GOP Has More Than a Hillary Problem; It's an America Problem

Townhall.com ^ | April 17, 2015 | Mark Davis

[Kaslin]

All in all, a pretty fun week for conservatives. Marco Rubio made a classy and inspiring entrance into a Republican field that is already impressive and energizing, and sure to become even more so.

Meanwhile, the most powerful woman in American history dropped in with a campaign debut that ranged from underwhelming to comically inept.

Or so it appears to those of us who have no intention of voting for her.

Make no mistake, I have enjoyed the absurdity of the incognito Chipotle moment, the inexplicable road trip in the stupidly labeled “Scooby” van, the easy-to-mock fawning of the reporters scrambling along with the candidate in an attempt to make it all look more impressive than it is.

From the mediocre video that seeks to make Hillary look new and fresh, to the Iowa sojourn designed to portray her as a Woman of the People, it has all been just plain silly.

But here’s my concern, and it should be yours: It is probably working.

As skeptics point and laugh at the tentative and unimpressive early days of Hillary 2016, no small number of voters will examine the accompanying coverage and offer analysis that goes no deeper than: “Wow. She got a burrito. Cool.”

Does anyone remember how we got Obama?

It wasn’t the thoughtful desire of 69 million liberals who wanted exactly what he was selling. It was a leftist base exploded to successful levels by low-information voters who had no idea what he would do but thought it would be cool to have a non-white President born in the Sixties.

It is easy to critique Hillary’s less-than-grand entrance. The video is ripe for parody, and the road trip seemed almost sad, a forced exercise by a woman who surely chafed at seeing mid-America through something other than a private jet window.

It lacked a feature of virtually every campaign kickoff: a rousing speech amid loud, loyal backers.

But imagine how that would have gone. Hillary has always been a wooden, sometimes even painful public spraker. So if, instead of the video, she had held some big announcement event in a room full of real people, it could have been fairly horrible, offering even more opportunities for conservative mockery.

This roll-out, flawed as it was, may be a fairly adept strategy crafted by people who know her weaknesses and how to minimize them while slowly stoking her eager handmaidens in the media.

So chuckle if you will. I surely have. But know this— the Hillary campaign will never feature a string of masterful speeches; she will never pull of a TV appearance in which she seems relaxed, natural and relatable; and the attempt to package her as new and different will fail.

And none of it may matter.

Hillary is a formidable candidate riding a gravy train of star quality that she has done little to deserve. This is not to denigrate her enviable résumé. It is to point out that someone who is this big a deal in politics has usually done a litany of things that warrant that status.

But than came Barack Obama, and with him the era of ascendancy based on enormous puffs of smoke born of celebrity culture, the media’s star-maker machinery, and most notably, an inattentive public.

Add up those factors, and Republicans could offer up a skilled and worthy conservative and still lose. The base could actually be lured back to the polls after the tranquilizer darts of Romney and McCain, and still lose to Hillary Clinton.

Why? Because there is more infernal history to be made. How many votes will be cast by people without an issue in their head because they’ve been crammed out by the cool factor of First Woman President?

Such history is indeed remarkable, but I am ready to celebrate the dropping of presidential race and gender barriers only upon the election of Presidents who will not screw up the country.

So let us enjoy our chortles at the seeming sluggish awkwardness of Team Hillary. But be aware that this is a campaign that can win without the usual requirements of adeptness or intellectual depth.

In each of the Obama elections, the women’s vote was 57 percent Democrat, and those women outnumbered men at the polls by ten million each time.

Conservative womanhood is on the rise in inspiring ways, but can you imagine how many ideologically nonchalant, unplugged women are going to stream to the polls for Hillary just for the heck of it?

While the Clinton campaign can chug along while missing on many cylinders and still win, the Republican nominee must be a well-oiled machine masterful at playing mistake-free ball.

No unforced errors. No mangled messaging. No seething gaffes.

The good news is that this is a strong possibility. The Republican debate stages of Iowa, New Hampshire and beyond will be filled with smart, worthy candidates who will offer multiple visions of how to dig America out of the age of Obama.

And therein lies one of the most important keys to beating Hillary. Even with the winds of history and an adoring media at her back, she is still asking in essence for Obama’s third term.

Republicans should memorize numerous variations on how the nation should look forward, rather than hitching our fate to the “Clinton-Obama policies of the past.”

GOP candidates should spend a lot of time talking about their agenda and relatively little time talking about Mrs. Clinton. If they can do this with skill, the eventual nominee will be a tested, reliable standardbearer who can step forward and offer something Barack Obama emptily offered but which we now desperately need: Change.

[TexasFreeper2009]

quote “It was a leftist base exploded to successful levels by low-information voters who had no idea what he would do but thought it would be cool to have a non-white President born in the Sixties.”

Hitlery is neither young, cool, or fresh and everyone knows exactly what she will do.

She will be Bob Dole 2.0 and many on the left will just stay home, and blacks will not come out in the same numbers now that a bro isn't running.

[skeeter]

No unforced errors. No mangled messaging. No seething gaffes.

Is Davis that naive? These things will be reported, even if there are none.

Who wins in 2016 depends far more upon what the republican says than who Hillary is.

