Bill Press: The new, populist Clinton

It’s official: Bernie Sanders has his first opponent for the 2016 Democratic presidential nomination.

On Sunday, in the most understated way possible, via YouTube video, Hillary Clinton finally dropped the other shoe. Yes, she’s running for president, which comes as a surprise to no one. 

{mosads}After all, it’s no secret she’s wanted to get back into the White House ever since she walked out of it 15 years ago. Except this time, she wants to be POTUS, not FLOTUS. And in the interim years, she’s added two big credentials to her resume: former United States senator and former U.S. secretary of State; she’s generally recognized as having done an outstanding job for both.

It’s hard to see how anyone could beat Hillary Clinton for the Democratic nomination. But she’s taking nothing for granted. 

To avoid repeating the mistakes of her 2008 campaign for the White House and coming across as the “anointed one,” she’s embarked on a monthlong “listening tour” of small-scale political events in Iowa and New Hampshire, forsaking big speeches in hotel ballrooms for quiet conversations in living rooms and barber shops. “I’m hitting the road to earn your vote,” she said in her video, which immediately triggered 1,000 retweets per minute.

Clinton’s quiet launch is not only a big contrast to the large, traditional, noisy, orchestrated events staged by fellow hopefuls Ted Cruz, Rand Paul and Marco Rubio on the GOP side, it’s also a big difference from her own campaign of 2008. 

Back then, the emphasis was on experience and inevitability. Nobody was more qualified to be president, and nobody had a bigger, badder political machine. The nomination was hers, almost by divine right.

Heading into 2016, it’s just the opposite. Nowhere in her video is there any mention of her time as first lady of Arkansas, first lady of the United States, U.S. senator from New York or secretary of State. In fact, she doesn’t even pop up in her own announcement until halfway through the video, after a representative sample of ordinary Americans have talked about their own future plans, to add, very matter-of-factly: “I’m getting ready to do something, too. I’m running for president.”

Most striking is Clinton’s message about why she’s running. It’s not what one might expect from someone progressives once derided as the “corporate” senator from New York. “Everyday Americans need a champion,” she said. “I want to be that champion.” 

She vowed to stand up for those families who have “fought their way back from tough economic times” yet are still left behind by an economy where “the deck is still stacked in favor of those at the top.” The United States needs to help people “do more than just get by,” but to “get ahead — and stay ahead,” said Clinton. It’s a message that could have been delivered by Bernie Sanders or Elizabeth Warren.

Clinton’s campaign appears to have borrowed a page from Barack Obama: Make the election a choice between one candidate who will fight for the middle class and another who will fight for the top 1 percent. And why not? It worked in 2012. 

Press is host of “The Bill Press Show” on Free Speech TV and author of The Obama Hate Machine.