because the country is not looking for a rendezvous with today’s extreme brand of conservatism.

I believe E.J. Dionne said it best when he wrote in the Washington Post, “With a little help from the president and a lot of help from her enemies, Clinton can win.”

Truer words were never spoken.

So, to those that asked, barring some unforeseen circumstances, this is what I think Hillary will need to do to be successful in 2016

Copyright G.Ater  2016