I'm Cautiously Optimistic About This

An your or so ago I got off the phone with a friend who is a state politician.  He says one of the best things the Hillary Clinton campaign is doing is sharing resources with candidates all down the ticket, something he had criticized Barack Obama's two campaigns for not doing.  One of those many virtues I noted Barack Obama had didn't include him caring very much about state and local offices, apart from those being held or sought by people he knew.

If Hillary Clinton wins the election one of the things I hope is revived is something like the 50-State-Strategy of Howard Dean when he was the head of the Democratic National Committee.   The Obama administration did a lot of really stupid things the first two years they were in office, neglecting party building was one of the stupidest.   I believed at the time and still believe that it was a result of the arrogance of the president and, especially, his chief of staff, Rahm Emanuel and his media guy, David Axelrod.  I think one of the problems with the Obama administration was that way too many of those the president listened to had little to no experience, understanding of, or interest in large swaths of the country and no ability to understand more than a small part of the potential that lay in those places.   I think Hillary Clinton, from her time in Arkansas and her time campaigning in and representing rural areas of New York State might be far less likely to make those same mistakes.

I hope a President Hillary Clinton doesn't appoint anyone as bad as the self-centered, egotistical, small-minded and vindictive Rahm Emanuel to anything important.  I used to admire how he handled dopey journalists who said stupid things but that was about his best quality and it doesn't go far.   I think we will long be suffering under his influence in the Obama administration.   I don't think he did an awful lot to supplement the areas of Barack Obama's thinking that could have used expanding.