Subject: Short thoughts you might find helpful.
From: Andy Manatos <[email-masked]>
To: John Podesta <[email-masked]>
Cc: Mike Manatos <[email-masked]>
Date: Thu, 4 Feb 2016 17:13:12 -0500

John,

Hope all is well with you and yours.  Our mutual friend Art Agnos and I have two campaign ideas (each about 200 words) you might find helpful. 

Mine -- I believe that Hillary should become known for telling vignettes about the broken Washington system that the voters perceive.  You might consider having a person in the audience (like Reagan’s person in the Gallery at the State of the Union) who experienced the outrageous problem and could answer reporters’ questions.  After each example Hillary could say something strong like “This is terribly wrong and when I become your President, this kind of government heartlessness will end”. 

One “Golden Fleece”-like example I suggest involves the mother of Kimberley Fraser of my office.   She is an effectively quadriplegic mute widow of a WWII hero (who become a general).  She had $140,000 worth of her pension, social security and tax returns incorrectly withheld by the Veterans Administration (VA).  For four years her family and Member of Congress unsuccessfully fought the VA for her funds.  Just before her lack of funds was about to move her to a rest home, I had to get the Secretary of Veterans Affairs to personally intervene and her funds were finally returned.

Art’s – Attached is an abbreviated speech that I gave to a city wide congress of neighborhoods that reflects the idea of an lifetime insider (me a former mayor) challenging the current establishment policies in San Francisco 

 While the speech talks about an initiative (prop B) that would require a vote of the people to authorize changes in existing height limits on SF’s publicly owned waterfront, it reflects the theme of empowering the individual and the neighborhood by putting them in “the room” with the lobbyists, lawyers, department heads, etc when the key decisions are made. 

Instead of an initiative, I suggest that a long time “insider” candidate could successfully adapt the same theme of empowerment in her campaign by saying she understands the power of that room because she has been in it…that she will speak for them when she is that room as President.

It is a versatile theme that can be adapted to countless situations all ending with something like:

“When I am president and in that room where the tough decisions are made about _______, I will remember you…I will speak for you...to make sure your voices…your families needs are heard. That is what I have done as first lady…that is what I have done as a United States Senator…that is what I have done as Secretary of State…and that is what I will do every day that I am President of the United States.