Hillary Clinton has an uphill battle to gain enough delegates to win the nomination. Unfortunately, her efforts to win are coming at a cost of alienating many Democratic voters. While she can say that her rough tactics on Obama test him for the fall, the fact that she and Obama attack each other ultimately will hurt more than they these same attacks would hurt if they came from McCain. This is because if the attacks came from McCain the Dems could make a counter-attack back to McCain. Instead, he can claim to be above the fray since issues are being raised by fellow Democrats.
So how can Hillary show voters that she is the better candidate without hurting the Dems chances in the fall? By making effective attacks on McCain now.
Hillary never has run much against McCain. Back when she was the front runner, McCain was not considered to be the likely candidate. And once she fell behind Obama, she has attacked Obama more than McCain. Sure she has made a few points here and there, but the main message of her campaign has not been oriented to how she would campaign in the fall. As a contrast, Obama has spent many days taking on McCain directly and almost ignoring McCain.
However, if Clinton were to spend the next few weeks campaigning against McCain, and if those weeks were effective at demonstrating that she could hit him where it hurts, it would bring many benefits.
- It would demonstrate that she might be the more-effective campaigner that she believes she is. Right now, I think that most Democrats do not believe she can win a general election.
- It would unify the party. Clinton's attacks on Obama often come at the cost of getting many of Obama's supporters to dislike her. This will be costly in the fall, even if most (but not all!) of these supporters come back to her if she won the nomination. However, if she campaigns against McCain, Democrats can remember why they liked Hillary - she's a fighter for issues they believe in.
- It would put the Dems in a better position to win in the fall. Ultimately, McCain getting a large block of time to look like a good guy will hurt in the fall - the more you're built up, the harder it is to tear you down. On the other hand, if McCain gets attacked now, it will affect the media's bias towards him, his fundraising ability, and the level of Republican enthusiasm in recruiting campaign workers. Also, by reducing the number of attacks on each other, the eventual Democratic nominee will have fewer bruises to recover from.