How Clinton Can Resurrect Her Likability

[question everything]

By Peter D. Hart

With the FBI investigation into her private email server concluded, it is time for the real Hillary Clinton to find her rhythm and her voice. In the history of public-opinion polling, no Democrat has entered the general presidential election with weaker scores on personal popularity, trust or likability than Mrs. Clinton. She has ended up just another policy wonk with a series of different slogans and no central message.

But there is still time for the real Hillary Clinton to emerge and become a strong, popular candidate. To do so, she must return to the basics that have marked her public life and helped her to become the first female to be nominated as the standard-bearer of a major U.S. political party.

Mrs. Clinton’s personal qualities and leadership skills are formidable, but her campaign has somehow managed to hide them... At what stage does the candidate say to her campaign: “We are doing something wrong and need to change”? In my opinion, the trust issue cannot be dealt with as a separate element, but must be part of the larger presentation of her total character.

The problem facing Mrs. Clinton is not to find a new Hillary, but to show the true Hillary. No one questions whether she is a skilled politician. What has been lost in this campaign is the approachable person. Her campaign seems to be totally tactical, reactive, and based on her opponent and the issues of the moment.

Here are three suggestions

• Reveal your compassionate side. In your campaign, you have shown mettle, but you have lost your warmth and charm. Voters want to break through and get to know you. When you meet with a small group of people and talk about their problems or hug a young girl who has been bullied, you connect more personally than any of the campaign’s four-point policy plans ever could.

• Show your leadership skills. Voters have no sense of your special leadership abilities. As secretary of state, you appealed to Americans not because of the miles you traveled, but because of the issues you fought for and the alliances you helped make. Your personal favorability score back then was 59%. The country is ready to end Washington gridlock, and you proved your ability to work across the aisle in the Senate and across the world at the State Department, with friends and foes—but nobody knows this.

• Be bolder and more focused. You began your career standing for principles and positions that weren’t popular, like health-care reform, but they were the right ones and many of them were considered controversial. Yet your presidential campaign seems too finely calibrated to your opponent or to public opinion on issues like the Trans-Pacific Partnership trade pact or the Keystone XL oil pipeline. There are too many words and too many issues, and in the end there is no message. “Hillary for America” and “stronger together” are themes that say nothing.

More..

http://www.wsj.com/articles/how-clinton-can-resurrect-her-likability-1468278498

Mr. Hart is the founder of Hart Research and part of the polling team for The Wall Street Journal/NBC surveys.

[TwilightZone]

1. She's the same person she was when her approval rating was 65%+

I don't think she needs to do anything out of the ordinary. As the animosity of the primaries continues to fade into the background, her approval ratings will come up. They're already improving - one poll has them at 50%.

As people spend more time comparing her to Donald Trump, they'll continue to improve.

[stopbush]

4. Exactly. She's at 50% right now. She may not hit that 65% mark

before the election, but the media meme that she's not likable is a falacy that will soon be shown to be a myth.

And I agree - she doesn't really need to do anything different. The more people actually see and hear her, the more the like her, while the opposite is true of Trump.

[spooky3]

6. I agree with both of you. And there will always be a

Hard core group of dopes, misogynists, and conservatives who will not "like" her regardless of what she does. There are also people who simply will not pay attention (I'm reminded of this at the hair salon) and probably won't vote.

[complain jane]

7. I agree that the more people compare her to Trump, her

favorables will continue to improve. But every little bit helps.

She should be kicking his ass by miles, dirtbag that he is.

[Demsrule86]

9. I read somewhere she was at 50% ...might have been here

So they are already coming up.

[creon]

2. Good ideas

Those are all good ideas. I am sure that she and her team have similar ideas.

There is a fair amount of Hillaryphobia. It is endemic on the right - they hate her and her husband, That should be chilled on some way. And, the right is pretty numerous.
There are elements on the left that have Hillaryphobia. Some of their reasons are different from the right; but, some are not. The left is a lot smaller than the right. But, their rhetoric should be countered in some way.

The article does have some good advice.

[radical noodle]

3. More speeches like today

She was focused, calm, and presidential. She spoke to the hearts of people. It was widely covered and I know some who don't particularly like her who were impressed by the speech. It really is the "true" Hillary. The campaign speech Hillary is something she does because she has to, and it's felt by those who think that her lack of comfort means she's being dishonest or hiding something.

[spooky3]

5. This guy seems to list RW myths, then suggest

Ways to counter them that don't seem to me to address the real problem, which is that the myths have been and are being perpetrated.

[Blue Idaho]

8. Two thoughts...

First, it's mid July... November is almost a lifetime away.

Second, this assumes the polling is accurate. Personally I have doubts about the current state of public polling. Just look at how scattered the poll results are. To be honest these polls seem more about selling newspapers - or generating clicks - than predicting the political future.

[ismnotwasm]

10. I hope-- as an exercise in futility-- people never underestimate the pure mysogyny she faces

This "likable" shit--as much as it irritates me, will have to be addressed, one way or the other. She won the primaries, because she met with people in smaller groups--they liked her fine. I don't know how she will translate that kind of campaigning into poll numbers. I am not afraid she will lose as much as I'm already annoyed at the sky is falling crap that I'm seeing.

But, This isn't bad advice, not at all.

[Her Sister]

11. Every morning she wakes up she resurrects her likability with me !

When I go to sleep it dies but when I wake up! Miracle! I like her and admire HER all over again!

So all she needs to do is keep going and BEING and DOING her brilliant & qualified SELF! As she's always been!

[LAS14]

12. Get elected!

Her positive ratings are in the 60th percentile when she's senator or SOC. They're just down during elections.