Posted on 05/07/2015 1:16:23 PM PDT by Reno89519
Let's be honest with ourselves for a second: This is Hillary Clinton's election to lose.
On Nov. 8, 2016, Clinton will start — start — with a minimum 247 of the 270 electoral votes she needs to win. If you give her Colorado and Virginia — which many political strategists would, given the Hispanic population in one and the rising influence of the northern-centered population in the other — she'll start with 269. That means Clinton doesn't need Ohio or Florida. She just needs one small state like Iowa, Nevada or New Hampshire to put her over the edge. And because she's got a boatload of money and no viable primary challenger, she'll have plenty of time and resources to lock up at least one of those states.
In order to shift the map, the Republican nominee would have to find a way to win Colorado and/or Virginia. That means winning over Hispanics, which will be a difficult task for a nominee who has spent a months-long primary trying to win over the conservative grass roots. It also means winning over enough members of Virginia's white working class to counter the more populated liberal-urban centers in the north. Not impossible, of course, but hard.
Unless ... unless one of two things happens: 1. The Republicans build an Obama 2008-level narrative around their nominee, significantly broadening their candidate's appeal to independents and Democrats. 2. Some legitimate controversy, historic stumble, unconscionable error or jaw-dropping gaffe completely reorients the way voters view Hillary Clinton.
As of now, the first option seems unlikely. Republicans have not produced a candidate who looks poised to pull off a "hope and change"-style campaign, despite Marco Rubio's attempt to brand himself as the candidate for a "new American century." The second option would require a controversy or error so major — and legitimate — that it didn't go away. Such a controversy would have to be far bigger than a secret email account or questionable Clinton Foundation donations. The inconsequence of those stories can be seen in the latest New York Times/CBS News poll, which found that "Americans now view Mrs. Clinton more favorably and more see her as a strong leader than they did earlier in the year, despite weeks of scrutiny about her ethics."
The conventional wisdom among Clinton's supporters is that Clinton is invincible, because she has already weathered all the storms of media scrutiny. She has been in the public eye for 25 years and endured countless controversies, from Whitewater to Lewinsky to Benghazi. The book has been thrown at her, and the book lost.
This argument overlooks two important factors: First, the national media have never been more primed to take down Hillary Clinton (and, by the same token, elevate a Republican candidate). Even before she announced her presidential bid, The New York Times alone had published more than 40 articles related to her private email account, spurring other stories across the national print, digital and television media. Since announcing her bid, the national media have spent the bulk of their time investigating potential lines of influence between Clinton Foundation donations/speaking fees and Clinton's actions as secretary of state. The Times, The Washington Post and others even struck deals for early access to anti-Clinton research.
Second, the media environment is radically different from the 1990s or even the 2000s. The power and volume of social media means that controversies can be both disseminated and elevated to unprecedented levels. In today's media environment, nothing with even a whiff of gunpowder comes across the transom without blowing up, because blowing stuff up is what the media do. Or, as Daniel Henninger notes in today's Wall Street Journal, the "electronic elements have reached critical mass ... [and] the new political media that will drive the 2016 presidential contest are like the surface of the oceans — huge, always moving, unpredictable and potentially destructive."
The rest, as they say, is noise. The media can cover every minor process development and chase Hillary to every Chipotle, but without an unforeseen controversy of truly epic proportions and/or a transformational Republican candidate, Hillary Clinton will waltz to the nomination and enter Election Day with a significant advantage over her challenger.
It is all very sobering.
It’s the media’s election, and they don’t intend to lose.
Only an indictment can stop her.
I VOTE SHE LOSE.
If Hussein fails in his goal of bloodshed and mass death of Americans at the hands of ISIS, the Bloods and Crips, and federal SWAT teams, the violence will break out during Clinton’s first term, because Clinton will continue all of Hussein’s policies.
Clinton will start — start — with a minimum 247 of the 270 electoral votes she needs to win.
Clinton will start — start — with a minimum 247 of the 270 electoral votes she needs to win.
Clinton will start — start — with a minimum 247 of the 270 electoral votes she needs to win.
The point is the Hispanic vote is THE swing vote in swing states.
We could see this in 2012. Even Hannity was lamenting that the Republicans have to attract them. You know what that means:
1. Amnesty
2. “Access” (read free) to Healthcare-Education-Childcare-Foodstamps.
I doubt an indictment would stop her. In fact, a CONVICTION would probably not stop her. Why? Because the public now reveres criminals and hates those who would stop them. Bread and circuses: that’s America today (what’s left of it).
Dylan sure doesn’t think much of AMERICANS, does he? He thinks we’re all commie loving freeloaders.
So what he’s saying is the Oval Office automatically belongs to the commie b*tch if SHE wants it. AMERICA sure has fallen into the sewer.
Hillary’s fifteen minutes is about 25 years over her time allotment.
Can’t wait for this battleaxe to fade away.
The odds of defeating Hillary are daunting to be sure but the defeatist attitude around here is very tiring. Some of you same people who are gung ho for Ted Cruz or Scott Walker are some of the same ones who think Hillary is unbeatable. Why then even nominate someone if in your minds it’s a lost cause already. Geez, I’m so tired of this. We are Americans. We are a great people and we deserve a nation a thousand times better than the heaping mess of one the Democrats have made for us. I’m tired of being rolled by the left and we need to fight them to the bitter end. Stop being defeatists out there.
The warnings from at least decades ago (if not going back to Franklin) that the US is doomed if more than 50% of the electorate figures out they can vote themselves payments from the treasury... that day is nigh, nay ... now.
Well I don’t know about that, but the writer certainly has.
I agree generally... but what some might say is defeatist, is to others a motivator. For me, we’re going over a cliff... but that only makes me even more supportive of Cruz. If we are going down, might as well go down in the best fighting spirit.
Politico is a Homo site as media matters, RAT controlled MORONS.
I too am sick of this Hillary is unbeatable s**t. I’ve never met one person, regardless of party or ideology, who likes her. She is the most despised person in U.S. history. Richard Nixon could beat her without breaking a sweat.
Not buying it. It is a vicious cycle that the Clintons and their allies in the media are engaged in. She is inevitable, give up now. Look at how much moola she can raise. Ok, she has baggage, but look at all the good she has done. Ok, she has baggage that could be problematic and we are concerned. On second thought nothing to see here. It is all old news and kust more stuff brought up by the VRWC. Anyway, she is inevitable, give up now.
This has happened multiple times (read Barbara Olsen's books) and Hillary has not been reoriented yet. What will it take?
If I were a leftist loony, I would repeat this until the general election. It would demoralize the conservatives.
What would they have to lose?
It's their SOP.
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