The question is pretty simple for the four underdogs on the debate stage Tuesday night: How do you defeat Hillary Clinton for the Democratic nomination … again?
Thankfully for them, they seem to have gotten a hint hours before they take to the stage at the Wynn Casino in Las Vegas, Nev.
In a memo released Tuesday, members of Barack’s Obama team in 2008 examined how to flip the script and take down Clinton, with particular emphasis on her political nature and calculating nature. The memo was first released by the New Yorker.
Notably, the team, which included David Axelrod, David Plouffe and Joel Benenson (Clinton’s 2016 pollster), argued that Clinton is simply “driven by politics, not conviction,” playing into the narrative that Clinton takes positions that are the most politically convenient at the time. They pointed to Clinton’s stances on the Iraq war, and NAFTA, saying she is “constantly shifting” and “dodging” to “satisfy the politics of the moment.”
“HRC is driven by politics, not conviction,” the memo reads. “From the war, to NAFTA, to Social Security, to her choice of Baseball teams, Clinton is constantly shifting, dodging and changing positions to satisfy the politics of the moment. Her penchant for secrecy and non-disclosure reflect an underlying disdain for the ‘invisible’ people for whom she claims to speak.”
The piece also argued that while many praise the Obama efforts in Iowa and overall “uplifting message” as what won them the race, the real winner for Obama was attacking her character, which they call “her greatest vulnerability.”
The memo also comes on the heels of multiple policy shifts from Clinton in recent years, most notably being her recent opposition to the Trans-Pacific Partnership trade deal, the Keystone pipeline and the Iraq war.
