On Monday, CBS This Morning hosted several political analysts to help lay out a potential electoral strategy for Hillary Clinton’s newly announced presidential campaign. In two separate segments, John Dickerson, CBS News Political Director, and Bloomberg Politics’ John Heilemann offered up some free political advice to Clinton’s campaign as she looks to “change the perception people already have of her.”
In similar fashion to a report offered by CBS’s Nancy Cordes, neither political strategist brought up the numerous scandals surrounding Mrs. Clinton during their analysis of her newly announced campaign. Instead, both Dickerson and Heilemann repeatedly urged Clinton to remain authentic and adequately address the concerns of the liberal wing of her party.
During the 7:00 hour, Dickerson stressed how Clinton was “trying to show something different” and even though she will have trouble changing the narrative narrative about her, Clinton needs to figure out “how to sustain that over 16 months when the entire Republican Party is going to be going after you.”
While Dickerson explained that Clinton cannot distance herself too much from President Obama, the soon-to-be moderator of Face the Nation advised her to make the campaign about the American people, and not about herself:
Humble was a word that was in the campaign manager’s memo to his own staff, which they leaked. Right? So when you’re humble, usually people say, boy, he's humble. You don't say it about yourself. So that’s the challenge here. Why humble? Because we've seen so much drama in previous Clinton campaigns.
They want to say this is new. She's not taking anything for granted. She's going to be out there working hard like a regular person because as she calls herself or would like to portray herself, she's the people's champion. So do stuff regular people do so that she can be their champion.
In the 8:00 hour, liberal Bloomberg Politics editor John Heilemann made sure to warn Clinton about the need to reach out to the far left wing of the Democratic Party:
People on the progressive side of the party, we saw Elizabeth Warren on this show last week basically saying, I’m not, I want to see what she has to say. The progressive wing of the party seems to be taking this posture which is that they want to call the tune a little bit with her and they're not willing to give their love right out of the gate.
Norah O’Donnell attempted to defend Clinton from attacks on the left and insisted that “rhetorically she's addressing those concerns. Right? Saying the deck, I want to address people where the deck is stacked against them.”
Heilemann went on to admire Clinton’s “Warrenesque rhetoric” in her campaign announcement video before he laid out the coalition necessary for her to win the White House in 2016:
She needs to get to young people. She's going to have a lot of support from African-Americans, Latinos, those are constituencies that have always liked the Clintons a lot. But that new generation of voters, the thing Obama did so well which was to get a young generation to vote for him in large numbers. She is untested there and she will need a lot of young support. They're much more up for grabs than some of these other constituencies where she will probably be very strong.
See relevant transcripts below.
CBS This Morning
April 13, 2015
7:06:42-7:09:35 [2 minutes 43 seconds]
CHARLIE ROSE: CBS News Political Director John Dickerson is here. John was just named the new anchor of Face the Nation. He takes over this summer as Bob Schieffer retires. Good morning and congratulations.
JOHN DICKERSON: Thank you Charlie. Good morning.
ROSE: Couldn't happen to a better guy.
DICKERSON: Thank you.
ROSE: Let me begin with Hillary Clinton obviously. Tell me what she has to do and how is this different?
DICKERSON: Well, what she has to do in this announcement is change the perception people already have of her. I mean, she's got a lot built up over the years, the perceptions. People filling in the blank on why she's running, it’s the third term of Obama. She just thinks it should be given to her. So she's trying to show something completely different. That's hard. How elastic are the views about Hillary Clinton? Everybody knows who she is. Then if she can change that conversation, make it about whatever it is she’s running about, then how to sustain that over 16 months when the entire Republican Party is going to be going after you.
GAYLE KING: Does she, will she have to distance herself from President Obama, do you think?
DICKERSON: She will. The question is how far can she get? I mean, she was in the administration and also the president has some important constituencies in the Democratic Party that she needs him to help her with. So that will be a constant delicate balance because every time she tries to distance herself, people will say wait you’re just being political and that’s a challenge that’s, you know, a problem for her.
NORAH O’DONNELL: There was a lot of ink spilled over the rebranding of Hillary Clinton. We see the van named Scooby at the small rallies. What is that about?
