“People are helpless and frustrated; there’s a clear set of problems that are only getting worse and no one’s doing anything about it,” said Robby Mook, Hillary Clinton’s campaign manager, at a forum sponsored by the Washington Post in downtown Philadelphia this afternoon.
Lest you think Mook was suddenly persuaded by Donald Trump’s convention speech, his comment came in the context of a sales pitch that Clinton could soothe the intense partisan divide in Washington.
“What voters need to examine is whether [the next president] is going to make partisan gridlock better or worse,” Mook said. “Talking about her record of accomplishments counts for a lot.”
He contended, “Donald Trump will only make partisan gridlock worse.” (This prediction assumes Trump has a lot more loyalty to the Republican Party and its traditional agenda than he has demonstrated so far.)
One of the most intriguing comments from Mook came when he was asked which three states he found to be most key to winning in November.
“Florida, Ohio and then I would argue North Carolina is more completive,” Mook said. “It’s looking more like 2008 than in 2012. We have a shot at winning it. I’m not saying we’re going to [win], but we have a real shot.”
Three of the last four polls in North Carolina have Clinton with a narrow lead in the Tarheel State. Mitt Romney won the state by 2 percent in 2012, Obama won by three-tenths of a percentage point in 2008.
Clinton’s Manager Mook: The Big Three Are Florida, Ohio, and North Carolina