Subject: Hillary Clinton 2016: Bernie Sanders attack from her proxies
From: Brent Budowsky <[email-masked]>
To: John Podesta <[email-masked]>, Roy Spence <[email-masked]>
Date: Sun, 6 Sep 2015 07:48:50 -0400

I would not discourage either or both of you from sharing this note directly with
Hillary Clinton because if she wants to become president she needs to understand
the point I am making her with crystal clarity.

Someone sent me the story from Politico I link below suggesting that the Hillary
Clinton campaign is telling surrogates to attack Bernie Sanders and is so ashamed
and embarrassed by their own talking points that they refuse to put in writing what
they are telling surrogates to say about why she should become president.

I cannot think of anything more stupid and self-destructive for a campaign to do,
especially for a candidate who has dangerously low levels of public trust, than
writing surreptitious talking points to attack an opponent whose support is
premised on cleaning up politics and whose supporters----unlike some who surround
Hillary Clinton----are not in it for the money, or to get a job in her administration that
will not happen if this kind of thing continues, or to supplement their lobbying or consulting incomes.  

I spent three hours yesterday at George Washington University's back to school
engagement fair where 500 campus groups and clubs had booths to interact
with incoming students.  There were Democratic and Republican booths, but the
only two candidates who had booths were Marco Rubio and Bernie Sanders.

There was no Hillary Clinton booth.

The Bernie Sanders booth---I talked to them and kept an eye on them---spent the
entire three hours getting names and contact information on a yellow pad for students
who want to actively support Bernie.  This is happening at every major campus
in America.

And at a major university in Washington, D.C., where many of the kids come here
because of an interest in politics and are already working as interns, there was not
one student who gave enough of a damn for Hillary to open a booth, or even wear
a Hillary button----I didn't see one and I was looking.

If there are secret Clinton talking points to surrogates to attack Bernie---and I now
believe the story is true-----she is going to create ill-will that neither she nor her
staff can even imagine.  There are people entering politics for the first time, especially
but not only young people, who begin with some level of distrust towards Hillary,
who will be disgusted by these attacks against him by Clinton through surrogates
and many----who she will desperately need in November if she is nominated----will
just stay home because they are not interested in a slightly better version of a
system they believe is corrupt.

Moreover, Bernie is a pro, and his inclination will be to play ball if Hillary is
nominated and urge his supporters to come around.  What will happen if
this continues is Bernie will get pissed off and lash back and I can write the
words he will say if Clinton tactics anger him----FBI investigation and aides
taking the Fifth will be among them---and it will not be pretty.

The way to handle Bernie is to do what I have done in my columns---give high
praise to Hillary, emphasize the historic moment for women and her vast
qualifications, counter-attack against the Republican inquisitions, make love
to Bernie and his idealistic supporters, and co-opt as many of his progressive
issues as possible, such as increasing social security benefits and paying for it
through a transaction tax on Wall Street.

The way NOT to handle Bernie is to telegraph how afraid the Clinton campaign
is of him, and then dispense covert talking points that cannot be put in writing
that embody the oldest politics that will only infuriate many liberal Democrats
and give an already-biased media a legitimate story line to push.

Read the Sunday NY Times story about all the tech wizards doing for Bernie for
free what Hillary has to pay for, and imagine how they will feel when they read the
Politico story I link below....imagine what the college kids for Bernie will feel when
these surrogate attacks on Bernie become more visible....what the Hillary campaign
should be doing is attracting her own student supports, especially women
students, with a vision and inspiration in talking points that should be so
powerful in everything good they say about Hillary that they should be leaked
with pride and not negative politics that can't be put in writing and have to be
hidden like grand jury testimony because her well-paid consultants do not want
anyone to know why they think she should become president.....

Candidly,  bluntly,  with all of the verbal brutality I can muster the Clinton campaign
has some very big problems and the kind of politics in the Politico story I link here
are Exhibit A of why the problems exist, and Exhibit B of why they must be
changed if she wants to be nominated and elected.

If nobody else will do it, I will volunteer to take an hour to write the talking points
about what surrogates should be saying, about why she should be president,
that will make voters so proud that the campaign should call a press conference
to publicly release the talking points---and I would not accept a dime and I damn
well do not want a job now or ever and I won't plead for her to write an endorsement
of the consultant business I won't ever do.....

Hillary Clinton needs to think seriously about these things while there is still time.  

http://www.politico.com/story/2015/09/hillary-clinton-2016-proxies-attack-bernie-sanders-213359

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