Every Time the GOP Gets the White House They Mess it Up

This is what Hillary has been saying in her stump speeches, and she's exactly right. Think about the disasters we've seen when the country makes the mistake of putting the GOP in charge. 

“Whenever Republicans get into the White House, they mess it up. They mess it up, folks,” Hillary Rodham  told a crowd gathered in a field lined with trees covered in Spanish moss here on Saturday.

"At rallies these days, Mrs. Clinton criticizes the Republican presidential candidates for their economic policies (“Our economy does better with a Democrat in the White House”); she knocks their foreign policy approaches and says their positions on immigration and women’s issues would set the country “backwards instead of forwards.”

What she does not do is mention her main Democratic primary opponent, Senator Bernie Sanders of Vermont

http://www.nytimes.com/2015/11/24/us/politics/hillary-clinton-looks-past-primaries-in-strategy-to-defeat-bernie-sanders.html?_r=1

So as Bernie tries doggedly to run against her, she runs against the GOP-which is what we want to be doing. Making sure the GOP can't stuff Obama's legacy and that we can finally take back the SJC. 

"Mr. Sanders’s campaign manager, Jeff Weaver, said Mrs. Clinton’s obsession with the Republican Party is a tactic to diminish her main Democratic primary opponent, whose economic message has attracted enormous crowds and enthusiasm."

Obsession?! Bernie insists he's a Democrat now yet his campaign manager seems not to get that this is what Democrats are obsessed with-defeating the Republican party. Bernie for his part is obsessed with Hillary. How is that an improvement?

"As Mr. Sanders delivered his standard speech about inequality here on Saturday, Mr. Weaver closely watched the voters in the front row who wore blue “H” T-shirts, indicating their support for Mrs. Clinton, as they cheered for Mr. Sanders several times."

Ok, that's one way to look at it. Or-you could point out that even those at the 'enormous crowds' are Hillary supporters.

“We are much closer to Secretary Clinton today than Senator Obama was in 2008,” Mr. Weaver said. “I don’t think they think this is locked up.”

I don't know. At this point RCP averages show Hillary up by 8 points even in NH and 24 in Iowa. If she wins handily in Iowa, then that leaves only NH and if Bernie loses there, it's over.

"Finally, the campaign’s been launching some of its minority coalitions — African-Americans for Hillary and Latinos for Hillary — in Georgia and Florida, respectively."

"By contrast, Sanders and O’Malley are increasingly bearing down on Iowa, recognizing that they both need disproportionately strong performances in the first-to-caucus state to keep the race alive. This is the start of a critical period for O’Malley’s campaign, which is moving much of its Baltimore headquarters staff to Iowa. The situation is no less urgent for Sanders, after his much-anticipated speech explaining his ideology of “democratic socialism” was received like a modified stump speech rather than a momentum-changing address."

Read more: http://www.politico.com/story/2015/11/hillary-clinton-south-carolina-216125#ixzz3sK3Ti8xS

I think Mr. Weaver is being a little pollyannish to compare Bernie to President Obama. Obama had much more standing within the Democratic establishment than Bernie has has literally two endorsments. 

We keep hearing that Paris has changed this race. If so, it will be a big advantage for Hillary both against Bernie and against the GOP. 

On ISIS, Bernie doesn't have much to say except to pivot to climate change and raz HRC about her 2002 Iraq vote. 

This is Bernie's problem. He mistakes an attack ad for a strategy. On finance reform he talks about her Wall Street donors. But what he can't do is show what votes on finance regulation these donations influenced. 

Talking about her Iraq vote is also not a strategy for ISIS today. Even Bernie supporters kind of see Hillary is more electable and more plausible. 

"Even voters who support Mr. Sanders often say that Mrs. Clinton appears more electable when compared with a Republican nominee. And while her economic message, considering her ties to Wall Street and the “super PAC” supporting her, can seem muddled when contrasted with Mr. Sanders’s, it sounds more forceful to Democratic voters compared with Republican proposals. And, as a campaign aide points out, the Republican candidates consistently criticize Mrs. Clinton, so it makes sense for her to punch back."

“I love Bernie, and I feel he’d get something done about the lopsided distribution of wealth in this country,” said Siobhan Hansen, 58, an undecided voter in Charleston. “But,” she added, “I hate to admit it but I just think Hillary has a better chance in the general election.”