A Lunar Theory of Bill Clinton

Change, he seemed to say, does not have to come from someone who is new on the scene. What’s more important is whether that person has experience making change. (There is perhaps is a hint of lingering anti-Obama sentiment in the argument, as if Bill is telling voters who are not fond of how the Obama Presidency turned out that they shouldn’t pick novelty over experience again.)

Can Hillary Outflank Bernie on Wall Street Reform?

The politics of Clinton’s play are fairly easy to divine. By picking a fight over shadow banking, she can distract attention from Sanders’s focus on his more populist proposals to break up the banks and reinstate Glass-Steagall, which for many progressives is a sorer spot on Bill Clinton’s legacy than even his impeachment. Clinton also is attacking Sanders’s perceived strength, knowing that if she can dent him there, the rationale for his challenge to her becomes much weaker.

.. But what’s interesting in the divide over financial regulation is that while Clinton has adopted some of the more popular items on the progressive wish list—debt-free college, expansive proposals on immigration, gun-control, and criminal-justice reform—she is relying on a wonkier approach to Wall Street reform.

Hillary Clinton’s Toughness

Some of the comments made during the focus group sessions indicated thatthe Benghazi Committee created by House Republicans in May 2014 to damage Clinton’s presidential prospects had backfired. Referring in part to Clinton’s performance during an 11 hour interrogation by the committee, a participant identified as Thomas noted:

Her ability to walk through what she’s had thrown at her just in the last six months should give you an idea that the woman has definitely got some strength. She’s there. I don’t necessarily agree with where she’s coming from, but still, you cannot knock what that woman is like.

.. Respondents trusted Clinton more to handle terrorism than they did any of the Republican candidates by an average of 7 percentage points.

.. Ronald Reagan’s campaign capitalized on perceptions of Democrats as weak in their dealings with Russia, notably in the now-classic “Bear in the Woods” commercial:

There is a bear in the woods. For some people, the bear is easy to see. Others don’t see it at all. Some people say the bear is tame. Others say it’s vicious and dangerous,” the narrator says as the camera follows a large bear wandering in the wood. With no reference to Walter Mondale or to Russia, the narrator continued: “Since no one can really be sure who’s right, isn’t it smart to be as strong as the bear? If there is a bear.

Clinton is determined to insulate herself from such attacks. She has taken steps to create some distance between herself and the president, staking out a more aggressive stance on ISIS than Obama.