Setting aside the many problems I have with Bill Clinton, I think he is by far the most effective surrogate in the country. More than any other partisan commentator, people will listen to Clinton when he takes Obama’s side against Romney and the Republican noise machine. Poppy Bush is aging and frail, and he isn’t remembered fondly by virtually anyone. His son is one of the worst surrogates in the country because his record is so terrible. If there is a dispute and Clinton takes a side, he will have real influence.
For that reason, the Obama campaign should use Clinton a lot during this campaign. I think the best way to use him is as an expert on budgetary matters. Clinton can explain what the Ryan budget really means for average Americans, and why they will be royally screwed if Romney is elected. Obama needs to do this, too. But Clinton will come across as almost an independent authority.
It seems the thinking is that Clinton can help Obama with white working class folks, especially those without a college education. I guess that is true, but only indirectly. What he can do is explain how the Republicans’ plans will screw people, including white folks. The Republicans will try to make it sound like the only people who will be hurt are blacks and Latinos (and sluts) who are sucking at the teet of the federal government. Clinton is great at disabusing people from the belief that they will be spared the abuse.
So, yes, unleash the Big Dog. He will be a great help.
The bulldog has also been known to go off script and not in ways that help the Obama admin. he just doesn’t seem to have the same discipline as SoS Clinton. Therein lies the main prob with unleashing the big dawg. Plus sometimes it seems tome that FormerPOTUS Clinton is more interested in his own legacy
part of the package. It’s still worth it.
I’m with you on this one, Booman. Clinton may go off script sometimes, but his warmth and empathy quotients are much greater than Hillary’s. FBFW, the guy connects with people in a really strong way, and if anyone is a strong surrogate, it’s Clinton.
I don’t know that Clinton is particularly undisciplined, though Hilary is more disciplined I’ll say. Am I having a blank or am I correct that the most stupid thing he ever said was that he didn’t inhale? That wasn’t ready for prime time.
I imagine that B Clinton will play the role Booman advocates. He is most concerned about his legacy, and helping Obama will help it.
helping Obama will help it.
This is true on so many levels.
You’re right, but it’s one of those times I was inadvertently perceptive. I love these moments!
Every single event from 2007-2011 would seem to say facts not in evidence, your honor.
Just ask President Hillary and Speaker Pelosi.
OMG, yes. He would be so good at this. He would effortlessly make Ryan’s plan look so awful, and it wouldn’t get in Obama’s way at all. Obama gets the high road and can talk about principle and why we need to look out for those who have had some bad breaks, how this is a stronger America when we all work together etc. It’s a classic hit’em high/hit’em low.
For evidence of Booman’s claims, see Bill Clinton on Jon Stewart. I don’t know why other Democrats can’t just repeat what he says:
http://www.thedailyshow.com/watch/tue-november-8-2011/bill-clinton-pt–1
They’re all human so they’re going to screw up once in a while. Hillary had her verbal mistakes in 2008. So did Bill. Obama too but was treated far more gently by the media then but that is not so true these days. And with a sluggish economy to defend he will need help defending his record.
By all means bring in Bill to speak persuasively on the economy. Michelle O can speak on women’s/family issues — she will have to be far more visible as a surrogate than in 2010. Romney’s wife is impressive as a speaker and with her personal health issues will be a sympathetic figure, helping to humanize the robotic spouse.
And with the far right super pacs spending hundreds of millions bashing O in negative ads, well, the Dems are going to need all hands on deck. This race will be far closer than many over confident Ds now think it will be.
“… and my wife has a couple of Cadillacs.” That killed all her credibility. Even the Tea Baggers here shake their heads and laugh at that. Rightly or wrongly, she is permanently marked by blue collar America as a rich pampered person. There’s a common term for that involving the B word that I’ve heard from Democrats and Republicans in equal number, but I won’t type it as some people here would get apoplexy.
Even if her influence is only with suburban R and Indy moderate women, especially those pro choice types nervous about the GOP’s hard swing to the right lately on social issues, she will be a positive asset I fear.
You also make too much out of her clumsy husband’s remarks to the extent they somehow would diminish her credibility. No one doubts she married into wealth and lives well. She will be out there trying to convince certain groups that her husband is not some radical RWer despite reasonable suggestions that he will have to placate the Tea Party wing if he’s elected.
She will have to be the moderating Laura Bush only much more so. I don’t think it’s wise to dismiss her potential appeal and clout.
Me neither.
And do what exactly? You two apparently forget how Mormons think of women. It would pain R-money to no end to have his wife go out there trying to fix the flaws of the Romneybot9000.
.
On women’s rights waiting for another divine revelation …
"But I will not let myself be reduced to silence."I really think the damage of that gaffe accrued to him, and not to her.
It accrued to both, Joe.
And then there’s the reality that there’s no one from the EX Bush camp who can hit the trail to counter a Clinton presence. They would share the distaste. Of course if Cheney’s new heart props him up he would crawl to a nearby podium but wouldn’t bring an ounce of credibility to a budget speech. Rove will try but it would split his treasury to go after Clinton and Obama.
I’m thinkin if I could just get my hard right friends to stop getting their news from the chain emails they like to send me copies of and just once fact check them it would be equal to a 2nd Bill Clinton on the stump.
