Advice for Hillary Clinton

By Keith Boykin, in politics
Tuesday, October 2 2007, 9:44AM

While I'm doling out unsolicited advice, Hillary Clinton deserves some too. On the surface, she's fine. She's leading in almost every poll. She's 18 points ahead in the national polls among Democrats. She's leading by 3.5 points in Iowa, 20 points in New Hampshire, 13 points in South Carolina and 24 points in Florida.

So why does someone in her position need advice? Because polls are no guarantee for election day results. I worked for Michael Dukakis in 1988 when he was leading George Bush by 17 points in the polls in August. By November, his lead had disappeared and Bush went on to win the White House. It's not likely that Hillary Clinton will run as passive a campaign as Dukakis did, but she faces serious challenges in her bid for the presidency. So if I were giving advice to Hillary Clinton, I would tell her to do several things.

When I offered advice to Barack Obama on Monday, I only had one thing to say. Be different, I said. If you want to be the candidate of change, you have to show us where you differ from the other Democratic candidates, I argued.

The advice for Hillary Clinton is much more complex. I have five suggestions for the New York senator's campaign.

First and foremost, be authentic. Some of her advisers and some outsiders keep telling her to lighten up, and that's good advice too. But when she does try to lighten up, it can come off as inauthentic, as was the case recently with all the media attention directed at Clinton's laughter during her "full Ginsburg" performance on 5 different Sunday morning shows a few weeks ago. So I don't know if she needs to lighten up as much as she needs to be and look authentic.

I watched Senator Clinton on Meet The Press and after awhile I could see why some people see her as a bionic woman. I would encourage her to watch herself on TV and feel her own reaction to her performance. I'm sure she's done it before. I've watched myself on TV and there are times when I hate the way I look or sound, but it gives me some context about what to do differently the next time. I think Senator Clinton should do the same.

The second piece of advice is don't be too cocky. I saw a cartoon last week where Clinton was sitting at the president's desk on stage while debating her Democratic opponents. And Saturday Night Live spoofed Clinton last week when they depicted her confidently telling the American people that they would go to the polls a little over a year from now and elect her the next president of the United States. That's funny to watch, but it's not good for her campaign reputation. Nobody likes a smug winner. Even if all the polls show she's ahead, she's got to look like she's fighting hard. If she doesn't now, she soon will once the public turns on her. Humility is a must.

The third and fourth pieces of advice are related. Clinton's Democratic opponents are going to try to portray her as unable to stand for anything, so she needs to counteract that perception. To do that, I suggest a third piece of advice: pick one major issue where you're not willing to compromise and make it clear that you will fight for it to the end. For this tactic to work, the issue has to be something important to the Democratic base. It could be abortion, gun control, health care, or even the Employment Non Discrimination Act. Or it could be something else entirely. But Senator Clinton has to own the issue. She has to be willing not only to fight for it, but to lead on it.

If Clinton is fortunate enough to win the nomination, then she will have to hold onto her convictions that got her there, but at the same time reach out to moderate and Independent voters who are not Democrats. That brings us to the fourth piece of advice. Pick one issue to show that you're flexible. As a senator, Hillary Clinton has already done this. She's developed a surprising reputation as a senator who is willing to work with the other side of the aisle. She will need to highlight those experiences during the general election campaign and let the swing voters know at least one important issue where she's not a polarizing figure but a leader who can bring together both sides.

Fifth and finally, Clinton needs to do one thing between now and November 2008. Don't let your enemies turn you into a caricature. This will be tough for Clinton because, to a certain extent, she's already a caricature. The left-wing depiction of her as a heartless sellout is almost as much of a caricature as the right-wing depiction of her as a ruthless, flame-throwing, bra-burning, cookie-hating liberal. She's neither of these extremes.

After 16 years in the national spotlight, the public still doesn't know a lot about Hillary Clinton. But the problem is they think they do. When they hear Hillary Clinton's name, all sorts of images and fears are conjured up. They remember the failed health care reform plan, her husband's impeachment scandal, her famous complaint about the "vast right wing conspiracy," and the infamous "60 Minutes" interview where she said she wasn't some little lady sitting around baking cookies like Tammy Wynette.

All of that took place in the 90s, long before Clinton got elected to the Senate in New York state. For the past 7 years we've seen a different Hillary Clinton here in New York. No one thought she could do well upstate in the conservative red districts of New York, but she has surprised her critics and pulled it off. The problem is that most Americans haven't met the new and improved Hillary Clinton. Her job is to introduce that Clinton to the public before the caricature image is irreversible.

There is some hope for Clinton even as a caricature. When Ronald Reagan ran for president in 1980, Jimmy Carter tried to depict him as a dangerously out-of-touch washed up actor who would put his shaky finger on the nuclear button and set off a world war. It was a caricature, and when Carter tried to portray Reagan that way in a presidential debate, Reagan had a ready response. He sighed, smiled, bent his head to the side, and delivered a disarming reply that neutralized the entire Carter charge. "Well, there you go again," Reagan said.

Reagan won in a landslide.

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