What Gordon can learn from Hillary
James Forsyth 6:26pm
If Stephen Carter and his team are searching for inspiration for how to get Gordon Brown back in the game, they should look to Hillary Clinton. Since the beginning of March, she has shown that even politicians who are not naturals and have been in public life for decades can learn new tricks, and that you can turn being written off by the pundits to your advantage.
The beginning of the Clinton revival was the realisation that she had two great strengths, her resilience and her policy knowledge. These are strengths that Brown shares and copying the Clinton model would at least get Brown going again. First, like Clinton, he should accept how bad things look and turn his refusal to give it up into a metaphor for how he will always fight for you. Second, he should get out and talk to people about policy. This might seem like odd advice seeing as Brown doesn’t do empathy or people skills, but demonstrating how his policies help voters would do Brown some good. (Obviously, this last point is debatable. But Brown must believe this and so should be able to make some kind of case.) Finally, Brown should copy Hillary’s strategy of playing on the fact that voters don’t necessarily want to make the non-refundable decision on the other guy.
Obviously, these things are easier to do when you’re running for office than when you are in office. But if Brown started touting himself as the underdog, he could flip some of the media scrutiny normally — and rightfully — given to the incumbent, onto Cameron.
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Comments
Chris
May 6th, 2008 7:24pmLook - nobody can learn anything from Hillary, or Obama, or the weird old one. Nothing of any interest whatsoever will happen during this, or any other, US election campaign. They are really, really boring. The coverage in the UK of the US election starts about eight months too early. Presumably the reason why British journalists get so excited is that it's easy to get a decent hotel room in the US and you don't have to be any good at languages. If a British politician wants to learn anything from another country the place to look is France, or Germany or Italy, or any other of our near neighbours.
Alan Scott
May 6th, 2008 7:35pmHe doesn't need to "tout himself as the underdog" - for he is just that; and to emphasise that wd be politically suicidal. Or are you a Conservative adviser in disguise?
Oscar Miller
May 6th, 2008 9:23pmI don't quite understand why so many political commentators feel it beholden on them to find recipes to 'save' Gordon Brown. They should take Matthew Parris's advice - give up. Apart from anything else the public are bored rigid by Brown. But somehow he seems to captivate the hacks.
Old Hack
May 7th, 2008 7:13amI look forward to Gordon having a little sniffle - broon style - to evoke sympathy a la Hillary.
Then again, Hillary doesn't have much of a record to be held accountable to.
John
May 7th, 2008 8:55amYes, Alan and Oscar, I think this column is written by a Tory adviser who is giving MacBean advice that will make him look ever more ridiculous over the next 2 years ;-)
"demonstrating how his policies help voters"? LOL.
salieri
May 7th, 2008 9:34amThere comes a point, surely, when resilience is no longer a sign of strength but a manifestation of steadfast egotism. Clinton's governing characteristic is unwavering ambition, and the same has been true of Brown for longer than anyone can remember.
When politicians resort to saying that their first thought when they wake in the morning is how to make life better for the poor, you know they have jettisoned their last link with reality. Self-esteem has finally overcome self-respect; delusion has displaced shamelessness.
In both cases lust for power, permitted or encouraged by a coterie of self-serving sycophants, prevents these profoundly shallow monsters from grasping the simple reality: the people they affect to love do not love them, do not want them, and sooner or later will tear them limb from limb.
John W
May 7th, 2008 11:17am1. Hillary, while a fairly clunky politician, is light years ahead of Gordon Brown. And indeed her empathy with middle-aged, middle-class Americans is one of her greatest assets. Could one ever say Gordon empathised with anybody?Never mind the middle-classes (yes they are very different groups in America and Britain, but they are of similar electoral importance).
2. The Clintons' political machine is the finest in the business, and its ability to manipulate the running narrative is the only reason she is still in the race - when it is virtually impossible for her to win. That you mention Stephen Carter is ironic in this regard, the Brown unit have shown themselves to be uniquely incompetent at scoring political points on the national stage.
Message to Gordon: Sack everybody who works for you, be somebody else.