Des Moines Register: Democrats ratchet up message of electability

[DeepModem Mom]

Democrats ratchet up message of electability
By THOMAS BEAUMONT and JASON CLAYWORTH • REGISTER STAFF WRITERS • December 23, 2007

For the past 11 months, Democratic caucusgoers in Iowa have heard two words - "change" and "experience" - over and over. For the next 11 days, they will hear this one the most: "electability." Hillary Clinton, Barack Obama and John Edwards are trying to break out of a three-way battle for the lead as they barrel toward Iowa's Jan. 3 caucuses by stressing what they argue are general-election strengths that make them uniquely able to win next year. Clinton's electability argument relies on a perception that she is the most experienced; questions about Obama's readiness; and her potential to be the nation's first female president. Obama, like Edwards, says he is the most electable because he represents a starker change. The two are trying to present themselves as more electable than Clinton, whom many Democrats admire but also see as a rallying figure for Republicans.

The leading Democratic candidates' emphasis on strategic instead of policy distinctions in their closing arguments to caucusgoers recognizes what many activists in the leadoff nominating state agree is a strong field of candidates who generally align on key issues. It's also a sign that the candidates are tapped into Iowa Democrats' intense focus on nominating a general-election winner, after trying and failing in successive campaigns, observers say....

***

As Obama has edged ahead in some Iowa polls, Clinton has stepped up her claim that she can survive Republican attacks, framing her well-known public trials over the past 16 years as proof she has been more thoroughly examined than Obama. "When Republicans come out full-throttle, it is always difficult for someone who's not been through this before even to imagine what the incoming fire is like," Clinton said in a Des Moines Register interview. "So, one thing you know about me is I've been on the receiving end for a long time. You're going to be able to count on me to withstand whatever comes at me." Obama says that among his chief electability points is that he would not automatically have the Republicans rallied against him the way he argues Clinton would against her. "My campaign is premised on a different idea, and that is that we can stay true to our progressive ideals, but reach out to Republicans and independents and after the election form a working majority for change," Obama told the Register last week. "And I don't think that there's anybody out there who can do that better than I can."...

***

Edwards says his Southern roots and message of economic fairness would appeal to voters in states that have voted Republican in the past two elections. "We all know that Democratic presidential candidates need to lead in those places to be successful nationally and state-by-state in the Electoral College. I can do that," Edwards told reporters in Des Moines last week. "I'm the only one who's actually won in a red state."

All the candidates point to recent polls showing them receiving more support than the Republican candidates in hypothetical general election matchups, which scholars say have little meaning....

http://www.desmoinesregister.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20071223/NEWS/712230332/-1/caucus

[cali]

1. They all have a point to make

but they all ignore certain deficits. Not exactly surprising.

[earthlover]

2. Hillary cannot win

Yes Hillary has been the focus of republican attacks for years. As a result, several memes have already been planted about her. If she is the nominee, voters will only have to be reminded of these memes. Her negatives are already close to 50%. In other polls, about half say they would not even consider voting for Hillary. It is a specious arguement on her part to point to all this and say that she has experience holding up to withering attacks. She has survived, but looking at the negatives, a lot of damage has already been done.

I don't think Hillary's supporters are quite prepared for the barrage of attacks coming from the repubs and the media once she would get the nomination sewed up. They seem to believe she is somehow innoculated to their attacks because she is still standing.

Whoever gets the nomination, the Repubs are going to attack mode. I think Biden is the surest victor, followed by Obama and Edwards in my view. I hope I am wrong in believing that Hillary just cannot win in the general election.

Getting elected is more than withstanding attacks. We also have to give voters a reason to vote FOR our candidate. It is here that Hillary's weakness lies. Her original slogan, born of her acceptance speech, a time where she could lay out the underpinnings of why she is running....was that she is "in it to win". In it for personal political gain does not cut it as a reason to get voters to vote for our side. Hillary's tone on the stump often is smug and condescending. She comes off as a politician who will say anything to get elected. Her recent "likeability tour" is a step in the right direction, but even this looks like a calculated manuever.

Obama and Edwards both provide more inspirational reasons to vote FOR them. Biden is also in that league.

During the general election campaign, the full force of the Dem Party's resources will be used to present the case of our candidate. I believe that if we take either Obama or Edwards or Biden we can get their inspirational message across and win in November. With Hillary, she is a known quantity, and this is her problem.