Hillary Clinton: Mission Accomplished

On January 22, 2007, as Senator Clinton went viral with her announcement that she was, essentially, running for The White House, we noted that her first challenge was to shatter the prism of the right. We wrote,

[T]his simply is a fact of modern politics in America. For the past three decades, the right wing has employed a powerful strategy of "$ell and $mear." They insist on being the gatekeepers to public opinion and have developed a powerful machine that tells us who to like - and who to hate.

... They $mear Democratic and Progressive heroes, reducing American success stories such as George McGovern, Walter Mondale and Michael Dukakis into humiliated historical footnotes. They destroy our leaders. They destroy those that might become our leaders. There is no Democratic or Progressive leader of any note of the last 20 years that has not been attacked.

Essentially, what we meant was:

Imagine if your worse enemies were the ones describing you and creating the world's impression of you. And imagine they did that for close to 15 years, how would people who hadn't ever met you feel about you? Exactly.

There are far too many people who have never met Hillary who have a fully-formed impression of her, usually quite negative. Not defendably negative, mind you, but more of a "I just don't like her" kind of impression.

The prism of the right.

We wrote:

This is Senator Clinton's primary challenge. Because since this strategy has been deployed, no one, not one single politician, has been in the eye of the machine longer than Senator Clinton. For almost 15 years, Americans have been bombarded with smears and negative commentary about her. Virtually every aspect of her life, personal and political, from her hairstyle to private decisions she made within her marriage, has been criticized.

That's the reality that Senator Clinton, her supporters and her staff have had to deal with every single day and to their great credit, they didn't either ignore it, as John Kerry's campaign did in 2004 on many levels, nor did they whine and complain about it.

What Hillary did was what she did in New York State.

She and her staff rolled up their sleeves and went to work. One voter at a time, one appearance at a time, one county, one district, one state. And what happened in New York State was a pretty good precursor to what is happening nationally. Today, she is at the top of the list of home state own-party favorability ratings. Her 81 percent favorability rating among Democrats in New York State is right up there at the very top, tied with Ted Kennedy's rating among Democrats in Massachusetts. And Kennedy in Massachusetts is probably the golden standard for being liked by your party in your own state.

Grudgingly, we hear from senior people in other campaigns that they are impressed at how hard she works, how good her team is, how they keep working all day, every day.

They're right. She's top in the polls and in the fundraising race not because of some unforeseeable chain of events; she's there because she understood the reality of her situation and she has outworked everyone else.

If she is our nominee, it will because of two core factors.

She didn't attempt to smash the negative perception as much as she shattered it softly and slowly -- one person at a time.

She, and her team, have worked hard, and smart.

Kudos to all of them.

Comments

[bklynsam]

Well, I hate to break the news to people, but 'Mission Accomplished' might be just a tad premature .. you know like someone elses 'mission accomplished' meme?

The media may play down her Iran vote (her pathetic non-answers at the last debate, and a whole host of changing positions depending on what will profit her politically at the time, etc, etc) and play up useless polls (just for fun, check the numbers and see just how many had a choice and how many were still undecided), but there are quite a lot of people who haven't jumped on to that Hillary express.

No, mission not quite accomplished.

And contrary to what one commenter said, I've been watching her for a very long time. I know exactly who she is and what she does and does not stand for. With all due respect to her supporters,the more I see of her, the more I know I DON'T want her to be the nominee.

She is working hard to be president, I'll give her that. She's been working hard for political power for a very long time. She's working hard to change her image. I don't want an 'image' for president. I want someone who doesn't have to work so hard to create one.

Oh, and that fundraising? You might want to mention that she had to transfer $10 from her Senate campaign fund to beat Obama' money .. but why bother with facts when 'image' is so, SO important.

[Alegre]

I guess hyper links don’t work here – sorry but I’m a newbie and that was my very first comment here at huffington post ;o)

Here are the URLs for what I thought would be the links in my above post (for anyone who’s interested).

