Well today was a new beginning for Senator Clinton's campaign and I hope that it will be a new beginning for ALL of Hillary Clinton's online supporters as well.
First, it appears that Senator Clinton has begun a new campaign strategy with new remarks and a new emphasis on public service.
She started her "Every County Counts" today on the Hill-acopter. As both MSNBC and the NY Times notes, she even has some new lines in the speeches that she gives to crowds.
For instance, MSNBC noticed in her campaign speeches yesterday in New Hampshire that she talked about her lengthy public service record:
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At town hall meetings in Plaistow and Nashua yesterday, Clinton placed a renewed focus on her experience. "I was a public servant before I was ever in public office," she said, before citing areas on her resume where she said she has "been a change maker" -- working with the Children's Defense Fund, as a member of the Legal Services Corporation, working for universal health care in 1993, advocating for women's rights abroad as first lady; and as a senator from New York." America is ready for a new beginning," she said. "And it really comes down to one question: Who is ready and able on Day One to make the changes America deserves to have? This is the work of my lifetime. I have been working on behalf of change ever since I can remember."
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http://firstread.msnbc.msn.com/archive/2
007/12/16/520025.aspx
MSNBC also noted in another blog posts that HRC used the words "change" and the phrase "a new beginning" 23 times in her speech at Council Bluff earlier today.
http://firstread.msnbc.msn.com/archive/2 007/12/16/520138.aspx
The New York Times' Patrick Healey noticed that Hillary has new energy on the campaign trail today. He said that she looked refreshed and her campaign speech was crisper than even yesterday's speech. He also took note of a few new lines in her speech where she described political setbacks:
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Describing her role in the failed health care reform effort in 1993-94, she underscored the bit of biography with a new take-away line: "I sometimes think you can learn more about a person when you can see what they do after they don't succeed."
Mrs. Clinton doesn't often talk directly about the times she hasn't succeeded; usually she just says she "bears the scars" from the health care experience.
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http://thecaucus.blogs.nytimes.com/2007/
12/16/clinton-hits-iowa-with-new-energy/
Nice bit of humility from HRC here. Good to see.
Beyond the new campaign lines and other campaign apparatus, it appears that Hillary will engage in a new media strategy as well. She's going to perform another Ginsburg and appear on all six morning shows tomorrow according to Time:
http://thepage.time.com/2007/12/16/roadb locker/
Finally, Hillary received two important endorsements today from both the Des Moines Register and Bob Kerrey.
So, Hillary's campaign will have a fresh start this week. Borrowing from Anne of Green Gables and putting my own spin on it, this week is a new week for Hillary supporters with no mistakes in it (yet). I think we online supporters should pitch in to this new phase of the campaign and here's my idea to do that.
It appears that Hillary's campaign wants to emphasize various parts of her biography that most people don't know that much about. For instance, this article about her work on the 1972 McGovern campaign in Texas describes a Hillary that most people probably don't know that much about:
Experience from 1972 stumping in Texas helped shape Clinton's campaign
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"I had never spent time in Texas before, so everything from South Texas and crossing the border to eat goat to hanging out in the Hill Country" was new, Mrs. Clinton said.
The McGovern campaign operated out of a brick storefront on West Sixth Street in Austin. When the young staffers weren't at the headquarters, they were at Scholz Beer Garten, a favorite after-work spot for the city's political progressives, and the Armadillo World Headquarters, a music hall that famously catered to both rednecks and hippies.
"A lot of serious campaign decisions were made at Scholz's," Mrs. Clinton said. "And we occasionally got to blow off some steam and go to the Armadillo. I remember seeing Jerry Lee Lewis there, which was one of the highlights of my time in Austin."
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Now what if we online supporters tried to help the effort by posting some POSIIIVE diaries about Hillary once a day that described something that most people here in the blogosphere don't know about her. Maybe we could devote our energies for the next couple of weeks to posting positive stuff about Hillary rather than the negative stuff about other candidates? IMHO, the most important thing that Hillary's campaign needs right now is positive news about her rather than negative stuff about her opponents.
I fear that posting negative information about her opponents here, on youtube and elsewhere will feed the media narrative that Hillary and her supporters are mean, the other candidates are nice etc. Based on a lot of polling, there are a LOT of undecideds out there in both Iowa and New Hampshire. Let's persuade them to come join our camp. But in order to do that, we need for the media narrative to change from mean, negative Hillary to positive, uplifting Hillary. I'm willing to do my part. I wonder if other Hillary supporters are willing to do their part? Can we online Hillary fans support the new beginning in Hillary's campaign on this site? I hope so!!
What do you think? Good idea? Bad idea? What other ways can we promote Hillary in a positive way in the coming weeks?
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