To highlight and expand on this, I think Hillary Clinton is making a huge mistake by tying her fortunes to Obama. Barack Obama is not a popular president. His approval rating has not risen above the mid-40s in years. The people who don't like him really don't like him, and a goodly number of the people who do are nonetheless disappointed in him and are sticking with him out of tribal loyalty to the Democrats or political liberalism. Privately (and not-so-privately), they complain that he is a sellout, that he hasn't gone far enough, that he hasn't been tough enough, that he has been too passive and conciliatory and aloof and disengaged, and that he has emboldened the Republicans and presided over the electoral evisceration of his own party.Pointedstick wrote: • I like the fact that Trump is shaking things up. To me the country feels like it has been going in the wrong direction for 15 years. We know what the Republican and Democratic establishments are going to give us: they have already demonstrated it with Bush and Obama. And Hillary is openly campaigning with a message of "if you liked Obama, you're gonna like me even more!" I don't want any more of this crap. I'm willing to try something new. And Trump is the most unorthodox candidate out there.
Emotionally, declaring herself to basically be the Uber-Obama is an incredibly stupid move for Clinton. By doing this, she aligns herself with a weak, halfhearted, disappointed movement that is restless and upset about the lack of any real serious changes in the direction the country is moving in. After 7 years of Obama, do most people think the country is moving in the right direction? No, and by a huge margin. People feel like the health care is still too expensive and unavailable, that the economy is in the shitter, that Muslim terrorism is an unchecked risk, that the Social Security system is in danger, that the federal government is too big and powerful, and that the game is rigged against them in favor of the wealthy. [source]
This should be ringing blaring alarm bells to the Clinton campaign. Obama has emotionally disappointed people, who consistently believe that his leadership has failed to move the country in the right direction. If I were Hillary, I would be running as far from Obama as possible, trying to articulate a bright new vision that put substantial ground between my campaign and his presidency. Instead Hillary is doing the exact opposite: associating herself with someone who emotionally, the electorate believes is a failure, and talking mostly in terms of concrete policies that fail to emotionally thrill people and aren't all that different from what we already have and those the president has been unsuccessfully pushing for years. Clinton's motto might as well be, "More of the same 2016!"
It is completely baffling to me and I cannot see how she will win unless she radically alters her message.
