Sabato’s Crystal Ball: THE HILLARY DILEMMA
June 26th, 2007
By HOLLY IN CINCINNATI
If Joe posted this item while I was out-of-town and I missed it, please let me know.
Despite the breathless media reports about every jot and tittle of the Democratic contest for President, not all that much has changed in the last year. Senator Hillary Clinton (D-NY) has consistently been the frontrunner in national surveys, sometimes by narrow spreads and frequently by sizeable margins. So far she has weathered the entry of Senator Barack Obama (D-IL), a far more charismatic and exciting candidate, and she has held off any sizeable gains by the other two major contenders, former Senator John Edwards (D-NC) and Governor Bill Richardson of New Mexico (D-NM).
The main stumbling block for Clinton has been Iowa, where she continues to trail in the trial heats for the first caucus. But no one else is so well positioned to survive an initial defeat. Arguably, her strongest potential opponents, moderates Senator Evan Bayh (D-IN) and former Governor Mark Warner (D-VA), decided against running, and the other formidable possible candidate, former Vice President Al Gore, is almost certainly not going to run. The other announced Democratic candidates show little sign of breaking out of the pack.
So it’s smooth sailing for Hillary, right? No one questions her intelligence, abilities, policy aptitude, and experience (hey, this would be her third term!) And thanks to the deep unpopularity of President Bush and the Iraq War, won’t any Democrat be favored in 2008? How can the Democrats blow this election, with all their built-in advantages?
Well, the sailing is going to get rough, and those built-in advantages are somewhat illusory. But everything depends on whether Democrats–and the country in general–consider the big picture prior to voting in January and then November. It’s anybody’s guess whether they will.
The Crystal Ball is the first to admit that Clinton is a substantial, maybe heavy early favorite for the nomination. Hillary has become the “woman candidate” in a party strongly influenced by women in its voting base (if not in public office). Her first-tier opponents are also hobbled in various ways. The inexperienced Obama is a relative novice at politics, and many Democrats–including African-American Dems–are worried that America isn’t “ready” for a black President. (Why America would be ready for a woman and not an African American is a mystery to the Crystal Ball.) Edwards was an unimpressive Senator and nominee for Vice President in 2004 who has been unable to shake his image as a “pretty boy.” Richardson has a better resume than all his rivals put together, but this unpolished performer has been unable to break through in fundraising or the debates.
Moreover, the yearning among the public for the end of President Bush’s reign is palpable, and it may simply be impossible to stop any Democratic ticket in November 2008. Put aside Democratic antipathy toward Bush; most Independents and many Republicans aren’t listening to Bush anymore, and that’s a big problem for him and his party. As political scientist Richard Neustadt wrote in 1960, the essential presidential power is “the power to persuade.” A Chief Executive has no chance to persuade if few are paying attention. A President’s party has little chance to win if the public is so soured on an administration that it seeks mainly to punish the incumbent in an election. To top it off, the GOP electorate appears deeply divided among four major candidates (Rudy Giuliani, John McCain, Mitt Romney, and Fred Thompson) and generally dissatisfied and unenthusiastic about their choices–another effect of the “Bush depression” among Republicans.
Yet Hillary Clinton has her own unique set of difficulties, and neither her party nor the general electorate has focused on them in a comprehensive way. Let’s take a look:
This entry was posted on Tuesday, June 26th, 2007 at 3:41 pm and is filed under Democratic Party, Hillary Clinton, 2008 Elections, Politics. Both comments and pings are currently closed.
