GOP rivals unload on Hillary

Republican presidential contenders are duking it out over who can best take the fight to Hillary Clinton in 2016.

With Clinton the overwhelming favorite to win the Democratic nomination, the GOP rivals are vying to show voters in Iowa and New Hampshire that they are best equipped for the general election fight to come.

{mosads}While Sen. Marco Rubio (R-Fla.) boasts some clear advantages in drawing a contrast, Republican strategists say most of their potential standard-bearers have an effective line of attack against the former secretary of State.

“I think all of them have an argument to make,” said Florida-based consultant Rick Wilson. “Jeb Bush could make a lot of arguments from the policy perspective. … Marco Rubio draws a contrast by bringing youth and energy and a new direction. … Ted Cruz could make a case against Mrs. Clinton’s technocratic liberalism. And watch Carly Fiorina, who is one of the most gifted critics of Hillary Clinton in the field.”

The jabs at Clinton have been coming with dizzying speed since the launch of her campaign on Sunday.

Cruz, a Texas senator, said she “represents the failed policies of the past.” Former Sen. Rick Santorum (Pa.) slammed her as “aligned” with “corporate interests.” Fiorina, a former Hewlett-Packard CEO, declared Clinton is “not the woman for the White House.” And former Texas Gov. Rick Perry said, “America can’t afford another 4 years of the Obama-Clinton agenda.”

Rubio, who, at 43, is some 24 years Clinton’s junior, sought to grab the mantle of Clinton-slayer in a speech that broadly made the case for a generational change in politics.

The former secretary of State, he said, is “a leader from yesterday … promising to take us back to yesterday. But yesterday is over, and we are never going back.”

Such rhetoric is likely to be a staple of Rubio’s speeches, as he tries to win over skeptics who feel he might be too young and inexperienced to be the Republican nominee.

“For Rubio, there are many contrasts you could draw,” said Julian Zelizer, a professor of history and public affairs at Princeton University. “There is the generational argument: He can make the case that he is the candidate for the 21st century, and that he came of age in the 1980s and 90s, whereas she is from the 1960s. And obviously, there is his immigrant background.”

Rubio has not had the field to himself. In the hours before Clinton announced her candidacy, Sen. Rand Paul (R-Ky.) released a cable TV ad criticizing her as the personification of “the Washington machine.”

Next to that, Bush’s remark, made that same day, that “we can do better” than the former first lady seemed comparatively mild.

But experts say the comment is indicative of the likely Bush strategy. Given his family history, it would be difficult for the former Florida governor to portray his candidacy as a fresh start. Instead, he can make the case that he is most likely to beat Clinton in a general election.

“It’s like Bill Belichick. You might not love him, but he has been to the Super Bowl before, and he’s won. It’s the same thing with Jeb,” said David Woodard, a Republican consultant in South Carolina who is also a political science professor at Clemson University. The Bushes, he added, “do understand what running for president actually involves.”

Republican voters looking to identify their party’s strongest candidate against Clinton are getting precious little help from opinion polls. Most polls of hypothetical head-to-head races show her winning while revealing few meaningful differences between various Republican opponents.

A CNN poll last month, for example, showed Clinton with leads of 15 percentage points over Bush and Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker, 14 percentage points over former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee, 13 points over Rubio and 11 points over Paul.

Republicans brush off those numbers, arguing they reflect little more than name recognition at this stage of the race. They also suggest Clinton has little more room to grow her support, having been a national figure for decades, whereas newer Republican figures have significant upside.

“Hillary Clinton is universally known, which is both an advantage and a disadvantage,” said Craig Robinson, a former political director of the Republican Party of Iowa. “It’s not all that exciting. She has had two presidential campaigns with her husband, and now this is her second on her own. There is not a lot new to be learned about her.”

But if Republicans are united in their distaste for Clinton, they are divided on the point of whether attacks against her can go too far.

Paul last year raised the Monica Lewinsky affair, accusing former President Clinton of “predatory behavior.” In February of this year, the social media site Pinterest removed a Hillary Clinton parody page that had been erected by Paul.

Woodard argued Republicans have to bear in mind the gender dynamics of attacking Clinton.

“It’s still a boy beating up on a girl, to use the playground analogy,” he said. “I think it hurts because everybody gets a certain amount of grace for having the guts to get out there.”

Not so, insisted Wilson, the Florida strategist.

“Every Democrat has spent the last eight years screaming that every criticism of Barack Obama was racist. Now, every criticism of Hillary will be seen as sexist. It doesn’t matter what Republicans say: ‘The sky is blue.’ ‘Sexist!’ Blah, blah, blah.”