Who's the most strategic of them all?

Clinton

Hillary Clinton is an obvious strategist. She does what is popular in order to gather the most votes both in the electorate and in the primaries. She follows along party lines, and in some cases tends to be more left than the electorate would choose to be; for example, her health care plan. She has been known to be a flip flopper, especially in cases such as the Iraq war where she once supported it and now speaks against it.

Her campaign image is that she cares for everyone; she's everyone's best friend. She wants to be protrayed as the serious politician that is working to make America a better and happier place. I would say that this is actually a very well planned route to go. She knows when to put her foot down and act tough on issues such as healthcare, while at the same time being very motherly and friendly with opposition, as we all saw in the debate where all of the candidates attacked her. In that debate, instead of being nasty, she responded politely while still making her stance known. I think this is a smart move because her compassion will reach the hearts of Americans, though I'm not sure its enough to get her elected.

As far as electability... I think that in the primary she has very high electability because she has raised a lot of money, she has support from the electorate in polls, and she supports the Democratic party platform. I believe the party sees her as the strongest candidate with the highest chance of being elected president. In the electorate I think she is electable, though she may not be the candidate with the highest electability. I believe because of her flip flopping, many American's see her as going with popular policy rather than setting her own agenda; I believe that this will hurt her chance of being elected president. Also, her far left views on healthcare may also hurt her because, as we've discussed in class, the electorate prefers moderate policy choices.

Giuliani

Rudy is more of a purist than a strategist. His stance on abortion and gay marriage contradicts that of his party, but he is very vocal on his beliefs anyway. He is a policy seeker, even if that costs him the party nomination. He is running under the Conservative platform, but could easily run as a third party candidate because of his social stances. He understands that being part of a major party is crucial to being elected president in our system, so he chooses to run under the Conservative platform while still maintaining his moderate policies.

Giuliani has been doing a great job of building his image around 9/11. To many American's he is responsible for rebuilding the infrastructure and economy of New York post September 11. His image is also very moderate. He is fiscally conservative but more moderate, or even liberal, as far as social issues are concerned. His image is very independent of his party, and very individualistic compared to the rest of the candidates running as conservatives.

Because of his policy stances, I believe that Rudy has a very high electability in the electorate, but not such a high electability in the primary. The Republican party, especialy the Religious Right, is very oppossed to his stance on abortion and gay marriage. Some have even gone as far to say it is better to lose the election and stand by their policy than win an election and lose their platform and ideals. His moderation is very popular in the electorate, but not so much in the party. However, the party may also recognize his popularity and see this as their best option to keep the Republican party in control of the executive branch.

http://www.cnn.com/ELECTION/2008/candidates/hillary.clinton.html

http://www.cnn.com/ELECTION/2008/candidates/rudy.giuliani.html