Team Clinton braces for protracted nomination fight

Top aides to Hillary Clinton said Tuesday they’re bracing for a protracted nomination fight.

{mosads}Speaking at a Christian Science Monitor breakfast with reporters, senior policy advisor Jake Sullivan and communications director Jennifer Palmieri said Clinton has a tough road ahead in convincing voters to support her, particularly in Iowa, where a loss to President Obama in the 2008 caucuses badly damaged her.

“We always expected that the Democratic primary is going to be competitive,” said Palmieri. “There is a big tent within our party. As an example, I’d note that in Iowa, no candidate has gotten 50 percent or higher in the caucuses. This will be a fight for the Democratic nomination, and it will be hard to secure it. There are a lot of people Hillary Clinton will need to convince to support her and that’s what we expect will happen.”

Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) has emerged as the primary challenger to Clinton from the left. He has consistently drawn thousands of supporters at campaign stops across the country and has gained on Clinton in the polls in early-voting states such as Iowa and New Hampshire.

Still, in a major economic speech on Monday, Clinton ignored her Democratic challengers and instead attacked the leading Republican contenders, and Jeb Bush in particular.

Clinton aides said this wasn’t because they already have eyes on the general election but rather because they’re worried about the damage they say conservative policies would do to the middle class.

“Whoever emerges on the Republican side will be their strongest candidate, and it will be a formidable challenger if [Clinton] is able to secure the nomination and be the nominee,” Palmieri said. “What we’re looking at with [the Republican candidates] is particular ideas we think are dangerous and emblematic.”

Clinton remains the prohibitive favorite to secure the Democratic nomination, leading by more than 30 points nationally, according to the RealClearPolitics average.

Speaking at the Christian Science Monitor breakfast, the aides repeatedly frustrated reporters by declining to offer specifics on how Clinton views the Obama administration’s nuclear deal with Iran.

Reporter after reporter asked for Clinton’s views on the deal, and whether she was involved recently in the negotiations or had been kept up to speed by government officials.

Sullivan, a Clinton aide from the State Department who played an integral role in getting the negotiations off the ground, would only say that Clinton would address the matter in due course.

He briefly gave his own opinion of the deal but said he didn’t speak on behalf of Clinton.

“I’m in the awkward position of representing the campaign,” Sullivan said. “Stepping outside of that to speak on my own behalf — I believe this deal is the best and most effective way to keep Iran from getting a nuclear weapon. But that’s just my personal view and Secretary Clinton will speak to that later.”

“I will have a torrent of thoughts, reaction and commentary and reflections and anecdotes on the diplomacy to share with everyone at the appropriate time, which is not right at this moment,” he added.

The aides also frustrated reporters by declining to get into further specifics about Clinton’s major economic speech, which only outlined in broad strokes her vision for the country.

“It’s impossible for any of us to write on this if we don’t have more meat on the bones,” one reporter said.

The aides said Clinton’s economic speech was merely the platform for more detailed policy proposals that will come from the candidate over the summer and into the fall.