May 27, 2015

"Democrats hope for Hillary Clinton coattails."

Really?
Her campaign is still in its infancy. The presidential election is nearly 18 months away. But Democrats are already banking on a “Hillary effect,” an anticipated wave that will lift the party’s fortunes up and down the ticket.
They're banking on it? Where does this come from? Is it pure lying? Is it propaganda?

Party officials are using Hillary Clinton’s candidacy to recruit candidates at every level of office and employing a simple pitch: Democratic voter turnout tends to be higher in presidential election years — and next year, the former secretary of state’s historic candidacy and formidable organizing efforts will have an especially catalytic effect.
Well, that's not the Hillary effect. That's just the pattern of voting in presidential years. The proportion of Democrats to Republicans is better for Democrats when there's a presidential race on the ballot. The article — in Politico — proceeds to quote Illinois Rep. Cheri Bustos, a Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee vice chair "who’s recruiting women to run for the House, has been convening bimonthly dinners with a group of other female members of Congress and potential future colleagues."
“A lot of the time the conversation goes to how Hillary Clinton is likely to be at the top of the ticket and how that will be helpful for the candidate,” Bustos said.
So, that's specifically about how having a female Democratic presidential candidate will help other female Democratic candidates.

There's also some discussion of how strong the Clinton "infrastructure" is going to be. Does that extend beyond the swing states on the electoral college map?
“Looking at sort of the strength of her campaign efforts and how much she is working in every state to set up campaign offices and get her grass-roots commitments going early — that is playing well in every state,” said Massachusetts Rep. Katherine Clark, one of the House women who has dined with recruits in Washington.
Sort of the strength...

43 comments:

tim in vermont said...

Well they better be telling the big money donors who picked Hillary what they want to be hearing, so it is more salesmanship than 'lying' per se. This is aimed at the billionaires: "we hear you." We will stamp out this disgusting revolt of the middle class with your money, just like we promised we would in those closed door meetings!

sparrow said...

wishful thinking

MadisonMan said...

Considering the photo of Hillary!!! accompanying that article is shot from below, it's not too unflattering.

I think that Democrats at this point simply are hoping she has Coattails and they're being spinningly optimistic in public. No one is going to say "Ugh -- she'll drag down my Candidacy like a lead balloon filled with semen-stained blue dresses" because that's a self-fulfilling prophecy.

tim maguire said...

I suppose one can't underestimate Hillary's ability to hang around and I am astonished that her approval numbers are above single digits (what does it take for some people? Don't they care about their country?) but still, it's hard to imagine her being the Democratic nominee. Is the Democratic field really so weak? Is the Hillary vengeance machine still so strong?

This, however, is propaganda. No one not actually taking a paycheck from Hillary could be excited about having her name at the top of the ticket.

Brando said...

If the Dems gain seats in Congress it will be in spite of, not because of Hillary being at the top of the ticket. The Clintons never had coattails in their races in the '90s (the Dems lost seats in '92, lost a lot of them in '94, and gained some in '96 in the House while losing some in the Senate), and while Hillary is amassing a great deal of dirty money for her own benefit, she is concerned solely for her own win and not for bringing allies into office.

In this way she is yet again much like Nixon--he focused in '72 on his own re-election and at the Congressional level his party's fortunes were disappointing. Hopefully Hillary doesn't make it to the White House though.

Dems are still favored to pick up seats in '16--better Democratic turnout, and the GOP forced to defend more swing seats in both houses--but that has nothing to do with Hillary. If she's a bad enough candidate, she may weaken her party's chances.

kcom said...

Yeah, because Hillary is not at all known for driving people away with her cloddish political skills.

Wasn't there a campaign in the recent past where the buzzword was "negative coattails"? Hillary might compete for that title.

Will said...

Oh my gosh, I am praying for it too!!

traditionalguy said...

Before the 2008 tsunami shift to elect the clean spoken first black President, the word in Democrat donor circles was that John Edwards was the best candidate. Nobody likes Hillary..nobody.

That's why she is hiding out behind a Big Sister is watching you mask and awaiting the ridicule and dirt system of campaigning destroys a stupid and/or rich white man GOP candidate which leaves her the inevitable last person standing.

Jim in St Louis said...

I would not call it false enthusiasm. Women (at least the progressive democrat activist type) are genuinely excited about a woman president. They feel they were passed over in 2008, and that this is their historic time.

I don’t agree and I could make derogatory comments, but it is stupid to insult millions of women who are motivated to vote for Hillary, and motivated to donate money and motivated to get to the polls. Women’s issues should be addressed by conservatives who should make common sense proposals to counteract the sisterhood support that Hillary is getting.

garage mahal said...

Tommy has coattails!

Mitt Romney might win the presidency riding on Tommy's coattails.

It's all about Wisconsin, baby.

Swifty Quick said...

It's called whistling past the graveyard.

chickelit said...

Can "America's Politico" not be reached for comment?

Ann Althouse said...

@garage

LOL

Just goes to show how wrong you can be.

But Eric Hovde... what coattails he would have had....

Michael K said...

" Women’s issues should be addressed by conservatives who should make common sense proposals to counteract the sisterhood support that Hillary is getting."

Conservatives address "women's issues" by discussing economics and immigration. Democrat women's issues are rape culture and trigger warnings. Oh, and 70 % less in pay, like Obama's female staff get,

Ann Althouse said...

"It's called whistling past the graveyard."

Yeah, I considered that phrase as I wrote the post, but... clichés.

Ann Althouse said...

I mean coattails is a cliché, and you'd think when the candidate is a woman, a reference to men's clothing would be avoided.

Not that men wear coats with tails too often these days.

