Today Elizabeth Edwards said:
“I don’t call it Senator Clinton’s health care plan,” Edwards said. “I call it John Edwards’ health care plan as delivered by Hillary Clinton. The truth is that anyone who tries to describe Hillary’s health care plan will run through every material part of John’s health care plan.”
Here is what I don’t get. The “she stole my plan” thing will probably be used by John Edwards in the debates at some point. Probably like “i’ve read Senator Clinton’s plan, I liked it when I wrote it seven months ago, I would like to see the American people have it now.” Which will get laughs and applause and Internet buzz.
But then the joke will get old. At that point what will linger won’t be so pleasant. The question will be “Mr. Edwards, if Ms. Clinton is going to set out with the exact same plan as yours, why don’t we just elect her? She has risen more money, is more popular in the polls, has a former president who knows how to maneuver Washington as a husband and knows everyone in the Senate that can help her get it passed?” At that point the nice little rhetorical joke “we have the same plan” is no longer an asset but a liability.
Edwards has spent the last few months with a good place to be rhetorically. He saw Obama’s plan and was able to say “he doesn’t do enough, he doesn’t cover everyone, he doesn’t make it mandatory, my plan does, vote for me.” With Clinton he has said “we haven’t seen it yet, I would like to see what she brings.” Well now she brought it and your wife is out saying its your exact same plan. You see the problem? You just lost your edge.
You can now attack her as failing the first time which she is rhetorically turning into an advantage. You can now attack her as someone who has high unpopulars and cannot get it done. But you can’t attack the meat and potatoes, you cannot hit the important point. You cannot say “Her plan fails because of this, this and that.” Because she will only hit back “but John, your people say we have the exact same plan. I thought you were going to change politics and attack issues and ideas and not vitriolic soundbytes. Tell us where our plans differ if it was more than just rhetoric and explain to us why your people said it was the same.”
You see in politics you gain ground by differentiating yourself from your opponent and associating yourself with beloved figures. By the Edwards logic he has now associated himself with someone who he claims has terrible unfavorable ratings and differentiated himself from the other candidate who has a health care plan and that message of “change and hope” you wanted to have, Barack Obama.
Even if Clinton’s plan was photocopied with your original title page, you aren’t going to gain by saying it is the exact same plan. For the short-term, yes. But in the long run it will only close up opportunities for you.
At the end of the day, no offense to Ms. Edwards, but in my humble opinion this was a pretty stupid move on the primary chess board. Hopefully they prove me wrong.
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