Vote-Smart.org - http://votesmart.org/voting_category.php?can_id=55463
Hillary’s Issues Page - http://www.hillaryclinton.com/issues
Hillary's Press Releases & Endorsements - http://www.hillaryclinton.com/news/release/

[Alegre]

Couldn't agree more guys - I've never seen a campaign work harder this early on. It's almost as if it's October 2008 - not 2007. And her supporters out in the field are no different.

With every person who cuts through the noise and actually takes a look at her record (which can be found at Vote-Smart.org), her proposals (Hillary's Issues Page) and take note of who's endorsed her so far (Hillary's Press Releases & Endorsements), she gains support among us.

I've said it countless times before and I'll say it again - the more you know about Hillary, the more you're going to like her. She's a true progressive who's worked tirelessly to better this world for ALL of us and I can't think of a better person to lead us out of the dark times of the Bush administration.

[KAP]

You are exactly right with this. Hillary just works, and works, and works. I was out tonite in Chicago circulating petitions to put her on the primary ballot and was wished well by a couple from Arkansas who remember her days there. That's one of the many states that HRC will change into a Democratic force in the Electoral College. I also remember hearing the woman who wrote about Hillary's 1st campaign for the U.S. Senate, who documented how Hillary went out and won over upstate New York county by county.

[Alegre]

Exactly right about upstate NY in her re-election bid last year.

She could have won it without the margin of victory in NYC. She actually took 34 of the 40 counties won by Bush in 2004.

Upstate NY is pretty red traditionally, and yet Hillary won reelection with 67% of the vote. She speaks to people and they heard her loud & clear!

[Edwestern]

Yeah, but I just don't like her.

[LiberalBeliever]

A great article - thank you to Mr. Johnson and Mr. Boyce for speaking the truth about Hillary and her success. She IS the most hardworking of all the candidates, and she doesn't shirk her duties as a Senator while campaigning either. Her economic and government reform proposals are of critical importance. Her dedication to education and to teachers was rewarded yesterday by the major endorsement by the FTA.
Hillary has had more obstacles to overcome than any other politician. Just read the comments in this thread by those who hate her. And she IS gaining ground, one voter at a time.
She will be a great President.
If I had one message for Hillary it would be "Don't let anyone or anything stand in your way. Just keep up the good work."

[Alegre]

Couldn't AGREE more.

I would add one more message to Hillary...

"Stand strong - We've got your back girlfriend!"

[BUSHsurvivor]

You all are too funny! And you call yourselves dems! Hah!

[NABNYC]

Hard working? At hauling bags of money from crooked corporate donors to Bill and Hill's bank accounts. Committed: to what? How can you say that someone who supported the war in iraq, continues to vote to fund it, wants to keep it going for decades, and wants to start a war in Iran, is "committed?" I say she should be committed because of her anti-social tendencies.

And who noticed her announcement in the last debate that the U.S. must stay in the middle east to defeat Hamas and Hezbollah, neither of which are in Iraq. They are in Lebanon and the Palestinian territories. Committed? Hard working? How hard is it to channel Ariel Sharon and his murderous rage?


She wants to take over Bush's war in Iraq and kill more people, start a war in Iran and kill people there, attack Lebanon and the Palestinian Territories. Maybe she wants to have her own genocidal murders named after her, like the "Sabra and Shatilla" genocides for Sharon.

I think she just wants money and power, and other than that will do exactly what Cheney and Murdoch tell her to do. She certainly does not promote any Democratic views. No commitment to public education, to health care (except telling us all to buy insurance), to peace, to prosperity (she wants us all to work at Wal-Mart). No commitment to workers (the Nafta Queen).

I think she's Cheney in drag. I'm not voting for her.

[altohone]

The mission Hillary hopes to accomplish is to hide the reality she is part and parcel of the same cadre that has been attacking her all these years.

Financially and ideologically, she's in bed with the minority that has tarnished America's image, wasted our treasure while lining their pockets, and thrown our kids into a meatgrinder to foster their economic domination.

