Obama-Clinton echoes in NYC race

De Blasio unexpected rise is due to his populist stance, something Obama embraced. | AP Photos

NEW YORK — A liberal upstart campaigns on a message of change and a break from the politics of the past. His cautious opponent, thought for months to be the frontrunner and running a Rose Garden campaign, fades quickly as Election Day approaches — hobbled by a single vote taken years earlier and caught off-guard by her surging rival on the left.

A rough sketch of Barack Obama’s triumph over Hillary Clinton in the 2008 Iowa caucus? Indeed. But it could just as easily describe Bill de Blasio’s come-from-behind campaign and Christine Quinn’s precipitous fall in New York City’s Democratic mayoral primary this summer.

Continue Reading

Hundreds of miles from Des Moines, there are distinct echoes of that Obama-Clinton classic here in New York, where voters go to the polls Tuesday to decide the finalists in the race to succeed three-term Mayor Mike Bloomberg. If there is a runoff, the likeliest person to get there with de Blasio is Bill Thompson, the lone black candidate in the race.

(Also on POLITICO: Robert Gibbs: Bill de Blasio is next New York City mayor)

De Blasio has vaulted ahead of Quinn and the rest of the Democratic pack on an anti-Mike Bloomberg message that has morphed into a story of “two cities,” a populist attack that has some hallmarks of Obama circa 2008. The city’s public advocate is running as an antidote to 12 years of a city government he says has catered to wealthy Manhattanites at the expense of middle-class residents in the outer boroughs.

“There are clear similarities in terms of the sudden rise of Bill de Blasio and the possibility that his elevation wasn’t recognized until it was too late,” said Rep. Hakeem Jeffries (D-Brooklyn), a Thompson supporter. “If you kind of trace the trajectory of the Clinton versus Obama dynamic, it was a very similar narrative.”

De Blasio has used social media and featured his biography and biracial family heavily, while employing one of the ad makers who was part of Obama’s two campaigns for president. His initial ad featured his son Dante, whose large Afro made a “visual statement that could help elevate his dad above the boring-old-white-guy stigma,” as New York Magazine put it. Treated as a second-tier candidate at best for much of the race, de Blasio is now all but assured a spot in a runoff and has a shot at clearing the 40 percent threshold to clinch the Democratic nomination outright.

(Also on POLITICO: ‘Star Trek’ actor endorses Christine Quinn)

Quinn’s fall was perhaps more predictable, but still eerily similar to Clinton in Iowa 2008. She’s been savaged by de Blasio over her pivotal role in engineering a third term for Bloomberg and herself despite a term limits law. Polls indicate the early frontrunner faces a tough hurdle making the runoff.

Like Clinton in 2008, Quinn’s campaign was propped up early on by the shaky pillars of inevitability. Clinton would have made history as the first female president; Quinn would be the first woman mayor of New York. And neither woman openly played up her potentially historic candidacy until it was too late.

Clinton’s vote to authorize the Iraq War was supposed to be a strength, but her inability in the primaries to either disavow or stand by it arguably cost her the nomination. The same could be said of Quinn’s role in providing Bloomberg a third term. She has neither fully embraced Bloomberg, nor fully distanced herself from him, and the result has been an electorate that blames her for many of the negatives of the mayor, but credits her for none of the positives.

(Also on POLITICO: NYT endorses Christine Quinn, Joseph Lhota in mayoral primaries)

Like Clinton, Quinn’s team didn’t fully appreciate just how liberal the primary electorate is. And like Clinton, Quinn didn’t seem to truly appreciate the threat of de Blasio until he had already surged ahead of her.

De Blasio, meanwhile, shares many of the president’s attributes as a campaigner. High on that list is the discipline to develop a message and strategy and not waver from it. Obama attacked George W. Bush relentlessly; de Blasio has done much the same with his anti-Bloomberg message, which was reinforced by a federal court’s finding that the police had violated the civil rights of African-American men with a stop-question-frisk procedure. (Thompson had taken a moderate stance on stop-and-frisk prior to that ruling, while de Blasio was a major critic.)

