Kirsten gillibrand biggest obstacles to winning

[Da2017]

What will be her biggest problems in the primary and general. I can see her being compared to Hillary. The flip flop lebel could make her untrustworthy to some.

[here2view]

Absolutely being compared to Hillary. I mean, she's a blonde Senator from New York, not to mention that she literally replaced Hillary as Senator. The ads will write themselves.

[Mr. Morden]

I think people here tend to overestimate how much voters are going to care about Hillary Clinton in two years.  How often is "This candidate has similarities to a past presidential candidate you didn't like, who was never actually president" a winning message?  Now, you can argue that there are specific things that sunk Clinton that will also sink Gillibrand, but "she has blonde hair and is from New York, therefore you shouldn't like her because another person you didn't like for reasons having nothing to do with hair color or home state had blonde hair and was from New York" is not going to be a winning message.

[Holy Unifying Centrist]

"Weak" on the military & a flip-flopper will be the most effective attacks against her. I wish the former wasn't, but that's just how the game is. I think the Hillary attacks will backfire if Kirsten is able to separate herself enough from Hillary.

[Ogre Mage]

In the Democratic Primary, I see two major weaknesses.  1) her centrist past representing a Republican leaning district will be used to attack her progressive bona fides.  For instance, her past conservative voting record on guns and immigration will likely be used to try and peel nonwhite voters away from her.  This could be a particularly effective attack coming from the Booker or Harris camp.  2) She is a former corporate lawyer who worked for Phillip Morris and as a New York senator has taken millions of dollars from Wall Street.  This attack will probably be most potent from the Sanders-Warren wing of the party.

As far as the general election, I am not interesting in giving political ammunition to the enemy.

[President Johnson]

She's a hypocrite.

[Politician]

In the primary: Corporate ties and her conservative past
In the general: Comparison to Hillary Clinton (she was appointed to replace Hillary, infact) and Trump's general lines.

[Bacon King]

"being compared to Hillary Clinton" is not going to hurt any Democratic candidate in November 2020 if they're not literally Hillary Clinton

[Blair]

What actually is the comparison to Hillary?

She hasn't deleted 30,000 emails, stood by a philandering (at best) Husband or given private speeches to Wall Street.

If the republicans are going to attack her over that, you bet they'd do the same to Booker/Harris/Biden etc.

[Progressive Pessimist]

Absolutely being compared to Hillary. I mean, she's a blonde Senator from New York, not to mention that she literally replaced Hillary as Senator. The ads will write themselves.

Stuff like this is very shallow but it doesn't mean it won't be a tactic against her. Much like others in this thread have pointed out: her somewhat moderate tenure as a congresswoman could make her look two-faced or inconsistent and her past as a corporate lawyer could also come back to bite her.

[LabourJersey]

It'll mostly be her flip flopping and the philip morris past, but compared to other candidates her obstacles are more on her campaign and the political environment than her demographics/background/policy.

This is also why I think currently she is in my view the likeliest nominee (as in I give her a ~15% chance of getting thru and give everyone else less than 15%)

[Sherrod Brown Shill]

I imagine SNL will have a Democratic debate cold open where she is Hillary in disguise.

[WritOfCertiorari]

I imagine SNL will have a Democratic debate cold open where she is Hillary in disguise.

Okay, that actually sounds hilarious.

[nagami]

subscribed, this seems like a very interesting thread

[ηєω ƒяσηтιєя]

Her centrist voting record and her connection to Hillary.

[henster]

She seems to be only focused on women/feminist issues, will probably turn off male voters. See the dumb the Lehman Sisters comment she made today.

[Da2017]

She seems to be only focused on women/feminist issues, will probably turn off male voters. See the dumb the Lehman Sisters comment she made today.

I've been back and forth on her. Sometimes she's charming.  This remake could open her to karl rove tactics. Her strength on woman's issues could be used against her. It may not that matter considering Trump says outrageous all the time.

[DevinM626]

She seems to be only focused on women/feminist issues, will probably turn off male voters. See the dumb the Lehman Sisters comment she made today.

The Lehman Sisters comment was very, very dumb, but Gillibrand's also been sponsoring a wide range of different policies (national ban on Right To Work, Postal Banking, increased oversight for ICE agents) that could help her appeal to the Democrats' ever-growing progressive base.

[Pandaguineapig]

Can be easily painted as a blatant opprotunist, her "lehman sisters" comment is beyond Hillary-level cringe when it comes to pandering

[Amenhotep Bakari-Sellers]

She's a New Yorker from an Upper Middleclass family like Clinton and she is a woman elist.


Joe Kennedy and Cory Booker can chose Tim Ryan to blunt their elitist statue.

[James Monroe]

America has a misogyny problem, meaning they don't like when women speak out against repellent discrimination. Hillary Clinton spent a career fighting for the disadvantage and got attacked by the media for being a evil feminist. Just think when one of the most outspoken feminist U.S senator runs and brings up the issues again, she's going to face the backlash from Fox News, MRA, and even male swing voters who aren't all that customed to female equality.


With the amazing record she's putting in the senate she'll also faced the harsh flip-flop attacks from the left on gun control and other conservative positions from her house voting record. What's going to be unfair is Gillibrand can be fair game for her own past voting yet Bernie Sanders won't face the same scrutiny for the NRA helping his campaigns, or he raged against immigrants on Lou Dobbs show.

[Chief Justice Keef]

She seems to be only focused on women/feminist issues, will probably turn off male voters. See the dumb the Lehman Sisters comment she made today.

Not really, though. Even though her "Lehman Sisters" comment is cringe-worthy, she was one of the first prominent 2020 contenders to come out for a federal job guarantee.

[UncleSam]

After watching her give a press conference on the Lehman brothers, her public speaking abilities. She’s just not a great or emotive speaker. Maybe it was just an off day but all it takes when running for President is an off day to seriously harm your campaign.

The comparisons to Hillary will hurt badly too, of course. Those are really unfair though and I think a lot of people would see that.

[Mr. Morden]

The comparisons to Hillary will hurt badly too, of course.

I just think you guys are blowing that out of proportion.  When was the last time "This candidate has some resemblance to a previous failed candidate who was unpopular" was an effective line of attack?  It just doesn't work that way.  People make the comparison currently because they don't yet know Gillibrand.  Once she actually runs, she'll have her own identity and people will be focused on the candidates who are actually running at the moment, while Clinton will be forgotten.

Now, you can certainly argue that Gillibrand will be hurt by misogyny because she's a woman, but then the relevant point is that she's a woman, not that she shares that trait with Hillary Clinton.

[Progressive Pessimist]

America has a misogyny problem, meaning they don't like when women speak out against repellent discrimination. Hillary Clinton spent a career fighting for the disadvantage and got attacked by the media for being a evil feminist. Just think when one of the most outspoken feminist U.S senator runs and brings up the issues again, she's going to face the backlash from Fox News, MRA, and even male swing voters who aren't all that customed to female equality.


With the amazing record she's putting in the senate she'll also faced the harsh flip-flop attacks from the left on gun control and other conservative positions from her house voting record. What's going to be unfair is Gillibrand can be fair game for her own past voting yet Bernie Sanders won't face the same scrutiny for the NRA helping his campaigns, or he raged against immigrants on Lou Dobbs show.

Here here! It's a damn shame that this the country we are living in, where we have to account for irrationality in whether we nominate or elect someone with actual productive policy ideas.