EMAIL DETAILS

Hillary Clinton "More Guarded", Joe Biden "More Human"

http://m.huffpost.com/us/entry/8135880

Hillary Clinton "More Guarded", Joe Biden "More Human"

[image: 2015-09-14-1442258811-39625-21293458972_ac96a593ee_k.jpg]
<http://images.huffingtonpost.com/2015-09-14-1442258811-39625-21293458972_ac96a593ee_k.jpg>

The polling is interesting right now and comes during a national quest for
authenticity. Bernie Sanders is up in the polls in Iowa and New Hampshire
but as you get further into the primary season he's got a lot to do. In New
Hampshire Hillary Clinton is down 38 points
<https://today.yougov.com/news/2015/09/13/bernie-sanders-donald-trump-cbs-battleground-poll/>
with Democratic men; while Sanders trails Clinton among African Americans
by 48 points in North Carolina, according to YouGov/CBS News
<https://today.yougov.com/news/2015/09/13/bernie-sanders-donald-trump-cbs-battleground-poll/>
2016 Battleground Tracker.

[Hillary Clinton's] support in the primary has tanked in particular among
women, previously a mainstay of her candidacy, from 71 percent in July to
42 percent now. [ABC News
<http://abcnews.go.com/Politics/clintons-support-drops-trump-carson-surge-gop-race/story?id=33695818>
]

What's really interesting is that Democrats don't really care about the
server/email saga, whether they support Clinton or Sanders. One reason why
they shouldn't
<http://www.politico.com/story/2015/09/hillary-clinton-gmail-google-classified-content-213458>.
When it comes to voter enthusiasm for a candidate, Sanders bests Clinton
78% to 39%
<http://www.cbsnews.com/news/battleground-tracker-sanders-surges-in-ia-nh-clinton-up-in-sc/>.
Something else is clearly going on between Clinton and her audience beyond
the email issue.

On experience Clinton still trounces her opponents, but Clinton and Trump
are essentially tied among general election registered voters 46-43. This
shouldn't surprise anyone because the country is divided fairly evenly.

I've got one theory why Clinton's cratered with women. Many women look at
Clinton from the vantage point of someone competent, experienced and ready
to be president. It's why they've supported her. But having their own
careers or job they look at Clinton's responses the last 6 months to the
server/email story and though the vast majority of Democrats don't care
about it, they do care about Clinton's performances the last 6 months. They
know if they were in a similar position they couldn't get away with the
behavior and answers she has given, expecting more from her than the
dissembling statements and performance that comes off sketchy. Clinton has
been a champion for women's rights, but a lot of women carry the cause
themselves, too, and they don't just want to vote for a woman for the sake
of it. They want her worthy and over the last 6 months she's let women down
by becoming her own worst enemy, being disrespectful of people in the press
who have a job to do, and made self-inflicted errors that are embarrassing.
Women want Clinton to be better than she is and they're disappointed.

This why Joe Biden's interview with Stephen Colbert has evolved into a
watershed moment on the Democratic side. No other statement draws it better
than Van Jones on CNN's "State of the Union" Sunday morning.

"Look, I mean, something happened [for] the Democratic base this week with
Joe Biden, because of that interview. I mean, I've heard from people all
across the country that that is the kind of authenticity that we need. This
is not a politics primary. It's not a policy primary. This has become a
personality primary and it's about authenticity and there's nobody more
authentic than Joe Biden. I think he accidentally drew a sharp contrast
with Hillary Clinton, who I love. But Hillary Clinton has had a tough road
in public life. She's become more armored because of it. He's had a tough
road in his personal life and he's become more human. And I think the
pressure for him to get in now is greater than it's ever been." - Van Jones

It's like something in the cosmos aligned. ...for Joe Biden.

The American public is currently cynical, infuriated and distrusting of
public figures who've been in Washington forever.

