My must read of the day is "Republicans label Clinton ‘Obama’s 3rd Term'," on CNN.com:
Republicans who want to taint Hillary Clinton are going to lengths to link the former secretary of state with President Barack Obama and his sagging poll numbers.
Throughout the party's infrastructure, Republicans say that linking Clinton with Obama, especially labeling her possible 2016 campaign as "Obama's Third Term," is the most potent attack.
America Rising, an anti-Clinton Super PAC that has looked to define the former first lady for the better part of a year, will push out a series of talking points giving Clinton the third-term label, and the group plans to fundraise off the push staring Tuesday.
"Hillary Clinton has a Barack Obama problem," reads a lengthy research document that will go out to GOP pundits, strategists, conservative organizations, and media members Tuesday. "No matter how many of her advisers whisper to reporters that she's different from Barack Obama, Americans still know who she is: Barack Obama Part Deux."
Two strategies seem to be developing when it comes to pushing back on the Hillary 2016 effort. One is what’s described above, the argument that supporting her would be supporting a third term for Obama. The other is painting her as an elitist politician detached from the average Joes.
Both are likely effective, particularly when it comes to engaging voters and pulling in more money, but the latter seems to have more longevity.
Right now, Barack Obama’s approval rating is abysmal, but who knows where it will be in three years—Hilary as the calculated political plutocrat has sturdy legs.
Time recently noted that Democrats used this strategy with great success against Romney, and now Republicans are trying to turn it against them, employing it in Senate races and talks of Hillary.
When the "they’re rich and not like us" tactic works, it seems to work best in presidential elections, but whether it sticks or not is kind of luck. Almost every politician serving on a national level is wealthy, and everyone knows they have connections in high places and wealthy donors who back them.
According to Time, the tactic was potent in 2012 because Democrats created a "caricature" in which Romney was "a rapacious ‘vulture’ capitalist who was cocooned in the C-suite and blind to the challenges buffeting the middle class." The attack succeeded on its face, and Romney helped embolden it with various flubs.
It works in a similar fashion against Hillary.
Clinton is wealthy, and she is notoriously politically calculated to a point that she often doesn’t seem real. In unscripted media interactions, whether it’s the now infamous "dead broke" remark or the awkward promise she would "hug it out" with Obama, it often comes across. The "Obama’s third term" strategy is good, but the detached plutocrat is better.