Hillary Clinton’s Political Skills Are Rapidly-Blossoming
January 18th, 2008
By JOE GANDELMAN, Editor-In-Chief
Democratic Senator Hillary Clinton’s foes such as Democratic Senator Barack Obama and Republicans everywhere take note: if you were counting on Mrs. Clinton to be brittle, not quite likable and seemingly talking by rote you are underestimating her and could suffer the political consequences. Before our very eyes, Hillary Clinton is evolving into a smooth, skillful world-class politician.
It’s not just her feisty performance in the debate before her surprise victory in New Hampshire — or the (in)famous teary-eyed incident. You can almost see Mrs. Clinton’s growth in mastering political skills of imagery and political rhetoric take place each day. She’s a fast learner and is sharpening her skills just as her husband former President Clinton seems to be losing his (a red-faced, angry partisan is not particularly persuasive to non-choir members).
Nowhere was that more evident in an interview she did this morning on KNX-Radio in Los Angeles, California’s mega-news station.
From the interview’s outset, Mrs. Clinton’s voice was animated, upbeat and cheery. When pointedly asked about the controversy in Nevada where the teachers union headed by pro-Clinton people unsuccessfully tried to squelch a union endorsing Obama from voting in workplaces, she handled it smoothly — letting listeners know she would have liked the court decision to come out differently…but indicating it was time to move on.
What a sharp contrast to her husband’s performance when a reporter asked him a question: the former President seemed seething, ready to jump out of his skin and put words in the reporter’s mouth accusing the journalist of holding a position because the reporter did his job and asked a tough question. If Hillary’s looking “cool,” Bill’s increasingly looking like an emotional hothead.
On KNX, Hillary Clinton was supremely likable in audio and got her positions across without being in controlled rage mode like her husband. CNN thinks there is strategy behind this:
While Sen. Hillary Clinton is trying to soften her image on the campaign, she is allowing her pit bull — Bill Clinton — to go on the attack.
In a version of “good cop/bad cop” the couple has gone after the senator’s closest rival for the Democratic presidential nomination, Sen. Barack Obama.
The former president aggressively interjected himself into a debate Wednesday when he became visibly combative with a reporter after being questioned about a lawsuit in Nevada that sought to ban caucus meetings in nine casinos on the Las Vegas strip.
…. The couple’s strategy is becoming routine, with Sen. Clinton playing the “good cop” and Bill Clinton bringing the heavy artillery.
For example, Hillary often takes a subtle dig at Obama’s limited time on the national stage by saying “there is not a contradiction between experience and change.”
Bill Clinton, on the other hand, is often much more direct. Before the New Hampshire primary for example, the former president blasted Obama for saying he opposed Iraq from the beginning, saying “Give me a break — This whole thing is the biggest fairy tale I’ve ever seen.”
The comment drew protests from the Obama camp and some prominent African-American Democrats.
Earlier in the campaign, the two would travel together, but, now, the couple operates more like a tag team. While she debated in Nevada Tuesday night, he was revving up voters in California. On Thursday, the roles switched. While she’s in California, he picked up the slack in Nevada.
But it seems more than that: her skills are GROWING and she’s becoming more appealing and negating the caricature of her painted by foes. Bill Clinton is almost becoming an argument against a vote for Hillary Clinton because he’s becoming the embodiment of the caricature Republicans painted of him all these years.
Hillary Clinton also helped decrease her longtime robot woman image by going on a popular day time talk show and more candidly than ever talking about the shame and pain she felt during the Monica Lewinsky scandal. A smart move: she has already displayed great strength among women voters, and this solidifies it, consolidates it, expands it — and gets free air time via all the clips on news shows.
But nowhere did you see a bigger sign that Mrs. Clinton was entering into a new era where she and her advisers decided it was time to campaign more like a candidate needs to in 21st century America, where likability can’t be dismissed as a factor than on Wednesday when she welcomed her traveling press corps aboard her campaign plane with a humorous take on the standard flight attendant speech. Stagy? Yes. But it was run all over television and on the Internet and did not fit the caricature.
The bottom line: her political foes may still talk of Mrs. Clinton in caricature form, but she is steadily working to erase the old imagery and is evolving before our very eyes in terms of her communication and political skills. Her political foes underestimate her at their peril.
Watch her in action on “Hill Force One”
THIS JUST IN: A lively, major Democratic blog has now endorsed Hillary Clinton.
This entry was posted on Friday, January 18th, 2008 at 8:20 pm and is filed under Bill Clinton, Newsweek Blogitics, Hillary Clinton, Democrats, 2008 Elections, Politics. Both comments and pings are currently closed.
