Hee hee - Ronald Reagan, the "Great Communicator", held only 46 press conferences over 8 years. Obama has done him slightly better at 61 solo press conferences. I'm just so worried that Hillary won't talk enough to the press...

If you listen at all to Republicans, every Democrat since the time of Gingrich has been akin to Josef Stalin. Obama has been "deeply unpopular" to them for no reason other than he exists. For the left, it's hard to see why he would be popular other than his avoidance of confrontation.

The Democrats have already chosen the "congenital liar" as nominee. She attracts scandals, for sure, but Hal's comparison of Kerry vs. Clinton is instructive - Kerry voted for the Iraq AUMF as well, and his stint as SoS has a no-fly zone and cooperation with a (largely successful as of late) ground effort using allies, the same as Hillary discusses continuing, and carries out much the same Middle East policy aside from Libya on her watch, yet to Hal Hillary is a total war neocon while Kerry's a professional. He probably likes Obama better as well, even though he was her boss so had to sign off on every major action if he wasn't indeed the author.

Obama's been a go-it-alone kind of guy, with little up-pull on the party as a whole. The Clintons are Democrats with a big tent, nationwide - we're already seing that with her pivot to the generals and putting written-off states into play. I only see a huge plus with building party excitement & numbers over the presumably 8 next years. "Pull the party down"? No fucking way. Hell, look at how nice she's treating Bernie's gang. She even hired Bernie's youth outreach head - think that's an empty move?

I also don't see Hillary as slow to populist fervor. She was the one to push healthcare hard, after all (including the S-Chip bit after Hillarycare failed, plus made it forefront in 2008 when it was far from Gore & Kerry's main topic). She installed rights for gay personnel at State before any other branch of government did. While her approach to security & defense is much more studied, as well as marijuana, it's not like she has any problem expressing needs for reform in wages (oh noes, she started at $12 instead of $15), taxation of corporations, the student loan business, and yes, even regulation of Wall Street. Elizabeth Warren is quite conservative but people treat her as a progressive because she makes some sharp attacks on Wall Street - even though we're also talking sound policy based on restoring competition and effective taxation, not destroying business. I keep laughing at the supposed competition between the 2, the idea that Hillary's too full of herself to allow an outspoken Warren by her side.

Okay, get Hillary someone to write better soundbites for consumption - all will be well.

So much concern, so little time. To be fair, Hillary's wasted a lot of energy focusing on black and Hispanic voters, since populists don't much care about their issues - in fact building a wall is about as populist as you can get. If it weren't that the Hispanic numbers are rising she'd be doomed. But I guess she isn't.

And historically she's always championed the rich - except a career built on poverty programs and supporting rural families and such. Will be very difficult for her to enthuse the rural left-behind areas that supported Bernie so much. Not. As the article notes, she listens and then remembers and acts. Her constituents in upstate New York were happy with her.  I expect much more attention to the "forgotten America" than others might provide. Including women - I can't compare how much Bill Taft did for that group, though " "I am not in favor of suffrage for women until I can be convinced that all the women desire it; and when they desire it I am in favor of giving it." gives me an idea he wasn't on the leading edge of any causes.

And of course if we listened to the press in Washington, Bill Clinton would have been the most disastrous president ever, but he left office with overwhelming popularity from people who mattered. Hillary's not Bill, but she's still "likeable enough" - what seemed like a thoroughly dickish comment at the time, but somehow seems defining at this point. She'll build up her base. And still, I'd rather do shots with her than beer or near-beer with Bush or Obama, and in the morning she'll still be able to function.