Hillary Clinton campaign launch: Is second time the charm?
Hillary Rodham Clinton is set to make the first big stump speech of her 2016 presidential campaign today at Roosevelt Island in New York City. Team Hillary is and they鈥檙e expecting a crowd of several thousand, with uncounted thousands more watching a livestream of the event.
And if you鈥檙e like most Americans and don鈥檛 follow politics with the avidity of a sports fan, your question is, 鈥淲hat? Didn鈥檛 she launch her campaign once before? We have a vague memory of something like that occurring.鈥�
That鈥檚 true. She has launched already, in a way. Mrs. Clinton officially kicked off her campaign with in April.
So this a second launch, if you will. Don鈥檛 call it a re-launch though, because that implies the first launch didn鈥檛 get airborne, which it did, according to the Clinton team. Maybe it鈥檚 the igniting of the second stage?
Well, we鈥檇 say a couple of things lie behind the multiple rollouts. The first is Americans鈥� attention: At this point, most voters are only dimly aware of the first stirrings in the 2016 race. Maybe they know Clinton has officially announced her candidacy, maybe they don鈥檛. Most likely they don鈥檛 care. So she can announce beginnings over and over, and the media treats them as if they鈥檙e brand new every time.
The second is that the campaign is trying to step from one transition point to another. Her April campaign announcement video was personal, in that it featured the individual stories of a number of ordinary folks who were facing transitions in their lives: moving into a house in a better school district, taking the risk of setting up a new business, and so on.
Substantive, it wasn鈥檛.
鈥淭he video contains zero policy specifics,鈥� wrote Greg Sargent at the time at the Washington Post.
But all the people in the announcement were facing economic challenges, pointed out Sargent. Now Clinton is taking the next step: rolling out the highlights of an actual agenda her campaign says can begin to meet these challenges, plus other national problems.
Her aides say Saturday鈥檚 speech will thus talk about 鈥渇our fights:鈥� strengthening the economy, helping families, ending the flow of unaccountable cash into politics, and protecting the US.
Hmm. Still sounds kind of vague, doesn鈥檛 it? We鈥檒l have to see what she says. In any case, the 鈥渇our fights鈥� formulation is supposed to be an echo of the setting, Roosevelt Island鈥檚 Four Freedoms Park. Franklin Delano Roosevelt鈥檚 鈥淔our Freedoms鈥� were freedom of speech, freedom of religion, freedom from from want, and freedom from fear.聽
Republicans, of course, say that the reason Clinton鈥檚 doing another big splash announcement is that the first didn鈥檛, in fact, go well at all.
She鈥檚 trying to hit a reset button, in this view, because she鈥檚 dogged by continuing questions about the Clinton Foundation鈥檚 finances, Bill Clinton鈥檚 paid speeches, and her use of a personal e-mail server during her tenure as secretary of State.
found that 57 percent of Americans think Clinton is not honest and trustworthy, up from 49 percent in March.
鈥淐ampaign aides familiar with the speech on Saturday say Clinton鈥檚 chief goal will be to outline her rationale for running, providing voters with a reason to elect her, and responding to those who have said her run is based on nothing more than inevitability,鈥� .