Segue to John Heilemann's reporting
<http://www.bloomberg.com/politics/articles/2015-09-14/biden-secretly-met-with-top-obama-bundler-during-new-york-swing>
that includes Joe Biden talking to one of the most powerful Obama bundlers,
a man who has given to Clinton, but isn't bundling for her yet.

But what those close to Biden and others who have spoken to him in recent
days also say is this: that he believes, after two miserably failed bids
for the White House, 2016 may finally be his time; that he is convinced he
is suited, perhaps uniquely, to a moment when authenticity is more prized
than ever in our politics, so prized that someone as unlikely as Donald
Trump could have become the overwhelming Republican front-runner based to a
large extent on the perception that he "tells it like it is"; that he not
only sees the Clinton campaign as performing poorly, but believes he
possesses something that the fading front-runner does not--a clear and
coherent understanding of why he wants to be president, and the ability to
express it in a way that voters would find ... real.

There's been a lot of talk about authenticity. It's a cousin to truth and a
more precious commodity than chocolate. One way a person reveals her or his
authenticity to people is to say something that is true that's not to your
benefit. A script can't capture it and people recognize it immediately,
because it can't be faked.

I wouldn't presume to give Team Clinton advice on how to run a national
presidential primary campaign. I'd rethink telegraphing a spontaneity
campaign to a major newspaper, but that's just me. Sorry for the snark, but
that was the final straw for me towards a candidate and campaign that
clearly is overestimating the reserve of patience some of us have for
watching someone as important as Hillary Clinton squander her advantage and
expect us to just sit back and applaud like trained seals.

As a seasoned performer that knows the value of image and the power of the
camera, I can tell Team Clinton and their candidate that the only way to
change the current mood towards Mrs. Clinton is to throw away the script
and walk out and face people cold. She either knows what she wants to say
or she doesn't. Quit talking to the press with one-liners that are
embarrassing. Stop making statements, like "sorry about that," that the
candidate clearly doesn't believe, proved by the fact that 24-hours earlier
Clinton said she wouldn't apologize. And stop being afraid to tell it like
it is, whether it's the private server, because you wanted to control who
saw what, or Bernie Sanders. It's been counterproductive and shown
disrespect to a man who's besting everyone else in the first two states
towards the nomination. I don't care that Team Clinton and the candidate
believe the southern firewall will douse Sanders' enthusiasm. If Joe Biden
can give Sanders his due so can you.

Hillary is the scripted candidate in an improv atmosphere. This time around
she's also different. It's 7 years since her wondrous fighting Hillary
finish and a lot has happened. Van Jones is correct, she appears "more
armored." And like the American people she seems less trusting of her
audience, too. In 2008 we saw flashes of exactly what Hillary was thinking.
This season she's been programmed to extreme and no one wants to watch that
for 4 years.

That's one reason Joe Biden is a risky prospect for her. For the first time
in his political career the winds might be blowing in his favor.
Heilemann's reporting is dead right. Telling it like it is happens to be in
and he can do it with gravitas. He has no inhibitions and nothing to lose,
because he's lost so much. But these windows don't stay open long and the
current timing, according to Heilemann, Biden waiting until November, gives
Clinton a long time to figure out how to rectify the damage she's done this
year.

It's a mistake for Vice President Biden to wait until November to decide,
but it's the only good news Clinton's gotten since the Biden buzz began.

Taylor Marsh <http://www.taylormarsh.com> is an author, political writer,
and relationship expert. Marsh writes regularly on Hillary Clinton, and was
profiled in the *Washington Post*
<http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/06/03/AR2008060303852.html>
and *New Republic*
<http://www.newrepublic.com/article/politics/the-hugh-hefner-politics> for
her coverage during the 2008 campaign.

*Photo by by Barbara Kinney for Hillary for America, via Flickr
<https://www.flickr.com/photos/hillaryclinton/21293458972/>*


Eric D. Schwerin
eschwerin@rosemontseneca.com

Sent from my iPhon