POLITICS

Hillary Clinton to Show More Humor and Heart, Aides Say

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Hillary Rodham Clinton on Monday at the Annual Hawkeye Labor Council A.F.L.-C.I.O. Labor Day picnic in Cedar Rapids, Iowa. David Greedy/Getty Images 
There will be no more flip jokes about her private email server. There will be no rope lines to wall off crowds, which added to an impression of aloofness. And there will be new efforts to bring spontaneity to a candidacy that sometimes seems wooden and overly cautious.
Hillary Rodham Clinton declared her campaign for president nearly five months ago, before the startling rise of Senator Bernie Sanders, the volcanic candidacy of Donald J. Trump and the very public exploration of another White House run by Vice President Joseph R. Biden Jr.
In extensive interviews by telephone and at their Brooklyn headquarters last week, Mrs. Clinton’s strategists acknowledged missteps — such as their slow response to questions about her email practices — and promised that this fall the public would see the sides of Mrs. Clinton that are often obscured by the noise and distractions of modern campaigning.
They want to show her humor. The self-effacing kind (“The hair is real, the color isn’t,” she said of her blond bob recently, taking note of Mr. Trump.) has played better than her sarcastic retorts, such as when she asked if wiping a computer server was done “with a cloth.”

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They want to show her heart, like the time she comforted former drug addicts in a school meeting room in New Hampshire.
And, to soothe Democrats uneasy about her shaky poll numbers, they want her to relentlessly contrast herself with Republicans, saying she is at her best when showing willingness to do battle.
“The true game changer is when there’s a personified opponent,” said her communications director, Jennifer Palmieri.
It is not clear whether any of these efforts can help Mrs. Clinton revamp her candidacy and regain momentum amid persistent questions about her use of a private email server at the State Department and an electorate in the early nominating states that seems increasingly captivated by the insurgent candidacy of Mr. Sanders.
Previous attempts to introduce Mrs. Clinton’s softer side to voters have backfired amid criticism that the efforts seemed overly poll tested. This time the strategy will compete with news coverage on the latest developments over her email.
“The same force and energy that is giving a lift to Donald Trump is dooming Hillary Clinton, and that is authenticity,” said Eric Fehrnstrom, a Republican strategist and former aide to Mitt Romney. “Experience does not matter to them. What matters is you appear genuine.”
Several of Mrs. Clinton’s top strategists, speaking from a corner office at the campaign’s Brooklyn headquarters with shabby mix-and-match chairs and expansive views of Manhattan, repeatedly expressed confidence about Mrs. Clinton’s standing, saying that any candidate, Republican or Democrat, would love to trade places with her. Still, the landscape beyond does not seem so sunny, with recent polls showing that an increasing number of voters do not trust Mrs. Clinton or believe she understands their problems.
Even as the interview unfolded, one of Mrs. Clinton’s closest advisers,Cheryl D. Mills, prepared to be questioned by a congressional committee in Washington exploring the 2012 attacks in Benghazi, Libya.
In an ABC News/Washington Post poll released Wednesday, 45 percent of Americans said they had a favorable impression of Mrs. Clinton and 53 percent said they viewed her unfavorably. That is a weakening since July, when 52 percent had a positive view and 45 percent a negative one.
Robby Mook, Mrs. Clinton’s campaign manager, sought to play down the polls’ findings, saying: “Even if you accept the ABC poll, our favorability is higher than any Republican.”
Other changes are in store for the campaign. After a focus group in New Hampshire last month revealed that voters wanted to hear directly from Mrs. Clinton about her email practices, she has sought to offer a more contrite tone, though her detractors say she is still too grudging. (In an interview with The Associated Press on Monday, Mrs. Clinton said she did not need to apologize for using a private email server. “What I did was allowed,” she said. “It was allowed by the State Department. The State Department has confirmed that.”)
While Mrs. Clinton’s central message will remain focused on addressing income inequality and lifting the middle class, she is scrapping the phrase “everyday Americans,” which advisers said was confusing and did not resonate. (One compared it to the Walmart slogan, “everyday low prices.”)
Mrs. Clinton will still evoke the joy brought into her life by her granddaughter, Charlotte, but, given the child’s obvious advantages and privilege, will speak more broadly about building a better future for all Americans’ children and grandchildren.
And former President Bill Clinton, who has had virtually no presence on the campaign trail, will begin to travel the country to help with fund-raising this fall, with his first event planned for Chicago on Sept. 17.
Democrats have expressed concern that in some ways, the often reserved former first lady, senator and secretary of state does not seem aligned with the mood of the electorate this cycle, with voters flocking to anti-establishment firebrands like Mr. Sanders and Mr. Trump. Her campaign strategists, however, believe voters’ frustration stems from a sense that Washington is not working for them, and not necessarily with the establishment.
Ms. Palmieri summed up the theme, repeating a line Mrs. Clinton had first offered last month: “She said ‘I want to be the president who addresses the problems in the headlines and the ones that keep you up at night.”’

