Will Hillary Clinton's "Prevent Defense" Prevent Her From Winning?

By Scott Galindez, Reader Supported News

06 August 15

here is an old saying in the NFL that when a team goes into a “prevent defense” (allowing short pass completions to prevent the big play) they often prevent themselves from winning. It seems to me that John Podesta and Hillary have been in the prevent defense during this entire campaign for the Democratic nomination.

On Thursday, Republicans will hold their first debate. The Democratic Party is moving more slowly: we have no dates for debates. We do know that there will be six debates, four in the early primary states of Iowa, New Hampshire, South Carolina, and Nevada, with two still to be determined. Senator Bernie Sanders has been requesting more. He even wants to include the Republicans in some debates.

Bernie argues that the campaign should be a debate of ideas, not a war of 30-second TV commercials. The DNC quickly rejected Sanders’ request.

It’s not just the lack of a rush to debate that indicates a “prevent defense” strategy; the size and staging of Clinton’s events seem designed to prevent contact with both reporters and voters who would ask tough questions.

I guess if you are Team Hillary you are trying to maintain your lead and stay on message. But at what cost?

The idea Hillary’s team is trying to sell is that they want to be more accessible to the people. They argue that the smaller, more intimate events make her seem less aloof. While there is some validity to the claim that eight years ago Iowans felt like she flew in, gave a speech, and flew out, that was not the reason President Obama beat her.

President Obama ran a brilliant grassroots campaign that included many large rallies. The Clinton campaign originally said their smaller events were only going to be during the pre-launch phase. While her events have gotten bigger, they still have a very controlled feel. People I talk to say the reason her poll numbers on trust keep falling is they think she is hiding something. Those opinions don’t come from pundits or others involved in politics, but from cab drivers and people I talk to on the street here in Iowa.

The press that follows her is not an unmanageable mob that needs to be herded with rope lines, as happened on July 4th in New Hampshire. At almost all of Clinton’s events, the press is kept in its own barricaded or roped-off area until the candidate has left the room. If reporters are lucky enough to get into the crowd after a rally while she is shaking hands, they are immediately cut off if they try to ask questions and are completely ignored by Hillary Clinton.

In contrast, the press is free to roam the room at any other candidate’s events. I have heard some reporters justify this difference by saying that the other candidates do not have secret service protection. That argument doesn’t hold up, since things were much different eight years ago. I remember often being on the stage shooting down at Hillary Clinton while she shook hands, and I remember reporters asking her questions on the fly. None of that is happening this time around. There is a clear effort to shield the candidate from unwanted questions.

Hillary Clinton is saying all the right things, and she is calling for the right things. What many people see lacking is specifics. It’s one thing to support a raise in the minimum wage, but to take the position that localities should define what that wage is offers no change from the current situation. It is her fence-straddling on issues that has voters uneasy about Clinton. To repair her trust issues with voters, she needs to convince people she is not hiding. One way to do that is to not hide from the press. Secretary Clinton, I still have questions.

Here is her latest stump speech, delivered last Saturday in Ames, Iowa.

Scott Galindez attended Syracuse University, where he first became politically active. The writings of El Salvador's slain archbishop Oscar Romero and the on-campus South Africa divestment movement converted him from a Reagan supporter to an activist for Peace and Justice. Over the years he has been influenced by the likes of Philip Berrigan, William Thomas, Mitch Snyder, Don White, Lisa Fithian, and Paul Wellstone. Scott met Marc Ash while organizing counterinaugural events after George W. Bush's first stolen election. Scott will be spending a year covering the presidential election from Iowa.

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