Trouble For Hillary

 

Barack Obama said that he was pretty much done campaigning and that, while he was not on the midterm ballot, every single one of  his policies would be. Republicans, rightfully so, ran with this. Obama is an unpopular President who has failed to live up to his own promises, ones only deities can deliver (receding sea levels, planet healing). He has all but failed to provide the leadership he claimed was so sorely lacking in the country and around the world during George W. Bush’s eight years.

Candidates distanced themselves from Obama, who also distanced himself from them, opting in the closing weeks of the elections to remain largely in the background, campaigning for governors and fundraising in living rooms, closed to the press.

But what is being hailed as a coffin nail in the policies of this disastrous administration was also a coming-out party, a reemergence of the Dems’ great white hope for 2016. This was the official dusting off of candidate Hillary Clinton and her former President house boy. While Barack Obama continued to limp into the midterms and to the end of his presidency, both Clintons were just getting started.

Pryor Bill

Grandma and the Party Boy barnstormed across the country working what their adoring media has trademarked “Clinton Magic”. While Democratic candidates couldn’t afford to be seen with the unpopular President, they were crawling all over themselves to have the former President and the all-but-assured 2016 nominee appear with them.

If Hillary could swoop into campaign stops and hold the US Senate for the Democrats, 2016 and a Bill Clinton third term would be a lock. No arguments.

The Clintons, all too happy to reclaim the party for themselves in preparation for a 2016 coronation, appeared alongside Senate candidates Bruce Braley, Kay Hagan, Mark Udall, Michelle Nunn, Mark Pryor, and Alison Lundergan Grimes (who paid almost $20,000 to personally fly Hillary to Kentucky in the final days of the campaign)

On top of stumping for Senate candidates, the Clintons made rally appearances for gubernatorial candidates Pat Quinn, Mark Schaur, Anthony Brown, Mike Ross, Charlie Crist, and Mary Burke.

All of them were defeated.

HILLARY_CAMPGAIN

2014 was the official roll out of Hillary 2016 and the Clinton machine. The operation is supposed to be impervious come 2016 — yet it couldn’t swing a single important race for the Democrats.

A rejuvenated and young Republican party sent women, African-Americans, and a gay man to elected office and suddenly Democrats behind Hillary look tired, white, and old. The media, anxious to pivot away from their failed demi-God to their rusty old idol, are left trying to cobble together a narrative in which Hillary is still the answer.

You can bet Elizabeth Warren and Kirsten Gillibrand have been getting desperate phone calls since Tuesday night.

The only choice for network media is to present elder statesman Hillary as the only person who stands in the way of full Republican control of the government in 2016. All of a sudden, the media will be in love with checks and balances. We can’t afford to turn the country back over to the party of George W. Bush, after all.

Hillary herself is going to try to convince the country that the only way forward is to go back 25 years. Right now, it seems that bylined activists are the only people on board with this idea. Just as with Obama, there is a contingent of journalists out there willing to sacrifice any notion of professional credibility for the ability to write “First Woman President” or perhaps even land a position in another historic administration (See Maggie Haberman’s resume-tuning at Politico).

That doesn’t seem to matter much to a restive electorate. The country doesn’t see another historic presidency on the horizon. It sees a tired old woman.

We are a country of shiny new objects. We always have been. The hyper-hashtag culture that dominates our interactions has only accentuated that and it’s not going to wait around for a 70-year-old woman to catch up. Hillary’s plan was to campaign on both the oppression and empowerment of women worldwide by citing how great the policies of her husband 25 years ago were. War on Women. War on Minorities. Gone.

Hillary is right about one thing: We are at the dawn of an age of female empowerment. The only problem for her is that the majority of those women are all newly-elected Republicans.

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  1. user_517406 Inactive
    user_517406
    @MerinaSmith

    I agree. The nation is so over the Clintons.  This election should underscore that truth.  Bring on  Elizabeth Warren, faux Native American school Marm.  That should go well.

    • #1
  2. Leigh Inactive
    Leigh
    @Leigh

    So how many Democratic Senators are doing this math today and calculating that the time has come for Hillary to have a challenger?

    • #2
  3. Roberto Inactive
    Roberto
    @Roberto

    Leigh:So how many Democratic Senators are doing this math today and calculating that the time has come for Hillary to have a challenger?

    Forget Senators, Cumo was probably the only Democrat smiling following Tuesday’s rout. The Clinton’s failure on such a scale suddenly makes his quixotic campaign to be the nominee look viable.

    • #3
  4. Leigh Inactive
    Leigh
    @Leigh

    Roberto:

    Leigh:So how many Democratic Senators are doing this math today and calculating that the time has come for Hillary to have a challenger?

    Forget Senators, Cumo was probably the only Democrat smiling following Tuesday’s rout. The Clinton’s failure on such a scale suddenly makes his quixotic campaign to be the nominee look viable.

    Oh, I meant to mention him too.  But some percentage of the United States Senate is always thinking about running for President, and I can’t imagine that a few of them aren’t thinking about it a little harder than they were last week.

    Though every Democratic Senator is either a first-termer or the Deciding Vote for Obamacare.

    So, the Democratic options:  Hillary Clinton, Joe Biden, some first-term Senator, some Obamacare voter, some small-blue-state governor no one in Iowa has ever heard of, Mark Dayton, Jerry Brown, or Andrew Cuomo.

    Yes, starts to look reasonable for Cuomo.

    • #4
  5. user_138562 Moderator
    user_138562
    @RandyWeivoda

    Leigh:So, the Democratic options: Hillary Clinton, Joe Biden, some first-term Senator, some Obamacare voter, some small-blue-state governor no one in Iowa has ever heard of, Mark Dayton, Jerry Brown, or Andrew Cuomo.

