It remains to be seen what issues Hillary Clinton’s campaign will stress on the road to 2016.
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Andrew Sullivan recently made a point about the possible outlines of Hillary Clinton’s campaign for the presidency in 2016. Namely that there don’t appear to be many, or to put it another way, it is not clear what issues and themes she will be stressing. Sullivan sees this as a major problem for her:
What are her defining issues? Will she run on Obamacare — ensuring its success? Will she run on climate change? Or protection of entitlements? How would her foreign policy differ from Obama’s? Until we get a sense of where she is headed as far as policy is concerned, she runs the risk of appearing as some kind of large juggernaut that simply has to be elected, well, just because.
I’d agree with Sullivan that Hillary hasn’t exactly mapped out major themes for her campaign yet, it is after all still 2014, but I don’t see this as necessarily a big problem for her. The big divides in the Democratic Party in 2008 were largely driven by demographics, not policy or ideology. And it’s certainly possible that this will just happen again. In addition, if she can create a big enough of a “band wagon” effect with her candidacy she might not have to take many specific stances at all during the primaries–unlike former nominees Al Gore and to a lesser degree Michael Dukakis.
Instead, the real losers of an easy win by Clinton will be interest groups and activists inside the Democratic Party itself. Simply put, contested nominations battles for president are great times for parties to take stances on issues and figure out what they stand for. For example, the idea of passing a big sweeping health care bill in 2010 found its roots not in the opening days of the Obama administration, but during the primaries in 2007 and 2008 when all the major contenders (Obama, Clinton, and Edwards) took stances on passing a healthcare bill broadly similar to the Affordable Care Act.
At the end of the day there really are no legitimate or illegitimate reasons for supporting a candidate in a democracy. Wanting to see the first woman president is every bit as valid a reason for supporting a candidate as supporting them because of their stance on tax policy. But unless you are completely happy with the status quo of politics inside the Democratic Party you should be holding out for a contested race for the 2016 nomination, otherwise a potential president Hillary will be free to take whatever stances suit her the day after inauguration.
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Hello no, I hope every soldier votes against her for her stupid misandrist comment saying women were the primary victims of war because they lose their husbands, partners, etc….
hillary will probably try to appeal particularly to boomers, and also the remaining rocknroll generation( the silent generation) by using her age as an indicator of deep and lived wisdom, and as the final political hurrah for the elite political caste of the boomer generation (as bob dole’s presidential campaign was for the ww2 generation). her age will also be offset by the fact she is a woman, and woman tend to live longer and have healthier constitutions in old age. so, i will be surprised if her age, and that hillary would be the first woman usa president are… Read more »
I generally vote Democrat, so this is a criticism from the inside. So far, mostly what I see in terms of the Democratic race for President is still “I’m not as bad as Bush,” which is fine for 2008, but it’s played out now. (And some conservatives are right when they point out that Obama’s policies are not as different from Bush as Obama wants us to think.) If Dems want to stay in the White House, they’ll need to do better in 2016 than just point out the negative sides of the Bush presidency. I don’t see a clear,… Read more »