Obama’s Kill-Hillary Strategy Released Just Before First Debate

Hours before the first Democratic debate Tuesday night, Barack Obama’s 2007 strategy memo to defeat Hillary Clinton was released.

The strategy Obama laid out was based on the premise to talk up “Americans’ deep discontent with Washington.” Underpinned by “political gamesmanship where politicians score points by saying what others want to hear, rather than what they need to hear.”

The memo argued that “divisiveness… pits Americans against each other and blocks the consensus we need to get things done and its submission to powerful interests that shut out the voices of average Americans.”

The slug of the memo is based upon, “The Fault Line: Hillary’s the Problem, Not the Answer.” Obama’s slogan “‘Change you can believe in’ was intended to frame the argument along the character fault line, and this is where we can and must win this fight. We cannot let Clinton especially blur the lines on who is the genuine agent of change in this election.”

Obama’s memo explained, “The reason Clinton can’t be trusted or believed when it comes to change is that she represents, to a great degree, the three sources of discontent formulated in our premise.”

The memo argued that Clinton is “driven by political calculation not conviction, regularly backing away and shifting positions on issues ranging from war, to Social Security, to trade, to reform.”

Specifically, Clinton “embodies trench warfare vs. Republicans, and is consumed with beating them rather than unifying the country and building consensus to get things done.”

The memo says Clinton “prides herself on working the system, not changing it—rebuffing reforms on everything from lobbyist donations to budget earmarks.”

Furthermore, memo criticized Clinton as “a prescription for more of the same, meaning that our shared goals will once again be frustrated by Washington’s failed politics,” and it included a chart headlines, “The Basic Messaging Framework.” This chart included the contrasts between Hillary Clinton.

The Basic Messaging Framework

The memo was written by Obama’s Chief Strategist David Axelrod, campaign strategist Larry Grisolano, deputy comms director Dan Pfeiffer, campaign manager David Plouffe, and pollster Joel Benenson. For the 2016 election, Benenson now works for Clinton.

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[h/t The New Yorker]