Subject: a few thoughts, below and attached
From: Dan Carol <[email-masked]>
To: John Podesta <[email-masked]>
Date: Thu, 21 Jan 2016 19:57:36 -0500

Corny and crazy sounding I know but I really think Mrs. Clinton needs to do
a “hope” is who I am speech.  Own the Samuel Popkin optimism frame.  Break
loose from the big change v pragmatism box she is in. Link Bill
Clinton-Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton around the common core of hope.

Explain why she gets up every day for 40 years after being pounded by the
right and sometimes by the left and with the media analyzing her wardrobe
and other crap.   Why?  Because she is an optimist about America and is
called to service.   And is energized – energized -- by the progress and
the possibilities and the people, every day.    That’s why she gets up in
the morning.  She has hope and energy.  Let the media make fun of the hope
theme for a day and then let them draw the long term contrast with Bernie
and Trump as angry, tired, grumpy, fear baiting, etc.

Cast herself as an effective fighter for hope *against* anger and fear –
anger and fear, the political equivalents of a sugar high.  By contrast,
hope is protein.  It sustains.  Hope -- plus a real vision about where this
country needs to go in the next 8, 12, 20 years.

Take on in a *respectful and detailed way* this notion that being practical
about how you actually get change done means you don’t have vision.   Express
frustration about that by talking the way you would talk to Democratic
organizers on a Saturday morning before door knocking.  Or maybe talk in
front of a young organizers group that John Stocks or Will Robinson or
someone could pull together.

Without saying that Bernie is chasing unicorns, be passionate about the
tactical reality that progressives and Democrats face.

Make clear, without any snark, that every time the left takes the easy
solution path that we can “win it all” in one national election, because we
are tired and angry and want it all to be easy so we can relax and watch
TV, understandable, we end up with a Ronald Reagan or a George Bush.  Because
the bad guys NEVER sleep.

By contrast, when we work hard and smart, for years, with hope and optimism
and steely commitment and a serious long-term strategic vision of what we
can get done and when, we win.  And we get:

-- the Netroots movement which took 8-10 years to develop and blaze new
trails.

-- we get gay marriage which took a bottom up state 8 year or more strategy

-- we get progress on women’s issues

-- we get progress on civil rights, which we are still fighting for, with
an eye on the Dream and a new dream for our new generation of dreamers.

We can dream smart and be smart.  That’s who I am.  That’s what I am about.

We can be the party that will make America even greater and continue the
investments in technology and training that are just starting to bubble up
in Detroit and elsewhere…we can keep building on the hope that President
Obama has restored.

We can be the party that tries to transform the Congress in one election
after another, and gets its butt kicked on re-districting, or we can be the
party that transforms the country by working at the grassroots to win on
redistricting in 2020 and erase Citizens United.

We can be the party that sounds like big government or the party that
delivers 21st century solutions to people in their communities, working
from the bottom up through collective impact strategies….