Axelrod Says Authenticity Is Clinton’s Biggest Challenge

Former Obama strategist David Axelrod told the Des Moines Register that Hillary Clinton’s greatest challenge in her presidential bid will be “demonstrating authenticity and an understanding of Americans’ concerns.”

Said Axelrod: “In 2007, her campaign was this juggernaut of inevitability and it was a top-down experience. Voters don’t like to be told that their decision is predetermined… After she lost the Iowa caucuses in 2008, she threw caution off and her vulnerabilities were more obvious and her sense of identification with people’s struggles was more obvious and I think she was a much more effective candidate.”

He added: “The candidate you see in Iowa today is much closer to that candidate, and I think that’s authentically who she is.”