PHILADELPHIA — It might just be campaign spin to lower expectations, but top allies and long-time advisors are begging Hillary Rodham Clinton to drop her wonkish glower and dish an “aspirational” speech here when she accepts the Democratic presidential nomination.
“She is not the greatest candidate, or speech-giver. She’s not Barack Obama, she is not her husband,” said long-time aide Patti Solis Doyle.
“Her tendency in big speeches like this is to give her 12-point plan, ‘I’m going to do this, I’m going to do that.’ She’s very wonkish. She cannot do that tonight. The bar has been set very very high, so I want her to show a little leg,” Solis Doyle said at an Atlantic event in downtown Philadelphia. She added, “Bring that pant leg up.”
Democratic strategist David Axelrod said that an economic message is key but “it has to be infused with a bit of her own story and values.”
He added that she has a chance to get voters believing that the the American Dream is alive again. “She needs to speak in value-laden terms, she doesn’t do it enough, and tonight she has to sound less like a wonk and someone who is infused with those values.”
Stephanie Cutter, a communications pro for Democrats including Obama and former Sen. John Kerry, said that Clinton has to be direct with voters. “She has make an ask of the American people,” she said.
Axelrod put her speech in perspective, raising that of former President George H.W. Bush, who entered his 1988 convention dubbed a “wimp.” He gave a great speech and went on to beat Democrat Michael Dukakis.
“First, he was following a very charismatic president. There were some presumptions about him, the ‘wimp factor,’ and he did a lot in the speech to transform views of him, take some of the negative views and transform them. And he enlarged himself in the speech, so he owned some of that stuff, and he basically said without saying it, ‘I’m not Ronald Reagan, but here’s who I am,'” said Axelrod.
“She has the opportunity to define herself, and maybe conceded what she’s not, but lift up who she is,” he added.
Paul Bedard, the Washington Examiner’s “Washington Secrets” columnist, can be contacted at [email protected]