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Next month has two big tests for Mrs. Clinton. The first Democratic debate is Oct. 13, putting her on stage alongside Mr. Sanders and other candidates eager to tangle with her. And scrutiny of Mrs. Clinton’s private email use will intensify as she prepares to testify before the House Select Committee on Benghazi on Oct. 22.
While many of Mrs. Clinton’s aides still contend that the issues surrounding her email are hyped, they also now realize the campaign was too slow to take responsibility for what happened and explain the intricacies clearly.
“Part of this is saying we understand Americans don’t always hear all the facts, and they want to see their candidates saying they made a mistake and being contrite,” said Thomas R. Nides, a former State Department aide and friend to Mrs. Clinton.
The coming months will also be a period of trying to shed her scriptedness, which is not easy for the policy-driven Mrs. Clinton, who in this campaign can easily be upstaged by the celebrity of Mr. Trump and the giant crowds attracted by Mr. Sanders.
On Thursday, Mrs. Clinton will appear on “The Ellen DeGeneres Show,” a program on which she previously participated in a bowl-off against the host. She is also booked as a guest on “The Tonight Show” with Jimmy Fallon, and plans to talk extensively with several nontraditional outlets. The campaign has even tried to make the best out of the private emails released by the State Department, saying details revealed in the messages, like Mrs. Clinton’s TV preferences (“The Good Wife” and “Parks and Recreation”) help humanize her.
Mrs. Clinton will focus on larger events and backyard parties with supporters that allow her to show a more informal side, aides said. Still, Democrats add, there is only so much Mrs. Clinton can do, given her well-known political identity.
“At the end of the day, she is the establishment candidate and she just has to figure out how she wears that,” said Anna Greenberg, a Democratic pollster. “It’s something to navigate. You can’t shed it.”
Asked whether Mrs. Clinton is discouraged by the setbacks she has encountered so far, her strategists argue that the candidate, having been through her husband’s tumultuous presidential campaigns and her own failed effort in 2008, always anticipated trying times and occasional explosions.
“She has developed a thick skin and a very good perspective on how campaigns are going to go and they are long, they are a hard slog and you are going to get attacked,” Ms. Palmieri said.
Whether the blueprint her strategists are preparing will be enough to overcome Mrs. Clinton’s weaknesses is an open question. Some pollsters have pointed to a likability problem with the former first lady, and, in presidential contests, the more likable candidate typically wins.
Still, she is optimistic about her chances and upbeat most of the time, the aides said. Since declaring her candidacy, Mrs. Clinton has embraced a rigorous diet (when staff members set up a mouthwatering spread of barbecue after a stop in Arkansas, she chose to eat just a single tomato), lost significant weight and thrown herself into yoga and weight training, giving her new energy.
Asked about the most powerful moments of the past several months, her strategists pointed to an impromptu exchange about race with an African-American owner of a smoothie stand in Detroit that went largely uncovered by the news media, and the New Hampshire gathering with recovering drug addicts that evolved into something of a therapy session.
“That captured the essence of her leadership style,” Mr. Mook said.
Asked about a moment they regret, Ms. Palmieri paused and then quickly settled on the rope the campaign used to corral reporters at a Fourth of July parade in New Hampshire that became a symbol of Mrs. Clinton’s distance from the small town celebration. A less intrusive rope had also been used to control crowds at other events.
The Brooklyn headquarters, located on the 11th floor of a high-rise, bustled with activity heading into the Labor Day weekend. Young people, sitting on bean bag chairs, worked on their laptops and cellphones. Bags of Hillary-branded snacks, like beet chips, were arrayed in front of a volunteer hall of fame collage.
Mrs. Clinton was not present. The next day, she would end what may be the last vacation she will have for a while, to hit campaign stops in Puerto Rico, New Hampshire and Iowa. Her favorite part of the campaign is talking to voters, her aides said.
“Emails are not what voters are asking her about,” Ms. Palmieri said.