Expect a nearly constant emphasis on leaving a better country to voters’ children and grandchildren. Mrs. Clinton will weave in her own experiences as a mother and grandmother to try to persuade voters that she is best positioned to address income inequality and to aid the middle class. Her economic message will highlight issues that resonate with women in particular, including a higher minimum wage, paid family and medical leave, early childhood education, and affordable child care.
More than any other Republican candidate, Mr. Bush is running a campaign geared toward the general election. On immigration, he has refused to back off his support for a pathway to legal status for the undocumented. This stance may turn off elements of the Republican base, but Mr. Bush and his advisers believe that to retreat on the issue would all but ensure another general-election defeat. More broadly, Mr. Bush is trying to refashion his older brother’s “compassionate conservatism” as an aspirational brand of Republican politics tailored for an era of declining social mobility.
Mr. Carson has not yet laid out detailed policy proposals. As a physician, he is most informed and passionate about issues relating to health care. On culture and foreign policy he is a traditional conservative. But his broader appeal to the right is in his identity: a renowned doctor with a Horatio Alger story who is critical of a federal government he sees as encouraging dependency. He is prone to inflammatory language and verbal miscues, which could turn off potential supporters wanting to nominate a candidate who can win the general election.
Mr. Paul likes to say he is beholden to no party, and he criticizes Republicans almost as often as he does President Obama. Both parties, he says, have led the country down a ruinous path that has deprived Americans of their civil liberties and jeopardized future generations’ financial and personal security. To younger, less staunchly Republican crowds, he often says, “What you do on your cellphone is none of the government’s damn business” – a line that sharply distinguishes him from his rivals. To conservatives, he laments the growth in federal spending and what he calls an unprecedented power grab by the Obama administration in bypassing Congress to issue regulations on everything from the environment to national security.