The Democratic primary electorate has made clear in recent polls that it wants a change, and de Blasio has become the change agent, much as Obama did in 2008.

“He is who he is,” one source close to de Blasio said of the candidate. The person went on to describe de Blasio’s life with his wife, Chirlane, who is black and who he has been with since both worked for the city’s only black mayor, David Dinkins. “He loves his family, he doesn’t do anything without his family. And he is a liberal, unabashed liberal who thinks we need to change the city.”

POLITICO – TOP Stories

Obama-Clinton echoes in NYC race

The Obama-Clinton health care bond

Obama is using Clinton’s political savvy to change the perception of Obamacare. | AP Photo

Bill Clinton will attempt again next week to do for Obamacare what has long eluded its namesake: Cut through the political noise and change the perception of a law much of the public doesn’t like or understand.

His speech at Clinton’s presidential library in Arkansas Wednesday is a continuation of the relationship that benefited the former and current president in the 2012 campaign. It’s a role Clinton has played before on behalf of the Affordable Care Act, which is rooted in the failed effort by he and his wife, Hillary Clinton, to pass comprehensive health care reform two decades ago.

Continue Reading

Clinton is giving the speech at the request of the White House, but the choice of venue was his, and one that seemed natural to him, according to his aides.

(PHOTOS: 25 unforgettable Obamacare quotes)

“For a variety of reasons, including having hundreds of millions of dollars in negative ads run against the law, the administration has had a hard time communicating the law’s benefits and knocking down the false attacks,” said Democratic strategist Stephanie Cutter, who was deeply involved in the health reform effort when she was an adviser to President Barack Obama.

“There’s no one better to lay it all out for the American people than President Clinton,” she added. “He’ll cut through the rhetoric and get to the heart of the issue … ‘How does the law impact me and my family, and how much will my health care cost?’ Ultimately, that’s all the American people care about, and President Clinton knows how to put it in their terms.”

The aim of the speech may be broader than a continuation of Clinton’s well-received defense of the law last year at the Democratic National Convention in Charlotte, N.C., where he laid out the intricate legislation in a way people could understand. But the White House clearly framed it that way in a tweet from Obama aide Dan Pfeiffer shortly after it was announced on Wednesday.

(PHOTOS: Bill Clinton’s life and career)

“Excited to have President BillClinton, once dubbed Secretary of Explaining Stuff, talk about the health reform law on 9/4 in Little Rock,” read the tweet.

The venue is Bill Clinton’s home turf — his native Arkansas — and speaking in one of the poorest states in the nation could help him to highlight what the White House sees as the benefits of the bill.

The speech suggests that the relationship between Clinton and the White House will continue as long as there is a need in the final three years of Obama’s presidency — the period, of course, during which Hillary Clinton will decide whether to run again in 2016.

(Also on POLITICO: W.H. gears up for major new Obamacare push)

“He will lay down the facts about what is working and what is to come,” said a White House official of the speech.

“His Sept. 4th speech will be the first of a number of high-profile events and speeches by administration officials and allies throughout the fall aimed at raising awareness about the law. In addition to his remarks in Little Rock, President Clinton is also expected to continue to raise public awareness around the law during the critical months for open enrollment.”

Officials on both sides have tended to downplay the breathlessness with which every Clinton utterance related to Obama gets covered. Clinton’s usefulness goes only so far for Obama, but there is a recognition that he is seen as less polarizing than the president on certain topics.

(Also on POLITICO: TOP 5 complaints about Obamacare)

And Clinton supporters argue that he gives many speeches that are similar to the one he’ll deliver next week, but they don’t all get written about.

Still, health care is an issue that both Clintons care deeply about. And as Clinton attempts to highlight that Republicans have offered no alternative to the bill that the U.S. Supreme Court has upheld, his speech serves as a tacit reminder of how much work he and his wife put into health care early in his presidency.

Clinton has emerged as a big Obamacare booster over the past couple of years, working to calm a Democratic base that’s been either upset the law isn’t liberal enough or anxious about what could be a bumpy beginning.

