Even his “Change We Can Believe In” slogan was meant as a slur against her.
(Telegraph) — Barack Obama agreed to using character assassination tactics against Hillary Clinton during his 2008 presidential campaign, White House memos show, despite a pledge to steer away from negative electioneering.
“Change We Can Believe In”, a key Obama campaign slogan, was meant as a slur against Mrs Clinton’s personality, intended to highlight how she “couldn’t be trusted or believed in when it comes to change”, according to a memo seen by America’s New Yorker magazine.
“She’s driven by political calculation not conviction, regularly backing away and shifting positions … She embodies trench warfare vs Republicans, and is consumed with beating them rather than unifying the country and building consensus to get things done. She prides herself on working the system, not changing it,” the October 2007 memo added.
The memo was written by David Axelrod, a political adviser, as Obama’s nomination campaign stalled against Hillary Clinton during the height of the 2008 Democratic nomination process.
Rather than fight out their differences in policy, Mr Axelrod told Obama that the only way to secure a defeat was to attack Mrs Clinton’s character. The goal was to paint Obama as the “authentic ‘remedy’ to what ails Washington and stands in the way of progress” and to discredit his main rival in the process.
“It may not be her fault, but Americans have deeply divided feelings about Hillary Clinton, threatening a Democratic victory in 2008 and insuring another four years of the bitter political battles that have plagued Washington for the last two decades and stymied progress,” the memo added.