The Best Way to Vilify Clinton? G.O.P. Spends Heavily to Test It JULY 11, 2015 ORLANDO, Fla. — Inside an office park here, about a dozen women gathered to watch a 30-second television spot that opened with Hillary Rodham Clinton looking well-coiffed and aristocratic, toasting champagne with her tuxedoed husband, the former president, against a golden-hued backdrop. The ad then cut to Mrs. Clinton describing being “dead broke” when she and her husband left the White House, before a narrator intoned that Mrs. Clinton makes more money in a single speech, about $300,000, than an average family earns in five years. The message hit a nerve. “She’s out of touch,” said one of the women, who works as a laundry attendant. “Her reality is just so different than mine,” murmured another, as operatives from American Crossroads, a Republican “super PAC,” watched closely from behind a one-way mirror. In rooms like this one around the country, an expensive and sophisticated effort is underway to test and refine the most potent lines of attack against Mrs. Clinton, and, ultimately, to persuade Americans that she does not deserve their votes. While the general election is 16 months away, Republican groups are eager to begin building a powerful case against the woman they believe will be the Democratic nominee, and to infuse the public consciousness with those messages. The effort could ultimately cost several hundred million dollars, given the variety and volume of political organizations involved. The typical voter has not necessarily fully tuned in to election coverage or followed the intricacies of Mrs. Clinton’s use of a private email account or foreign donations to her family’s foundation. But Republicans are acutely aware that early attacks labeling Mitt Romney as elitist were impossible for him to shake in 2012, and they view these next several months as critical in laying the groundwork to taint, and ultimately defeat, Mrs. Clinton. That is why, on a rainy night here, Crossroads, which was founded by the Republican strategist Karl Rove, gathered about 50 voters representing groups that it believes can be persuaded to vote against Mrs. Clinton — an all-white mix of young men, low-income adults, married mothers and politically moderate women. [...] Right to Rise, a super PAC supporting former Gov. Jeb Bush of Florida, recently held its own briefing for Republican groups to highlight data it gathered from its own focus groups and polling of women, information that can be used in attacks against Mrs. Clinton. It stressed that Mrs. Clinton’s “dead broke” comments were particularly devastating, as were her deleted emails, though they required more explanation. Though the Clintons were in fact dealing with debt and legal fees when they left the White House, Mrs. Clinton later called her comments “inartful [ http://www.nytimes.com/aponline/2014/06/25/us/politics/ap-us-hillary-clinton.html ].” [...] Republicans could hardly hide their giddiness when Mrs. Clinton made her “dead broke” remark last year. To many in the political world, the comment evoked Mr. Romney’s misstep at a 2012 fund-raiser where he said “47 percent” of Americans were overly dependent on government. Long before Mr. Romney made that comment, Priorities USA Action, the Democratic super PAC, had devoted months to portraying the Republican candidate as “a plutocrat who doesn’t care about people like you,” said Bill Burton, a Priorities co-founder. “The best thing you can do is set the table for a key vulnerability and hope the candidate lives up to the hype, which they likely will do,” Mr. Burton said. In Orlando, the “dead broke” ad emerged as the most effective spot, partly because it captured the gulf between Mrs. Clinton’s life and those of the less affluent people gathered. “She’s broke at another level,” said one man, who owns an electrical company and makes less than $50,000 annually. “She could be broke, you know, compared to the people in her world. O.K., in her status. ‘Oh, my God, I can’t buy a jet this year — we’re broke, we’re not going to Europe, sorry.’ ” [...] http://www.nytimes.com/2015/07/12/us/the-best-way-to-vilify-clinton-gop-spends-heavily-to-test-it.html
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