There is little difference between Iran where voters get to choose between two anti-American Iranian nationalists and America where money and the media limits voters to a choice between warmongering imperialst­/corporati­st Republicans and warmongering imperialst­/corporati­st Hillary.

That's their gameplan, and that's what the progressive "left" is out to prevent.

Mission accomplished?
Not yet.

Obama in'08!

[Abo]

The amazing thing there is so few people who actually support her on the Left. Even though we are constantly advised of how she is charging full steam ahead, if you check out all the Left-leaning blogs, no one likes her--no one. We don't like her because obviously she is willing to compromise (triangulate) on issues, whereas the Right hates her because they buy hook, line and sinker that she is a commie librul.
That doesn't bode well when either side is geared up against her.

[Alegre]

I support her and I'll stack my progressive CV up against anyone's - any time.

Look at her voting record and the massive number of bills she's put forward AND GOTTEN PASSED INTO LAW and you won't find a more progressive candidate out there.

[DICKERSON3870]

Last summer during Israel's attack on Lebanon, Israeli UN Ambassador Dan Gillerman was gracing the stage alongside HILLARY CLINTON at a pro-Israel rally in New York City:
"Let us finish the job! You know better than anyone else that what we are doing is doing your own work: fighting terror…. And to those countries who claim we are using disproportionate force, I have only this to say: you're damn right we are!"

[outnow]

Hiltlery is a hawk. She wants to attack Iran. I heard her saying that Bush should have invaded Iran. I'd rather have her than Rudy or Romney but she is going to go along with the free trade agenda, privatization, the MIC and her Wall Street clients. Who needs this? Plus the right-wingers believe they can beat her or buy her.

[Alegre]

"Hitlery"????

You've gotta be KIDDING me!!!!

[Alegre]

And by the way... Hillary voted against (AGAINST) CAFTA twice. She opposes those trade agreements and I'm certain will continue to vote no on them when they come before the Senate.

[bbln]

For those 9 commentators on this article - Have you not read the bios of the authors of this article - they run circles around you on their data through their work with prominent campaigns, think tanks, as political researchers, historians and as journalists.

It's amazing how you commentators pull statements like this out of your a**: "Hell, even a blind fool can see all the puppet strings attached to Hillary" and similar supporting statements and then think your a** has more credibility.

[Alegre]

Agreed!

I stumbled upon this site thinking it was full of progressive Democrats - silly me!!!!

I've never seen so many GOP talking points.

[TN60]

Hillary has all of Bill's contacts to work for the money just as she rides his coattails for everything else. She is no more "qualified" than Obama or Edwards.

She is the most qualified at being a phony and a hypocrate. She is most certainly the most qualified at giving the Republicans a victory in 08.

[birdandcat]

Ok first off, I'm rock solid D and will vote for anybody the d's put up for President. But that is about all I can say for Hillary Clinton. I saw Hillary give a talk at UM law school in 91 and she struck me as arrogant and having no idea how congress worked. she subsequently proved that she didn't understand how things work. she's still arrogant. Hillary Clinton combines the cunning of Nixon with the charisma of Dukakis. the only solace I get out of recent polls is that front runner's for the D nomination seldom get the nomination. Mondale in 84 was the only non sitting P or VP who was a front runner to get the nod. I'm counting on the press to go ballistic over Hillary's non win in IA to trumpet the collapse in her candidacy ( even though she's not expected to win there, proving if nothing else the the press and the pols are in a race to the bottom when it comes to stupidity)
but here's my prediction for 08. if by some amount of luck and guile she pulls out the nomination, the r's will drag out in aug 08 the little matter of the cattle futures trades where she turned what 1000 into 100k in just a few days. she will cry swift boat but unfortunately this was was a lapse of ethical judgement

[DieboldHacker]

I'm about as lefty and resistant to MSM spew as one can get, and I think she is just a DLC shill. I don't trust her, and I won't vote for her.