After yesterday’s comments on Hillary Clinton’s actions and directions, I wanted to add some additional comments to make clear that not everything either candidate in the Democratic party has done has been right or wrong.
I’m not a big believer in negative campaigning but I also don’t want a candidate to be weak. A negative campaign is one where comments are made about the opposing campaign that are predominately negative and often unsubstantiated but more importantly they are unbalanced in that they are not accompanied by the appropriate views from the candidate issuing the negative campaign comments. That is just wrong.
I do support the notion of contrast and compare. Contrast and compare campaigning is one where comments are made about the opposing campaign that may be negative but most importantly are about the opposing campaigns policies and are most definitely substantiated and then followed but supported views from the candidate issuing the contrast and compare campaign comments.
Hillary has done both negative campaigning and contrast and compare campaigning. The negative campaigning has been done through surrogates and some adds. The contrast and compare campaigning has been done through her own speeches, surrogates, and adds. I’d like Hillary to drop the negative campaign strategy elements entirely and move entirely to the contrast and compare. As I described in my other post and given her strategy to date, this may be to big a move for her to make at this late date though.
Obama has not done a lot of negative campaigning or contrast and compare campaigning (at least against Hillary) until recently. I’m glad the reports on negative campaigning have been low and remain low. I’d like to see an increase in the contrast and compare campaign style as this will add additional strength to his campaign yet keep his positive image. He has shown he is capable of this strong approach against McCain so I think he can do it against Clinton.