Hillary Clinton, her aides will tell you, is focused solely on winning the Democratic primary. Hillary Clinton, Democratic strategists with ties to the campaign will tell you, has one eye planted on the general election in everything she says and does.
Making sure that both statements are accurate means a lot of needle-threading for the front-runner, who must fend off Bernie Sanders on her left while keeping herself electable in November.
Her record so far is mixed. On economic issues, centrist Democrats are relieved Sanders’ stadium crowds of true believers have not sent her lurching too far leftward — Clinton is not proposing to reinstate Glass-Steagall; she does not advocate for universal free college or a single-payer healthcare system; and she does not support expanding Social Security benefits for all.
“Hillary has kept her powder dry,” said Jonathan Cowan, a former Clinton administration official who is the president of the moderate think tank Third Way, “refusing to embrace the most liberal ideas, like more Social Security benefits for all and raising taxes on the middle class. She is wisely avoiding Romney’s fatal error of tacking so far towards the base that you win the nomination but lose the general election.”
But Clinton has still provided Republicans with a share of positions and moments this year that could haunt her in 2016:
1) “We now finally are where we need to be” on ISIL: Defending herself against attacks from her Democratic rivals on the debate stage earlier this month, Clinton gave those eager to paint the “Obama-Clinton foreign policy” as weak on terrorism some catnip. “We now finally are where we need to be,” Clinton said of fighting ISIL. “We have a strategy and a commitment to go after ISIS which is a danger to us as well as the region.”
Republicans pounced. “No @HillaryClinton - We are not ‘where we need to be’ in fight against ISIS,” Jeb Bush tweeted during the debate. Clinton’s campaign stood by the comment – campaign chairman John Podesta said afterwards in the spin room that Clinton was referring only to the U.N. resolution authorizing the start of peace talks on the Syrian civil war. But it’s a soundbite with teeth, one that will be damaging to Clinton.
Read more:
http://www.politico.com/story/2015/12/hillary-clinton-errors-campaign-217185
