Hillary Clinton is going on the offensive, launching an ad campaign in North Carolina and Nebraska’s 2nd Congressional District (which incidentally, also reaches into swingy Iowa), where President Barack Obama snagged the extra electoral vote in 2008.
In North Carolina, she talks about children:
Meanwhile, in Nebraska she’s talking about, er, children:
Another ad running in that Nebraska market (and maybe elsewhere), also focusing on children:
The right-wing narrative against Clinton has been that she’s cold, calculating, and self-serving. Every argument they make against her slots into those three character traits. Their Benghazi conspiracy theory? She didn’t care about those diplomats, left them undefended, didn’t send the troops in to rescue them, then lied to bury the truth. Cold, calculating and self-serving.
Then last year, the left took those same arguments, adopted them as their own, and added a few like “imperialist war monger” and “tool of the oligarchs,” putting Clinton in a vise-grip, with both the right and the left (mostly) reinforcing each other. The results? Her sky-high approval ratings during her Secretary of State years took a nose dive. Cold, calculating, self-serving, and an imperialist tool of the oligarchy. Nasty shit! And still, she survived it.
Her introductory theme is clear: even though she could’ve sold out, she focused instead on improving the lives of children, here and abroad. And who doesn’t love children? But while other politicians can talk about helping children, and Donald Trump creepily objectifies his (has he ever mentioned the word “children” any other time?), Clinton has an actual record of real-world accomplishments on the issue. She’s not cold, she’s warm and cares, objectively so! If she’s calculating, she calculates in favor of helping people. Self-serving? Ha! She could’ve made bank at some fancy law firm instead of doing legal advocacy work for disabled children.
Now nothing in these ads targets the left-wing narrative against her. And that’s on purpose. These are airing in lean-red areas, so she’s directly pushing back against right-wing narratives. The left has mostly rallied around her, and she’s been sending signals to them through speeches (like increasing Social Security benefits, blocking TPP, overturning the Hyde Amendment, and getting tough on the shadow banking system). Now, her campaign is trying to win back persuadable conservative-ish voters, and in particular, Republican woman who might be repulsed by Trump.
Donald Trump can’t afford to bleed more support, yet here is Clinton making a direct appeal to what should be his constituency—married Republican women—and doing so in 2012 red areas.
And the best part, this is just the opening salvo. The Clinton campaign isn’t even bothering to play defense at this time. It’s going on the attack while Trump sits on twitter wondering who else to insult today.