How Hillary Won Over the Skeptical Left - NewRepublic [View all]

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How Hillary Won Over the Skeptical Left
The surprising source of Clinton's invincibility
By Noam Scheiber - NewRepublic
6/29/14



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Jay Brown is a blunt-talking doctor from Ames, Iowa, the kind of guy who believes the biggest threats to the republic are the Koch brothers, Rupert Murdoch, and the corporatization of politics. Back in 2007, he signed up as a precinct captain for Barack Obama with one stated goal: to “undermine Hillary Clinton,” whom he referred to simply as “the nemesis.” He thought she had too little experience to be president and that her judgment on Iraq had been terrible. “I’m pleased to report that the Ames 2-2 precinct went heavily for Obama, who got four delegates,” he told me last month. “We shut Hillary out entirely.”

This time around, Brown talks like a man in the market for another crusading liberal, perhaps Elizabeth Warren of Massachusetts. “Wall Street would be fine with a Clinton administration. I don’t think it would be fine with a Warren administration. It would send a really deep chill,” he explained. And yet, despite all the personal history and the ideological grudges, Brown is unequivocal about whom he’ll support in 2016. “I’m a booster of Hillary Clinton,” he said. “I would go so far as to say an ardent booster.”

As it happens, Brown is not an outlier among plugged-in liberals. Seven of the ten former Obama precinct captains I contacted said they were enthusiastic about Clinton (and an eighth said she was slowly coming around). Harry Enten of FiveThirtyEight has observed that 13 of the 21 U.S. senators who’ve already endorsed Clinton hail from the left side of the party. A Democratic fund-raiser confided to me that it’s highly unusual to meet a big donor who is pro-Warren but down on Hillary. So much so that he was actually surprised when he encountered such a person several weeks ago. “I haven’t heard that very many times,” says the fund-raiser.

Amid Clinton’s miscues while promoting her new book, widely seen as a test-launch for 2016, the media has been quick to revive memories of 2008. A Politico article noted that her defensiveness in response to questions about her wealth, gay marriage, and Benghazi “reminded liberal Democrats who’ve viewed her warily of what troubles them about her.” MSNBC followed with a segment wondering if Clinton was the Democrats’ Mitt Romney—someone “kind of tone deaf and unrelatable,” who “exuded competence but no core belief.”

There is maybe some truth to those claims, but when you look at the polls, Democrats are more enthusiastic about Hillary Clinton than ever. Her favorability rating within the party stood at 90 percent in the latest Gallup poll, versus 81 percent this time eight years ago. A Wall Street Journal survey of Democrats during the book tour found that their opinion of Clinton has vastly improved since late 2007. Many more Democrats now consider her knowledgeable (88 percent versus 76 percent), compassionate (80 versus 69), easygoing and likeable (67 versus 49), aligned with them on the issues (76 versus 61), and honest and straightforward (75 versus 53).

More interestingly, Clinton’s popularity turns out to be highest in places you might least expect...

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More: http://www.newrepublic.com/article/118432/hillary-clinton-2016-how-she-won-over-left-become-invincible