Hillary will survive her email woes, but scandals serve as tests that show the strengths and weaknesses of politicians. What the email scandal showed is that Hillary lacks her husbands breezy ability to weather political outrage. Instead her paranoia and resentment combine to make her scandals worse.
Democrats are looking for inspiration, but Hillary couldnt whip up inspiration on a very special episode of Oprah. The petty resentment that Obama camouflages under a likeable exterior is out in the open.
Thats why the media doesnt like her. Hillary doesnt pretend to inspire. Shes running to win.
Obama could have been using a private email server out of Tehran and the media would have dismissed it as a non-issue. Hillary Clinton however is in the middle of a slap fight with the media. The email scandal is a warning that she wont have a free ride to the nomination. If she wins it, the press corps will protect and serve her. But not until then. And if she falls, the Democratic Party is in big trouble.
Democrats dont have a lot of non-Hillary options. While the left is pining for Elizabeth Warren to run, and the medias sudden enthusiasm for Hillarys emails was prompted by Warrens hesitancy in even expressing any real interest in running as long as Hillary is inevitable, Warren 2016 remains a fantasy.
Outside the lefts fever swamps, Elizabeth Warren has low name recognition. Name recognition is the only way that Hillary Clinton got this far and Warren has even less charisma than Hillary Clinton. A speech by Warren feels like a lecture. Her public persona careens from outraged to befuddled. Her only advantage is that most people dont think that she looks like the rich lawyer that she actually is, but thats because she reminds them of a sour librarian scolding those darn kids making noise in the stacks.
Warrens routine, fake outrage at the banks that fund her political movement, got old a while back. And shell have to tone even the fake outrage down if she wants cash from Warren Buffett. Her only possible reason to run is that if turnout for her next election follows the usual pattern, especially if a Democrat squats in the White House, she may not even be able to keep her seat in the Senate.
While the lefts skill at building a cult of personality around someone you wouldnt trust to wash your car shouldnt be underestimated, getting Elizabeth Warren elected tested their limits in Massachusetts. If the Democratic Party gets tied to Warren, it will be betting that it can sell four more years of Obama with Jimmy Carter in a skirt. It would have a better shot at bringing back Dukakis riding in a tank. And nominating yet another Massachusetts Democrat whose last name isnt Kennedy is a suicide mission for a party that already crashed and burned with Dukakis and Kerry.
But without Warren or Clinton, the slate looks even worse.
For those on the hard left, theres always Bernie Sanders quixotic campaign to lose to anybody and everybody. Sanders recently said that Obamas mistake was sitting down and talking to Republicans. Thats like running against Stalin on a platform of more Gulags.
Martin OMalley, a Maryland governor best known for his rain tax, is still waiting in the wings, either to run for president or to get his ObamaCare site working. If Hillary has to back out, hes the most likely to emerge as a consensus candidate, not because hes done anything to deserve it, but because hes the only Democrat below retirement age who wants the job and doesnt rant aimlessly at the camera.
Under Obama, Marylands bedroom communities became a hive of fabulously wealthy government contractors and employees who want to keep on robbing Americans blind. If Hillary stumbles, he wont lack for donors. He will however lack for less crucial items such as a personality and accomplishments.
OMalley jumped on the ObamaCare bandwagon early and often. He came away with a trainwreck, having to entirely scrap his exchange site. Tax increases, including the rain tax, didnt do much to endear him to anyone in Maryland.
6 out of 10 Maryland Democrats say that OMalley would not make a good president. If he doesnt have their support, whose support does he have?
That leaves Jim Webb, a man of unpredictable politics who is loathed by much of the left and ignored by nearly everyone else. Webb might be able to win over some of the working class whites that the party has lost, but the same left that thinks Hillary is practically a Republican and that Obama panders too much to the GOP, would do everything possible to stop him if he ever became a real threat.
Webb could go left. Hes already pushing the lefts income inequality meme in his campaign, but hes stiff and awkward on that
and on everything else. Barring a major national security crisis in which the Democrats suddenly need someone with credibility who can do the tough talk without a teleprompter, he isnt likely to rise to the top or even get noticed. Think of Wesley Clark and then forget about him. Discounting wild cards, like ex-losers Al Gore and John Kerry trying to mount a comeback, or Vermin Supremes candidacy suddenly catching fire (hes running on a platform of fully funding time travel) that just leaves the Democratic Party with Joe Biden.
Yes, Joe Biden.
Biden is good on the campaign trail (and nowhere else) as long as you ignore his inappropriate outbursts and strange behavior. He is also the only non-Clinton candidate in the race with name recognition. Considering that less than half of Democrats know that the earth revolves around the sun, assuming that they can recognize a candidate based on his or her body of work is excessively optimistic.
Biden is nothing if not memorable. And hes been chomping at the bit. He didnt take the second banana gig to wander aimlessly around the White House. If Hillary stays in, the real fight will be between these two miserable remnants of a failed administration squabbling over the nomination like two mangy dogs fighting over a lost hot dog. If Hillary drops out, Joe Biden immediately becomes the pack leader. Thats when the left will pull out all the stops to get Elizabeth Warren into the race, which shell lose.
The Democratic Partys non-Hillary option is Joe Biden. If the Republican Party fails to get its act together, Biden is also Americas non-Hillary option.
Biden has too many obvious and glaring flaws for the Democrats to let him beat Hillary, but without Hillary, its going to have a hard time keeping him from dominating a list of obscure candidates. Write off Hillary and the left unites behind Elizabeth Warren, the rest jump behind Martin OMalley and the media has to go into overdrive to try and destroy Biden before he becomes their partys nominee.
Either that or they embrace him.
Joe Biden may be a joke, but so is every candidate running. Hillary Clinton is Evita without the sense of style. Elizabeth Warren is a rich lawyer and academic inveighing against the 1 percent. Martin OMalley had a rain tax. Bernie Sanders is the left-wing alternative that not even the left wants. Al Gore appears to be flirting with yet another presidential run. Biden may be a joke, but at least he knows it.
Biden thinks that he can get the minority vote by riding in on Obamas coattails and polls suggest that he may be right. On a campaign trail against Bill Clinton, he would lose, but hell be campaigning against the same Hillary who was responsible for that awkward and uncomfortable UN email press conference.
And the media likes Biden. It hasnt fallen in love with him as their new messiah, but it will accept him a lot faster than it will accept Hillary Clinton.
Bidens loose lips are a liability, but they have yet to cost him anything. His embarrassing debate behavior and any ridiculous thing he says have become part of his brand. By linking his fortune to Obama, Biden became bulletproof. As a running joke, hes immune from any standards of behavior.
And the real joke is that Biden may end up having the last laugh from the Oval Office.