    Yes, starts to look reasonable for Cuomo.

    At lunch today I saw on  TV that Bernie Sanders, yes the aging Socialist from Vermont, is thinking of running for president.  Frankly, I think it would be amusing to see Sanders and Elizabeth Warren debate each other.  Clinton vs. Biden, too.

    • #5
  6. Fricosis Guy Listener
    Fricosis Guy
    @FricosisGuy

    I think by now everyone realizes that Bill was the one with the talent. Hillary was a semi-competent grind at best.

    Now she’s a disengaged has-been.

    • #6
  7. Quinn the Eskimo Member
    Quinn the Eskimo
    @

    People forget that even during the 1990s, the Clintons were never particularly good at campaigning for anyone but themselves.

    I still think two years is a long time.  Hillary’s problem is that she was a part of the administration and Obama appears to be doubling down on failure for his last two years, which makes it hard to separate herself from him.

    • #7
  8. gts109 Inactive
    gts109
    @gts109

    Let’s try to keep this under wraps. I don’t want to doom Hillary’s primary run before it’s even started.

    • #8
  9. Quinn the Eskimo Member
    Quinn the Eskimo
    @

    gts109:Let’s try to keep this under wraps. I don’t want to doom Hillary’s primary run before it’s even started.

    It’s OK.  Hillary is as inevitable today as she was this time in 2006.

    • #9
  10. x Inactive
    x
    @CatoRand

    Leigh:

    Roberto:

    Leigh:So how many Democratic Senators are doing this math today and calculating that the time has come for Hillary to have a challenger?

    Forget Senators, Cumo was probably the only Democrat smiling following Tuesday’s rout. The Clinton’s failure on such a scale suddenly makes his quixotic campaign to be the nominee look viable.

    Oh, I meant to mention him too. But some percentage of the United States Senate is always thinking about running for President, and I can’t imagine that a few of them aren’t thinking about it a little harder than they were last week.

    Though every Democratic Senator is either a first-termer or the Deciding Vote for Obamacare.

    So, the Democratic options: Hillary Clinton, Joe Biden, some first-term Senator, some Obamacare voter, some small-blue-state governor no one in Iowa has ever heard of, Mark Dayton, Jerry Brown, or Andrew Cuomo.

    Yes, starts to look reasonable for Cuomo.

    Cuomo would make me a little nervous.  I’ve long been convinced that any of half a dozen or more Republicans should beat Hillary, and that the Dems alternatives to her were few and un-electable (Biden, Warren).  But Cuomo’s a pretty sane and serious guy with a pretty centrist record in New York.  He could give us a general election with some actual substance and depending on how the chips fall, could threaten a win.

    • #10
  11. profdlp Inactive
    profdlp
    @profdlp

    Leigh:So how many Democratic Senators are doing this math today and calculating that the time has come for Hillary to have a challenger?

    Eight or nine fewer of them than there were a few days ago.

    • #11
  12. otherdeanplace@yahoo.com Member
    otherdeanplace@yahoo.com
    @EustaceCScrubb

    But…but…Yahoo news told me Hillary won Tuesday.

    • #12
  13. Rightfromthestart Coolidge
    Rightfromthestart
    @Rightfromthestart

    Cato Rand:

    Leigh:

    Roberto:

    Leigh:So how many Democratic Senators are doing this math today and calculating that the time has come for Hillary to have a challenger?

    Forget Senators, Cumo was probably the only Democrat smiling following Tuesday’s rout. The Clinton’s failure on such a scale suddenly makes his quixotic campaign to be the nominee look viable.

    Oh, I meant to mention him too. But some percentage of the United States Senate is always thinking about running for President, and I can’t imagine that a few of them aren’t thinking about it a little harder than they were last week.

    Though every Democratic Senator is either a first-termer or the Deciding Vote for Obamacare.

    So, the Democratic options: Hillary Clinton, Joe Biden, some first-term Senator, some Obamacare voter, some small-blue-state governor no one in Iowa has ever heard of, Mark Dayton, Jerry Brown, or Andrew Cuomo.

    Yes, starts to look reasonable for Cuomo.

    Cuomo would make me a little nervous. I’ve long been convinced that any of half a dozen or more Republicans should beat Hillary, and that the Dems alternatives to her were few and un-electable (Biden, Warren). But Cuomo’s a pretty sane and serious guy with a pretty centrist record in New York. He could give us a general election with some actual substance and depending on how the chips fall, could threaten a win.

    He makes me a little nervous too, would Italians vote for him because there’s never been an Italian President? However he looks like a gangster, I think it’s Sean Hannity  who refers to him as ‘evil eyes’ Cuomo. Also he has no wife, just a live-in girlfriend , he used to be married to a Kennedy so he doesn’t have access to their magic annulment machine. Like his father he claims to be a Catholic while being pro abortion and at the same time he can’t get a divorce. I don’t know if all that would fly in the wider country.

    • #13
  14. Leigh Inactive
    Leigh
    @Leigh

    profdlp:

    Leigh:So how many Democratic Senators are doing this math today and calculating that the time has come for Hillary to have a challenger?

    Eight or nine fewer of them than there were a few days ago.

    Nine or ten.  Mark Warner could’ve made a reasonable case: popular former governor from a purple state, etc.  His near-death experience probably squashes any such idea, if it existed.

    I’ve been slightly nervous about Andrew Cuomo at the back of my mind for a while, without really knowing enough about him to be sure it’s justified.  But he seems like the most successful big-state governor the Democrats have around.

    • #14
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