(Also on POLITICO: Bill Clinton calls for action in March on Washington speech)

The stakes are high: In about a month, millions will be able to start signing up for Obamacare coverage. But new polling shows about 40 percent of the public remains confused about whether Obamacare is still the law — let alone what’s actually in it.

POLITICO – TOP Stories

The Obama-Clinton health care bond

The Obama-Clinton health care bond

Obama is using Clinton’s political savvy to change the perception of Obamacare. | AP Photo

Bill Clinton will attempt again next week to do for Obamacare what has long eluded its namesake: Cut through the political noise and change the perception of a law much of the public doesn’t like or understand.

His speech at Clinton’s presidential library in Arkansas Wednesday is a continuation of the relationship that benefited the former and current president in the 2012 campaign. It’s a role Clinton has played before on behalf of the Affordable Care Act, which is rooted in the failed effort by he and his wife, Hillary Clinton, to pass comprehensive health care reform two decades ago.

Continue Reading

Clinton is giving the speech at the request of the White House, but the choice of venue was his, and one that seemed natural to him, according to his aides.

(PHOTOS: 25 unforgettable Obamacare quotes)

“For a variety of reasons, including having hundreds of millions of dollars in negative ads run against the law, the administration has had a hard time communicating the law’s benefits and knocking down the false attacks,” said Democratic strategist Stephanie Cutter, who was deeply involved in the health reform effort when she was an adviser to President Barack Obama.

“There’s no one better to lay it all out for the American people than President Clinton,” she added. “He’ll cut through the rhetoric and get to the heart of the issue … ‘How does the law impact me and my family, and how much will my health care cost?’ Ultimately, that’s all the American people care about, and President Clinton knows how to put it in their terms.”

The aim of the speech may be broader than a continuation of Clinton’s well-received defense of the law last year at the Democratic National Convention in Charlotte, N.C., where he laid out the intricate legislation in a way people could understand. But the White House clearly framed it that way in a tweet from Obama aide Dan Pfeiffer shortly after it was announced on Wednesday.

(PHOTOS: Bill Clinton’s life and career)

“Excited to have President BillClinton, once dubbed Secretary of Explaining Stuff, talk about the health reform law on 9/4 in Little Rock,” read the tweet.

The venue is Bill Clinton’s home turf — his native Arkansas — and speaking in one of the poorest states in the nation could help him to highlight what the White House sees as the benefits of the bill.

The speech suggests that the relationship between Clinton and the White House will continue as long as there is a need in the final three years of Obama’s presidency — the period, of course, during which Hillary Clinton will decide whether to run again in 2016.

(Also on POLITICO: W.H. gears up for major new Obamacare push)

“He will lay down the facts about what is working and what is to come,” said a White House official of the speech.

“His Sept. 4th speech will be the first of a number of high-profile events and speeches by administration officials and allies throughout the fall aimed at raising awareness about the law. In addition to his remarks in Little Rock, President Clinton is also expected to continue to raise public awareness around the law during the critical months for open enrollment.”

Officials on both sides have tended to downplay the breathlessness with which every Clinton utterance related to Obama gets covered. Clinton’s usefulness goes only so far for Obama, but there is a recognition that he is seen as less polarizing than the president on certain topics.

(Also on POLITICO: TOP 5 complaints about Obamacare)

And Clinton supporters argue that he gives many speeches that are similar to the one he’ll deliver next week, but they don’t all get written about.

Still, health care is an issue that both Clintons care deeply about. And as Clinton attempts to highlight that Republicans have offered no alternative to the bill that the U.S. Supreme Court has upheld, his speech serves as a tacit reminder of how much work he and his wife put into health care early in his presidency.

Clinton has emerged as a big Obamacare booster over the past couple of years, working to calm a Democratic base that’s been either upset the law isn’t liberal enough or anxious about what could be a bumpy beginning.

(Also on POLITICO: Bill Clinton calls for action in March on Washington speech)

The stakes are high: In about a month, millions will be able to start signing up for Obamacare coverage. But new polling shows about 40 percent of the public remains confused about whether Obamacare is still the law — let alone what’s actually in it.

POLITICO – TOP Stories

The Obama-Clinton health care bond