Today's Hillary News & Views begins with a look at the race in Iowa.
The Wall Street Journal reports:
With Vice President Joe Biden announcing last week he would stay out of the race, many Iowa Democratic leaders and rank-and-file voters said Sunday Mrs. Clinton had reclaimed a commanding position in the state and was recovering some ground she lost after a rocky campaign rollout.
“She’s looking a lot stronger now than she was before,” said John Colombo, chairman of the Democratic Party in Franklin County, Iowa. “With the Benghazi hearing you had people waiting to see how it would play out and she handled it extremely well.”
Jerry Osburn, 63 years old, came to a Clinton rally Saturday before the Iowa Democratic Party’s Jefferson-Jackson Day fundraising dinner. He said he is still considering backing Mr. Sanders, but came away impressed by Mrs. Clinton’s performance at the Benghazi hearing. “It’s all positive for her right now,” he said. “She handled herself very diplomatically; calm. I’m going to call it presidential.”
The
Washington Post reports:
Clinton has been building the Iowa organization from Day One, opening nine field offices within two months of her April launch. This spring, her staff had more than 6,000 one-on-one coffee meetings with key activists. By the first week of June, the campaign had signed up at least one supporter in each of the state’s 1,680 precincts — a difficult feat considering some rural precincts have only a few registered Democrats.
The Clinton campaign is busy this fall training precinct captains — people known in their neighborhoods who understand the caucus rules and can not only get people to show up at the appointed time, but also give remarks at the caucus that persuade people to Clinton’s side.
“That conversation outweighs almost any kind of media anyone could put out there,” said Halle, a field staffer on Obama’s 2008 Iowa campaign.
The
Des Moines Register reports:
Remember all those stories over the summer about the enthusiasm gap that was plaguing Democrats? Iowa Democrats buried that narrative Saturday night at the Jefferson Jackson dinner.
Clinton, who pointed out that Republicans have been attacking each other in their debates, also threw an elbow or two. “I’m running as a proud Democrat,” she said. That’s a contrast from Sanders, who serves in the Senate as an independent and calls himself a democratic socialist.
However, she saved most of her barbs for Republicans. “For people who claim they hate big government, Republicans sure love using government to step in and make decisions for women,” Clinton said, to one of her biggest ovations.
The Sanders cheering section began to empty out as Clinton was speaking.
Bloomberg reports:
This weekend in Iowa, Democrats flocked to the annual Jefferson-Jackson Dinner to celebrate their favorite candidates. And with the field narrowing down to two clear front-runners, Bloomberg Politics asked attendees to describe their pick in three words.
“Good, strong, and determined,” Bill Clinton said of his wife, Hillary Clinton.
Others described her as “experienced,” “vibrant,” “dynamic,” “electable,” “resilient,” and “beautiful.”
Bill de Blasio is preparing to endorse Hillary Clinton.
The Wall Street Journal reports:
New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio is planning to endorse Hillary Clinton for president before his planned candidates’ forum in Iowa in December, marking the end of a process that exposed Mr. de Blasio to criticism as other top Democrats lined up behind Mrs. Clinton.
The endorsement could happen long before the forum, according to a person familiar with the matter. Discussions are still under way with the Clinton camp, however, and aides for Mr. de Blasio are trying to decide how to roll out the backing.
Mr. de Blasio’s support would be what many political observers and people close to the mayor saw as an inevitability, even as he had declined for months to back Mrs. Clinton’s pursuit of the 2016 Democratic presidential nomination.
Also last month, Mr. de Blasio met privately at a Brooklyn restaurant with Vermont U.S. Sen. Bernie Sanders, Mrs. Clinton’s chief rival for the Democratic presidential nod.
Clinton has picked up an endorsement from Maryland.
The Baltimore Sun reports:
Comptroller Peter Franchot announced his backing of Clinton Monday morning in an email to supporters. Franchot praised her experience, as well as her campaign promises to lower the cost of college and invest in biotechnology.
In endorsing Clinton, Franchot becomes the latest Maryland politician to support the establishment favorite over O'Malley's long-shot bid for the Democratic nomination.
Long before Clinton officially launched her campaign, she secured support from Sens. Barbara A. Mikulski and Ben Cardin in Dec. 2014. She won endorsements from most of the state's Democratic congressional delegation, including Minority Whip Steny Hoyer, Rep. John Delaney, Rep. Chris Van Hollen.
Clinton's resurgence is helping fill her campaign coffers.
Politico reports:
"I think there is a real sense that dawn has arrived and it looks to be a sunny day, which is lifting all spirits exactly at a time when real voters in the early states — not just the chattering class — are focusing in," said Chris Lehane, a California Democratic strategist who has been closely involved with the campaign's fundraising.
“She’s beginning to do well fundraising-wise because people are now beginning to focus on her policies. She gets that the economy is a major part of succeeding in the world, and if she does as good a job as President Bill Clinton did, America will be in good shape,” said Imaad Zuberi, one of the campaign’s top fundraisers.
“If you look at the Benghazi hearing going really well and the vice president dropping out, anyone who was sitting on the sidelines is all in, on the bandwagon now."
Finally, as the primary race gets more intense, two think pieces worth sharing.
First, Peter Daou and Tom Watson at #HillaryMen:
It's not that Bernie shouldn't draw contrasts with Hillary (or she with him), that's what a healthy campaign is about. It's that he is suddenly coming dangerously close to the Rovian menu of rightwing anti-Hillary messaging that we've written extensively about, an array of character hits tested and perfected by conservative oppo shops and disseminated by the media and commentariat.
If Bernie wants to draw sharp contrasts with Hillary over policy differences, we welcome it. It's his right as a candidate in a tough contest. She can do the same, as she has on the gun issue. But to start questioning Hillary's honesty, judgment and integrity will cost Bernie far more than it will hurt Hillary.
In a hundred stump speeches at a hundred rallies, Bernie has said that his campaign would be fought on the issues and the issues alone. Let's hope it stays that way.
Melissa McEwan of
Shakesville on
the "shouting" exchange between Clinton and Sanders:
On Saturday, Clinton pushed back on Sanders' categorization of her "shouting," saying: "I've been told to stop shouting about gun violence. Well, I'm not shouting. It's just when women talk, some people think we're shouting."
Boom.
One might expect that Sanders would have learned something, anything, from the general criticism of his failure to be sensitive to marginalized populations' individual and intersectional concerns since the beginning of his campaign, or from the specific criticism of his "shouting" comment during the debate, but one would be wrong!
Sanders on Sunday laughed at her suggestion that his remarks were about gender.
"All that I can say is I am very proud of my record on women's issues. I certainly do not have a problem with women speaking out—and I think what the secretary is doing there is taking words and misapplying them," Sanders told [CNN State of the Union host Jake Tapper].
Wow. So, treating as laughable the suggestion that the language he used has a misogynist connotation, even if it wasn't intended that way, citing his record on women's issues (I bet some of his best friends are women!), and accusing Hillary Clinton of misunderstanding and looking for things to get mad about. ONE MORE SQUARE AND I'LL HAVE BINGO.
Please read the whole thing, but review
Shakesville's
Comment Policy before sharing your thoughts over there.
Crossposted at Hillary HQ.com, an independent, progressive blog committed to electing Hillary Clinton as the next President of the United States.