Is it really "refighting the primaries" just to post the NAMES of last year's Dem candidates?

[Ken Burch]

108. We had a great platform and a LOT to offer.

The only things I'd have changed would have been these:

1) I'd have had the tv ads focus mainly on the platform and what we were proposing to do. The attack ads gave people the false impression that we had nothing positive to offer. What I kept hearing was "we know he's a douchenozzle-but what are you folks proposing that will help ME?" If the media wouldn't report things, I'd have used social media to get around it...even Twitter, which, as we've all had occasion to learn, can be very effective-even if sometimes in terrifying ways.

2) In the states where Sanders did well, especially the Upper Midwest, I'd have run ads targeting the Sanders voters to make sure they showed up-and those ads would have been based on reminding them that what they did made a difference-that they didn't get their candidate nominated, but they changed the debate and brought a lot of things in to the platform and the debate, and that they had a place in this party-rather than the "what you all did was a total failure and a waste of time-none of it deserves any respect" message they WERE sent. This would not have meant "coddling" those voters-just engaging them in a positive way.


3) I'd have had our nominee go to the Upper Midwest states when our lead their started narrowing. In those states, I'd have had her reiterate that TPP would be a dead letter if she was elected. She had nothing to lose in that and it might have made the kind of difference Hubert Humphrey's Salt Lake City speech on Vietnam, in late September of '68, made in that campaign. Before that speech, HHH was thirteen points behind Nixon and stuck at 30% support in the polls. Afterwards, he closed to essentially a dead heat with Nixon in popular support by Election Day and the general historical consensus is that, had Humphrey given that speech a week earlier, he'd have beaten Nixon. In this case, a specific message on trade directed to those states might have solidified her lead and elected Russ Feingold in Wisconsin and the Dem candidate in PA.

I'd have done ALL of that because I truly, honestly, deeply wanted Hillary to win and to get a progressive Congress to work with.

And the only reason I've mentioned those things now is as way to help us do better IN THE FUTURE.

That is all it has ever been about with me.