RNC Plans To Turn Bernie Backers Against Hillary Clinton’s VP Pick

[LebaneseDude 6,146]

Via HuffPo

The Republican National Committee is planning to cleave liberal voters away fromHillary Clinton as part of a campaign to counteract her forthcoming pick of a vice presidential running mate.

In a detailed memo outlining its strategy to combat Clinton’s VP choice, the committee says it will frame the selection as both a cynical play to certain constituencies and as an emotional letdown for voters who backed Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) in the Democratic primary.

The goals, the memo says, are to “drive wedges between these top contenders and either Clinton and/or traditional Democrat constituencies, such as labor, environmentalists, and gun control advocates, and other traditional left-wing constituencies;” and “[w]here applicable, frame the choice as an insult to the large, deep base of Bernie Sanders supporters who are struggling with the notion of supporting Hillary Clinton as the presumptive Democrat nominee.”

Titled “Project Pander,” ( ) the RNC’s strategy memo also reveals which candidates the committee views as most likely to be selected. Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.), HUD Secretary Julian Castro and Sen. Tim Kaine (D-Va.) occupy the top tier; Sen. Sherrod Brown (D-Ohio), Labor Secretary Thomas Perez and Rep. Xavier Becerra (D-Calif.) are in the second.

Clinton’s campaign was unperturbed by the RNC’s operations, a spokesman said in an email. Nor were they worried about a fissure happening within the party, noting that recent opinion polls show Democratic voters coalescing more quickly around Clinton than Republican voters around their party’s presumptive nominee: Donald Trump.  

“We aren’t concerned,” said spokesman Brian Fallon. “While the Democratic party is quickly uniting around Hillary Clinton, Donald Trump actually appears to be losing ground in his bid to consolidate Republicans. More and more members of Trump’s own party are realizing he is temperamentally unfit to be President, and there is no amount of Googling by RNC researchers that can fix that.” 

Though the RNC’s research efforts underscore the high stakes of Clinton’s choice of running mate, the actual value of a vice presidential pick tends to be overstated. Data shows that the selection rarely helps win a state’s electoral votes, though it can marginally improve voter perceptions of a ticket. A pick can, however, create its share of headaches, either by providing damaging distractions (see: Eagleton, Thomas or Palin, Sarah) or by underwhelming voters (Lieberman, Joe or Quayle, Dan).

With respect to Kaine, the committee’s plan of attack will be to paint him as a “career politician” whose positions on trade and  abortion makes him unpalatable for supporters of Sanders. (Without irony, the RNC’s memo also says they will portray a Clinton/Kaine ticket as too liberal for the electorate because of Kaine’s support for Obamacare and his time as a lawyer for the ACLU).

For Castro, the committee will argue that he is woefully inexperienced and that the limited record he has is a disappointment to liberals: from supporting NAFTA to pushing, while mayor of San Antonio, to get a Connecticut-based gun manufacturer to move its headquarters to the city.

“Castro could easily be portrayed as a John Edwards-esque pick,” the memo reads, “whereby someone with good looks but a thin resume is viewed as a novice on the national stage.”

A Warren choice, the RNC concedes, would go over well with Sanders supporters. But it would be “an extreme lurch left” that the committee would paint as “intensely liberal and uncompromising.” Interestingly, the RNC hints that it would use the selection of Warren as a means of diminishing Clinton, both by playing up Warren as, in some ways, the more powerful of the two and by portraying Clinton as captive to her base.

[LebaneseDude 6,146]

It's going to be both hilarious and disconcerting to see people fall for this strategy

[President Biden 5,898]

Ew. She should pick Bernie at this point honestly. He said he'd vote for her and it save the party. Ugh 

[President Biden 5,898]

But Warren as vice would be good

[Redstreak 6,653]

they keep trying but it's not working. Sure a facet of Bernie supporters won't vote for Clinton, but they surely aren't going to Trump either, those who do were never really in it for the values anyway.

[LebaneseDude 6,146]

4 minutes ago, Redstreak said:

they keep trying but it's not working. Sure a facet of Bernie supporters won't vote for Clinton, but they surely aren't going to Trump either, those who do were never really in it for the values anyway.

Right but the dissenters don't have to go to Trump.

They know they don't have to win their votes. Hillary just has to bleed them. The RNC is still successful if they manage to steer them to Johnson or Stein to spoil the election.

[JusKeepBreathin 19,311]

How can they vote for Trump? He and the entire Republican Party is in the NRA's pocket. Isn't that the whole purpose of Bernie? What would be the basis of their campaign "vote for Trump, he's not a politician." Bernie has been a politician since the 70's. I don't understand what Bernie and Trump could have in common that the RNC could play up.

[Redstreak 6,653]

Just now, LebaneseDude said:

Right but the dissenters don't have to go to Trump. The RNC is still successful if they manage to steer them to Johnson or Stein to spoil the election. They know they don't have to win the votes. Hillary just has to bleed them. 

Hillary may suffer a few scrapes but Trump is hemorrhaging, there's no way she'll lose voter amounts in comparison to him.

[Morphine Prince 109,653]

So desperate lmao. 

[MJHolland 12,725]

1 minute ago, Morphine Prince said:

So desperate lmao. 

Because the Hillary camp won't attack whoever Trump picks for VP? Mkayyyyy 

[Morphine Prince 109,653]

30 minutes ago, MJHolland said:

Because the Hillary camp won't attack whoever Trump picks for VP? Mkayyyyy 

I mean the Bernie supporters part. Honestly at this point there's no way Trump can win. 

I'll be genuinely shocked if he were to win. 

[Sid 6,755]

PROJECT PANDER 

good luck with that