Posted by Shyam
MoondraObama won presidency twice because many people thought that the Republican candidates in the last two presidential elections were the clones of discredited former President Bush; Sen. John McCain (R-AZ) was too trigger-happy hawkish at a time when people were fatigued by non-stop wars and Gov. Mitt Romney (R-MA) was too pro-rich at a time when the poor were left way behind. Obama, however, turned out to be too liberal for the majority of Americans, who politically tend to be centrist, and his policies have fallen flat, as is evident from his consistently and persistently low approval rating. Clearly, it would be foolish for Clinton to envision a third Obama-term and run on his record.
Below is a list of things that Clinton needs to do:
- Be confident, but not
over-confident. Behave as an underdog; it worked for Bill Clinton when he
ran the first time for the White House and it also worked for Obama's
first bid.
- To be a strong leader, one doesn't have to be blunt and sarcastic all the time. As a president, Clinton would have to come across as a thoughtful stateswoman, here and abroad. The people generally don't like leaders who are sarcastic and angry. Clinton needs to be a Truman, looking calm but carrying a big stick.
- Clinton must be willing
to govern from slightly right of the center (just like her husband
did). Most Americans are at the center and that's where the
voters are in large numbers. Obama made a mistake of coming across as an
enemy of business (may be somewhat unfair perception) and someone who
was solely focused on poor people. To win, Clinton would need to
put together a coalition of moderate and conservative Democrats, moderate
Republicans, and centrist Independents. Clinton (and her husband before
her) has a strong track record with Blacks and Hispanics, so in the
general election she doesn't need to worry too much about them (of course,
to make sure that they don't stay home on the election day, she will
have to have special campaign events targeting them, but those events
should be low-key and far fewer in-between). Clinton may have the
temptation to behave like a liberal to win in the primary election but
talk more like a conservative in the general election to appeal to the
moderate Republicans and Independents. However, that strategy will raise
the question if Clinton has any core values and principles. The voters
generally don't like candidates who change their positions on issues
depending on which way the political wind is blowing.
- On policy matters, the following is what a majority of Americans are looking for:
- Obama has resurrected the welfare state that former President Bill Clinton dismantled during his presidency. It has been estimated that under Obama, the welfare cost has zoomed up to almost a trillion dollars a year that include food aid, disability benefits, social services, educational assistance, housing assistance, vocational training, medical assistance, energy and utility assistance, child care and development, etc. Many of these welfare programs are fraught with waste, fraud, and abuse and they are growing at an alarming rate which could worsen the budget deficit problem. While Obama’s focus on helping the poor is noble, the welfare state is just a band aid approach to dealing with the broader issues of unemployment or under-employment and poverty. The welfare programs, without an expanding economy, make the poor people permanently dependent on the government which is hardly an ideal outcome. This approach actually locks the poor people in perpetual poverty without any realistic hope to get out of the sink hole. What we need right now is to find a way to grow economy at a faster clip and create high-paying jobs, and at the same time train the chronically unemployed people to fill those jobs (The Moondra Post, February 12, 2014). Clinton would have to make it clear to moderate Republicans and Independents that she intends to move the people from welfare rolls to payrolls. As the saying goes, if you give a man a fish you feed him for one day, but if you teach him how to catch a fish you set him for life. The increased focus on welfare programs have in fact worsened the gap between the rich and poor.
- The federal tax code,
full of special treatments in the form of tax rebates and credits, is no
longer fair and it urgently needs to be reformed. Clinton must commit
to put this issue at the top of her agenda and work with the Congressional
Republicans to achieve a simpler and fairer tax code.
- The issue of government
spending beyond its means is a burning issue for many Americans,
Republicans or Democrats. Just like Bill Clinton, Hillary
Clinton needs to clearly state that achieving a balanced budget and
bringing down the national debt would be her goals. Clinton needs to express her
willingness to find common ground with Republicans on proposing meaningful
spending reforms as well as targeted tax increases to balance the budget.
- Our roads, highways, bridges,
and tunnels are crumbling, all too visible to most Americans when they
step out of their homes and see roads riddled with pot-holes that are
beyond patchwork repairs. Most Americans would support a temporary special
gasoline tax to pay for repairing our infrastructure that is vital for
competing in global trade. This infrastructure spending will act like a stimulus to economy and create millions of new jobs.
- In the area of foreign affairs, given the turmoil in the Middle-East, Russia's aggression in Ukraine, and China's assertive policies in the South China Sea, it is important to have strong military and as such Clinton must speak about the need for increasing the defense budget. Obama's perceived image of leading from the behind has emboldened our adversaries, so the next president would have to restore America's credibility in the world by providing strong leadership on the global stage. Having served as the Secretary of State, Clinton has valuable hands-on experience in foreign affairs that would give her an advantage over her opponents in the 2016 election.
- To solve the problem of
widening income gap between the rich and poor, Clinton could use Small Business Administration as a vehicle to give
the poor a chance to become rich by providing the necessary training and
financing. Small businesses create jobs, so Clinton should make it
clear to the Republicans that she would work with them to make Small
Business Administration an important department within the federal
government and appoint a cabinet level secretary to run it.
- In the aftermath of the financial crisis of 2008, the government regulations on
banks have gone too far; the banks are now "over safe" which
decreases the efficiency of capital flow and that is preventing economy
from attaining robust 4% or higher GDP growth rate (The Moondra Post, June 8, 2014). Clinton should work with Republicans to streamline and prune these regulations and let the free-market economy work without the heavy handed micro-management of the publicly held financial institutions (e.g., making decisions on dividends and stock buybacks).
Clinton is not expected to have tough competition in the primaries; therefore, she should start thinking about her vision for the general election of 2016. Given Obama's low approval rating, Clinton would have to articulate her vision for the future that puts her slightly on the right of the center of the political spectrum. To win the presidency, Clinton would need to put together a broader coalition that also includes moderate Republicans. Obama moved too far to the left, making it harder for him to work effectively with the Congressional Republicans that now control both the Senate and House and develop bi-partisan solutions to the problems. If Clinton wants to tear-down the ugly gridlock in Washington, DC and have a successful presidency, she would have to incorporate some of the Republican policy ideas as part of her own vision. This simply means that she will have to make a sharp right turn to get to the White House.
