NYT/AP: Democrats: What Clinton Must Do to Win
By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
Published: February 17, 2008
WASHINGTON (AP) -- Ask a dozen die-hard Democrats around the country what Hillary Rodham Clinton can do to beat Barack Obama and win the presidential nomination and they have plenty of ideas -- some of them contradictory....A sampling of Democratic voices from the field:
--SHOW PASSION: ''The challenge for Hillary Clinton is to be seen as an agent of change, to recapture the passion that the people who support her really have for her,'' says Kari Chisholm, a political consultant in Oregon who blogs at www.blueoregon.com....
--IT'S THE ECONOMY. AGAIN....
--GO NEGATIVE....
--MAYBE NOT: A candidate goes negative ''at great risk,'' says Mitch Ceasar, the party chairman in Florida's Broward County....
--DEFINITELY NOT: Going negative ''positively would be the absolutely wrong thing to do,'' says Ed Treacy, a former county party chairman in Indiana. ''Democrats do not want to see them fighting at all. ... I'm not sure what she can do. So much of it is his momentum.''...
--THE FORCE: ''The most important thing is that the force is with Obama,'' says Glenn Browder, a former Alabama congressman and now professor emeritus at Jacksonville State University. ''The election seems to be moving in his favor, and I don't believe that issues have much to do with it right now. It's not as if she could all of a sudden start pointing this or that out about his positions or his votes, and that would change things very much. He is a movement that goes beyond issues.''...
--REMEMBER IRAQ: ''If she could come up with a more specific war plan,'' says Marcia Mainord, president of Texas Democratic Women. ''That's what I hear people talking about. Who's going to end the war.''...
--BE YOURSELF: ''She's a very engaging, very warm person if she lets that side of her be seen,'' says Warren Tolman, a former Massachusetts state senator....
--READY TO DELIVER: ''There is a narrative to be told that she hasn't quite put all together,'' says Tom Swan, who directs a citizen action group in Connecticut. ''But she's close, on health care and her experience and her scars make her the one who can deliver now.''...
--GRASS-ROOTS ORGANIZE....
--STEADY AS SHE GOES: ''You've got a strategy, stick with the strategy,'' says Jim Crog, a longtime party operative in Florida....
--McCAIN FACTOR: ''She's got to convince Democrats that, contrary to what the polls now show, that in the end she's going to be a better candidate against John McCain,'' says Garry South, a longtime Democratic operative in California....
http://www.nytimes.com/aponline/us/AP-Running-Against-Obama.html