The Democratic bull is right in scolding former President Bill Clinton for orchestrating a political hatchet job directed at Barack Obama.
Branding expert Alan Siegel believes Bill’s attacks on the Senator from Illinois have a huge disruptive impact on “Brand Hillary.” Prior to Bill’s mouthing off, Hillary stood as the “Leading Brand,” an experienced leader, articulate policy wonk and an insider who spent eight years in the White House. Siegel says Hillary -- thanks to Bill -- has morphed into an “Attack Brand.”
Rather than leveraging her policy ideas to “enact a transformative vision for the U.S., she is providing evidence to voters who have a visceral concern about her ambition and willingness to go to any extreme to be elected,” according to Siegel.
The New York Senator is feeding the “cynicism that has so many Americans turned off by politics, politicians and Hillary Clinton specifically.”
If Hillary wants to win the nomination, she must muzzle her husband. The New York Times reports today on the wild enthusiasm among Democrats who have turned out in record numbers in the caucuses and primaries. The last thing they want is a return to petty political bickering.
Ted got it right. [From a PR standpoint, he could have picked a better day to endorse Obama than the one featuring the State of the Union Address.]
He said people "want a campaign about the country that we will become if we rise about the old politics that parses us into separate groups and puts us at odds with one another.”
Kennedy is not a big fan of the “slice `em and dice `em” strategy of Hillary’s political strategist Mark Penn, master of the micro-niche.
It’s not too late for Hillary to recover her brand footing. The Super Duper Tuesday vote in 22 states looms next week.
She got to get Bill off the campaign trail. How about recommending that Bill take a trip to Africa, where he can do some good on behalf of the Clinton Foundation’s HIV/AIDS Initiative. That would be time very well spent.