Clinton Continues to Press the Experience Argument in New Hampshire

Posted by Jason Easley on 01.04.2008

Did she learn anything from her defeat in Iowa?

At a Friday morning rally in Nashua, NH, Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton took what she hoped would be the first steps towards recovering the momentum which she lost after a third place finish in the Iowa caucus. However, Clinton still stuck with the argument that she is an experienced agent of change. "I want to know from all of you ... what do you want to know about us? Who will be the best president based not on a leap of faith but on the kind of changes we've already produced," Clinton said. Which changes would she be speaking of? Is the throwing of millions of people off federal welfare programs, or the passage of free trade legislation that destroyed the manufacturing sector in America?

Clinton also made the dubious claim that she is the Democrat best prepared to face the Republicans in the general election. "Anyone we nominate will be thrown into that blazing inferno of a general election. "I've been through the fires, and it makes it far less likely they are going to be able to do to me what they intend to do to whomever we nominate." It should be pointed out that she too has never been through a general election campaign as a candidate. So the whole experience angle that she is trying to use here is a whole lot of baloney.

Secondly, she makes the false assumption that the Republicans are going to treat any Democratic nominee the way that they treat her. A candidate like Obama doesn't have the same scandals in his past as the Clintons do. It will be difficult for the Republicans to attack Obama on his character and values. The Republicans can try to attack Obama on this front, but they won't be nearly as successful as they would be with Clinton. The Clinton campaign was constructed to play from ahead. I don't think that they ever believed that Hillary would fall behind.

One of the historical truths about the Democratic primary always has been that Democratic voters use the process to look for a leader. Once a leader is found, they try to quickly close ranks. This is the reason why Clinton spent much of last year trying to look and act like the leader of the Democratic Party. The logic being that if Democratic voters bought into her as the leader of the party, then the actual primaries themselves would have been a mere formality. Voters would have only had to rubber stamp her nomination, but as we have been seeing for the past few months, Democratic voters had a different idea. They want change, and the more they see of Clinton, the more she represents the status quo.

In some ways, Hillary Clinton reminds me of George W. Bush. She doesn't seem to want to admit mistakes or learn from them. Her concession speech last night didn't actually admit defeat, and today in New Hampshire she is back on the campaign trail pushing a message that was soundly rejected last night. It is becoming clear that has no other argument, but the one for experience. Clinton often stresses on the campaign trail that she is a known quantity. She views this as a positive, but if 2008 is the year of fresh faces and change, her familiarity to voters could be the very thing that costs her the Democratic nomination.


The Radio Show

I did a 15 minute show about Iowa yesterday that you can check out either by clicking here, or by using the media player below.