DICKERSON: Right. Not the mystery machine which was the name of the van that they actually had in Scooby Doo for those who are, you know, aficionados of that question.
O’DONNELL: Believe me. I watch it just about every night with my kids.
DICKERSON: You’re living the Scooby. Well, this is about looking different. This is about looking regular. You know, people know what it’s like to drive across the country and decide whether to stop at the Sheetz or the Pilot. If she starts tanging the pine tree air freshener in her car and the fuzzy dice, then she will have gone too far.
O’DONNELL: But this idea about being humble.
DICKERSON: Yeah, that's right. And humble was a word that was in the campaign manager’s memo to his own staff, which they leaked. Right? So when you’re humble, usually people say, boy, he's humble. You don't say it about yourself. So that’s the challenge here. Why humble? Because we've seen so much drama in previous Clinton campaigns. They want to say this is new. She's not taking anything for granted. She's going to be out there working hard like a regular person because as she calls herself or would like to portray herself, she's the people's champion. So do stuff regular people do so that she can be their champion.
--
CHARLIE ROSE: Hillary Clinton is traveling to Iowa this morning for her first events of her 2016 campaign. Her announcement on Sunday was no surprise but many did not expect to find her traveling by van. She is tweeting from the road.
NORAH O’DONNELL: Clinton launched her second campaign with a video highlighting what she calls “everyday Americans.” Later today, Senator Marco Rubio is expected to enter the Republican presidential race. John Heilemann, managing editor of Bloomberg Politics is with us. He’s co-author of a pair of books about the last two presidential campaigns, “Game Change” and “Double Down.” John, good morning.
JOHN HEILEMANN: Hello.
O’DONNELL: So far is it a humble rollout?
HEILEMANN: You know, it's impossible for there to be a humble rollout for a presidential candidate. But I think--
GAYLE KING: The van was called Scooby. That sounds humble.
HEILEMANN: There's a little humility to that certainly road tripping. But it’s an other focus, a we focused rollout and that’s been the thing they’ve been trying to do. In this video, she's trying to say this is about voters and not about me, and that video expresses that. And this low-key, I’m going to go to Iowa, talk to the folks, not be up on a big giant stage, not grandiose, not be over the top, conveyed that pretty well.
ROSE: Everybody’s going to be fighting for the middle class, aren't they?
HEILEMANN: Everybody’s always fighting for the middle class Charlie. The middle class, of course, is a complicated definition. Everybody thinks they're middle class, even people who are rich and people who are poor. They're not using that term. You know, “everyday Americans” is their term. Partly because so many people now think the term middle class is freighted now with insecurity rather than solidity and so they’re trying take the discussion away from that a little bit.
KING: Well, there are many people who will be voting today that have never voted for Clinton before so she can certainly attract those voters. But I was surprised, or were you surprised yesterday about Bill de Blasio? A lot of people were surprised when he was asked will you support her and he basically said, well, not so fast.
HEILEMANN: They had been very close for a long time.
KING: Well, he ran her campaign.
HEILEMANN: He ran her campaign at one point. You had Governor Cuomo, you had a lot of Democrats yesterday immediately endorsing her. For him to take that posture, not only I was surprised but apparently the Clinton people were furious.
ROSE: Why did he do it?
KING: Yeah.
HEILEMANN: You know, people on the progressive side of the party, we saw Elizabeth Warren on this show last week basically saying, I’m not, I want to see what she has to say. The progressive wing of the party seems to be taking this posture which is that they want to call the tune a little bit with her and they're not willing to give their love right out of the gate.
O’DONNELL: So, rhetorically she's addressing those concerns. Right? Saying the deck, I want to address people where the deck is stacked against them.
HEILEMANN: Warrenesque rhetoric in the video for sure. And to Gayle's point about people not having voted for her, you know, she needs to get to young people. She's going to have a lot of support from African-Americans, Latinos, those are constituencies that have always liked the Clintons a lot. But that new generation of voters, the thing Obama did so well which was to get a young generation to vote for him in large numbers. She is untested there and she will need a lot of young support. They're much more up for grabs than some of these other constituencies where she will probably be very strong.