SGT Ted said...

Politico is filled with cultish True Believers, who think Hillary!, or any other Prog Parrot with a vagina, is the Smartest Woman EVAH!

The Progs are obsessed with the idea that someone with a leftwing vagina deserves to be Queen/President, because penises are oppressive and violent and unfair.

The Vagina Cult is real. Like most cults, it's based on an emotionalist lack of reason. It relies on this lack of critical thought and enforcement of their ideology through female type bullying into conformity. The attempts by Hillary's "Super Supporters" to place certain descriptive words as off-limits; "sexist", is THE shining example of how this cult operates and will operate should they gain power.

They've even gotten to Jim in St Louis with that tactic. He thinks it's stupid to call them out on their lies, bullying and hypocrisy, simply because they are women. This sort of sexist call to assert that their should be a deference to women's feelings within the political realm really needs to be destroyed within society, as it has become a poison to reason and honesty.



SGT Ted said...

I mean coattails is a cliché, and you'd think when the candidate is a woman, a reference to men's clothing would be avoided.

Well, there is no other female centric descriptive of benefitting from being associated with another persons success, is there?

Besides, women wear coats too. So, maybe using "coattails" is truly gender neutral.

furious_a said...

I mean coattails is a cliché...

Why not "apron strings"?

Hagar said...

Everybody wants something from somebody and arranging deals is what Clinton, Inc. does.
Do not misunderestimate the power of greed.

madAsHell said...

I mean coattails is a cliché...

Tits!!....apologies to Titus.

Sebastian said...

"The Vagina Cult is real. Like most cults, it's based on an emotionalist lack of reason."

But it is rational for Hillary! and Dem campaign strategists to exploit and manipulate it.

They will, and it will work.

JAORE said...

Vote for Hillary. You can shower later.

richard mcenroe said...

Well, looking at it from a cruelly neutral perspective, the Democrats really can't tell their backers that their hope for enlisting the new generation is a shrewish, drunken senior citizen whose personal probity makes Leona "taxes are for the litte people" Helmsley look like Mother Teresa of Calcutta, and the only thing they've got to replace her with is ANOTHER shrewish, fake-Indian senior-citizen real-estate profiteer.

So, time to break out the New Coke ad campaign...

cubanbob said...

That a Hillary can even be considered as a serious candidate in of itself is a sign the country is in deep, deep trouble.

MadisonMan said...

But Eric Hovde... what coattails he would have had....

Makes you wonder what Great Democratic Candidate is drowning after being run over by S. S. Feingold.

Mark said...

The Hovde 'what if' is just as pathetic as the left and their 'what if Feingold ran for Gov in the recall'.

The post-Hillary 'what if' is going to be sad. I find conversations with Hillary supporters bizarre, as they are clearly clueless about her issues and are so focused on a few points they believe in as to miss both forest and trees. They are even more willfully ignorant than the Walker supporters, and that's saying something!

In 18 months, both will have their followers still walking around like lost puppies, having missed the glaring issues the rest of us saw all along. I am not looking forward to 2017's 'what if'. Both sides will be pathetic.

Jim in St Louis said...

Jokes about the Vagina Cult are exactly the wrong strategy. Telling her supporters that they are just a bunch of foolish dames is going to fire them up more and create longer coattails. So you think they are emotional nutters? Me too! How do you convince an emotional nutter that their interests would not be served by electing HRC?

William said...

Hillary doesn't have coat tails. She has cellulite deposits.

Jim in St Louis said...

Men value intelligence in women far above large breasts and long legs.

Anonymous said...

Prediction.

Hillary isn't really running for President. Something will happen a few months before the election and the Democrats will swoop in, and replace Hillary, with someone the party is keeping in the wings.

Yes, its a conspiracy theory.

MadisonMan said...

They are even more willfully ignorant than the Walker supporters

Imagine -- and start weeping now about it -- if the choice is Walker v. Clinton.

cubanbob said...

"Jim in St Louis said...

Men value intelligence in women far above large breasts and long legs.
5/27/15, 10:10 AM "

Hillary is 0 for 3.

SGT Ted said...

Jim in St Louis, you make the mistake that the feminist nutters for Hillary are to be reasoned with. Cultists aren't reasonable by definition.

If pointing their nutterness out drives them to amp up their lunacy, all the better for exposures sake. They just become more mockable.

Jim in St Louis said...

SGT Ted-
You may be right. My fear of the crazed femi-hags carpooling in the millions to go vote does scare me.

I will put my money with eric- somehow HRC will screw herself out of the job.

Clyde said...

Obama had his fake Greek columns. I think that Hillary! should accept her nomination by riding a wrecking ball into a giant papier-mâché phallus. Because subtlety!

Fabi said...

cubanbob drills it through the uprights!

Anonymous said...

She is "inevitable" again. So don't even think of taking the Democratic nomination from her.

Skeptical Voter said...

This won't be the first, nor the last, time a Democrat was delusional.

James Pawlak said...

It has been said that the road to hell is paved with good intentions. It the trip quicker sliding on coat-tails?

Sam L. said...

I see your questions lack "Is it insanity?"

David said...

Is it pure lying? Is it propaganda?

Bullshit and wishful thinking, two dissimilar categories which produce similar results.

averagejoe said...

Clyde said...
Obama had his fake Greek columns. I think that Hillary! should accept her nomination by riding a wrecking ball into a giant papier-mâché phallus. Because subtlety!
5/27/15, 12:28 PM

LOL! Hillary Cyrus-Virus! Then she takes center stage and twerks, which will be celebrated as the ultimate feminist gesture, along with tongue-wrestling Madonna.