“…and just once fact check them…”
I tried that suggestion and got, “Snopes is a liberal site” as a response. So are there any reliable fact-check sites? I ask. Answer, “I dunno” (meaning don’t confuse me with facts, I suppose).
<sigh>
Unleash the Biden. That’s what Vice Presidents are for.
Of course, let Clinton and Carter be surrogates. But put them where they have strengths.
My feeling is that the Presidential race pales in comparison to the Senate races this year. That’s where you need to hang the Ryan budget on the entire Republican Party.
That and stop the talk about a “grand bargain” that fuzzes the issue.
Whoa! Unless the gaffes! When Biden isn’t saying something stupid(ly), he’s putting people to sleep.
Both of those are MSM tropes.
Use his reputation for gaffes to unleash some zingers. This is a big effing deal.
“Well, you know Joe.” is the perfect defense against the outrage when he hits his target.
Older, blue-collar Democrats and swing voters like Joe Biden. He can connect with the people that Chris Matthews like to imagine himself to be.
Hell, I like Joe Biden, and I think it’s clear the President does too. He has some antiquated subconsious social notions, but he is deeply un-mean and I think people sense that. He has a sense that people should be treated fairly, articulates that sense very clearly for someone so often inarticulate, and precisely because of that comes off as authentic. He comes off as authentic precisely because he is authentic. That’s worth a lot, particularly with the opponent we face.
I like him too, but he doesn’t have anything near the charisma of Clinton.
Not to be disrespectful to a decent man, but Jimmy Carter has no political strength.
Depends on where you are talking about. Surrogate should be used for particular audiences.
Send Jimmy to the hood, especially in the North. Our abject hatred of Ronald Reagan paints Jimmy in a much more sympathetic light – the nice Southern guy who got screwed by the spawn of Satan. Jimmy’s cred was increased when he called the Clintons on their racist campaign in ’08 – if anyone would know coded racist banter it would be the former governor of Georgia. Jimmy can talk Baptist right fine in the hood – send him there, he’ll do fine.
I did set aside my issues with Bill Clinton when he was in office but I can no longer do that as his real legacy and its real consequences come to light. His best accomplishment was to fire up the Republican base with his Oval Office antics with Monica costing Gore the election. What a stupid selfish thing to do. Then there is DOMA, Don’t Ask Don’t Tell and please don’t forget deregulation of the derivatives that opened the door wide for the 2008 financial meltdown. This last thing was the most selfish of all because he needed the economy to boom fueled by the housing bubble made possible by the above mentioned deregulation in order to keep his big money crook friends happy. He knew better and was warned by his own regulators. Now we have lately been reminded of his “end welfare as we know it” law he pushed then signed into law to boost his own political popularity. The really poor now are destitute because of his actions, or shall I say inaction, that caused our present high unemployment especially hurting the very people he had kicked off welfare. We even gave his political strategy its own name, triangulation. He became not to be known as the first black president, as he wanted, but in fact became the best Republican president in a long time. I guess that does qualify him to speak the language of the low information white male voter to help Obama but excuse me if I don’t want to listen to this or for that matter anything he has to say, ever.
And I guess the actual liberals among us would be obligated to just shut up and smile and pretend he never signed “welfare reform” or Glass Steagall, all decorated with his proud boast that “the era of big government is over”.
But it would be a good strategic move, since he’s enough of a Republican himself that the opposition would have a hard time blaming him for the destruction he oversaw in the name of triangulation.
I think the more you “actual liberals” yip, the more it helps Obama. Pretty please accuse him of committing a war crime for the bin Laden raid. Please?
Shut up? Oh, hell naw. Let your freak flag fly, “actual liberal among us.”
We were talking about Clinton, not Obama. I’m suggesting that Clinton will not help Obama on his left. The result all depends on how much you think turnout and volunteers will matter. Why I bother replying to someone who calls stupid names and writes like a drunk, I don’t know.
Nobody is suggesting that Clinton be brought on to help Obama “on his left.” Blue collar men, for instance – not on Obama’s left. Perhaps whiffing on something that obvious isn’t a wise thing to do when you’re going to engage in the Internet Tuff Gai posturing that makes up so much of your comments. Otherwise, you end up with this sort of “Get a Brain Morans” moment.
And I can tell you why you reply – for the same reason you do everything.
Because it makes you, the “actual liberal,” feel superior.
There is no question that Bill Clinton is a powerful asset, and that the Obama campaign should use him.
But I disagree that they should use him “a lot.” I think it would be smarter to use him sparingly, in order to get the greatest effect out of his talents when he is needed the most – and, let’s face it, to keep him from shooting his mouth off and handing the Republicans some gift.
The man is an enormous talent, possibly the greatest in modern history. He’s also gabby and undisciplined, especially without Hillary around to jerk his collar.
I would keep the Big Dog in the quiver, to be deployed to put out the worst fires and to strike at the greatest opportunities. I wouldn’t fritter away his media presence as an ordinary surrogate. I’d make sure that it was a big deal when Bill Clinton weighed in on the race, so that the Obama campaign’s message dominated the political coverage for a day or three right when they needed it the most.