Her supporters will vote for her no matter how inept a candidate she is - its the detached middle that matters, and its clear they're ready for an unapologetic conservative who offers them control of their lives back.

[Gen.Blather]

What bothers me about the impressive field of conservative candidates is we also had an impressive field in the previous four primaries. We ended up with socialist-lite candidates that millions of conservatives would not leave home to vote for. That’s the problem, not that there are millions of low information voters, but that there are millions of conservatives and no conservative candidate.

[muir_redwoods]

The single most important thing this country needs to accomplish is securing the validity of the vote. Vote fraud is huge and the open borders make it an insurmountable problem come 2016.

[madprof98]

It is probably working.

Yes, it is. Most Americans now want what the Dems are promoting: "freedom," as found in unrestrained sexual freedom and government-issued freebies. Nothing else matters to them. And they will vote for the Wicked Witch of the West if she promises to keep the party going.

[Night Hides Not]

Davis will be carrying the torch for Jeb if he gets the nomination, as will the rest of the RINO lineup on KSKY. John David Wells is the only principled host they have, and he’s buried at 8 PM.

[Liz]

THIS JUST IN---Hillary "said" she plans to raise more than a billion dollars to fund her campaign. as yet.

(Funny....Obama "said" the same thing back in 2012----said he was so popular that a billion dollars poured in to aid his reelection. Except that later on, the billion dollar Obama "said" he was forced to borrow money in order to continue his campaign.)

In Hillary's case, money keeps pouring into her $2.5 Billion Super-Pac (AKA the Clinton Foundation). As long as she's in the race, foundation donors are ponying up----lying in wait for Hillary to be coronated.

BTW, remember that Hillary was accumulating her $2.5 billion 2016 campaign war chest AT THE SAME TIME the viscous Clinton machine was rolling over anyone who dared to challenge her.

Americans should be asking---why does this political retread need a $2.5 billion war chest......when the job she's after is worth maybe $2 million w/ perks and free plane rides.

[Liz]

HEY GUYS, YOU'LL BE PLEASED TO HEAR THIS---WHEW, WATTA RELIEF---The Clinton Foundation is operating under new rules (/SNIX): approved countries would be allowed to renew multiyear pledges, or make additional contributions to the Foundation's new programs. Such funding would support (1) economic development, (2) climate-focused work of the Clinton Climate Initiative, (3) the Clinton Development Initiative, which focuses on Malawi, Rwanda and Tanzania, and, (4) the Clinton Giustra Enterprise Partnership.............."

Here's a peek at how the "dead broke " Clintons got their hands on billions of dollars......b/c being president and Secretary of State has an astoundingly good monetary return....if you're greedy, a con artist and a hardened criminal

Hundreds of millions flow into the Clintons tax-exempt entities which the greedy Clintons calculatedly morphed into hundreds of separate fund-raising machines.

Earlier, a NYT's expose chronicled the shady financing of the tax-exempt money machine----The Clinton Global Initiative foundation.

CLINTON GLOBAL INITIATIVE web site
you can peruse 276 web pages of obscure programs
all of them vehicles to raise money
all of them expecting payback w/ Hillary in the WH.

1271 Avenue of the Americas 42nd Floor
New York, NY 10020
212-348-8882

WEB SITE http://www.clintonfoundation.org/clinton-global-initiative

=====================================================

The newly-minted "Bill, Hillary & Chelsea Clinton Family Foundation"
gives them even more fund-raising capabilities......w/ a friendly "family"
aura. The Clintons love to crow about their do-goodism and are more
than willing to make a buck on it.

"Smile everybody. Another $100 million came in today."

[Iron Munro]

Barring a complete overthrow of the constitution and government, in a little over 20 months Barack and Moochie Obama will be out of the White House.

But the ignoramuses, greedheads, moochers, communists, illegal aliens and other human debris who elected Barack twice will still be out there.

And they will take time out from mass breeding a new generation of idiots and moochers to vote for whoever is running for president on the democrat ticket.

.

[erod]

All in all, a pretty fun week for conservatives. Marco Rubio made a classy and inspiring entrance into a Republican field that is already impressive and energizing, and sure to become even more.

I stopped reading after that.

[ScottinVA]

While the Clinton campaign can chug along while missing on many cylinders and still win, the Republican nominee must be a well-oiled machine masterful at playing mistake-free ball.

I completely agree. While there exists a chance of defeating Hillary in 2016, the GOP nominee is going to have to be essentially perfect in message delivery/management, commit no substantial gaffes and have no skeleton-in-the-closet scandals.

The "media," firmly in her corner, will try their utmost to manufacture scandalous material they can't uncover, so the GOPer must play two steps ahead of the darkside's game by anticipating everything and assuming nothing. The "media" and voters are flush with warm generosity and forgiveness of any shortcoming by the dems, but will show no such goodwill to her GOP opponent.

[Prospero]

But here’s my concern, and it should be yours: It is probably working.

This is why I don't hang out with Mark Davis anymore, who never misses an opportunity to demoralize conservatives, who seems to have been hired to be "that guy," the first one to point out the painfully obvious, who seems compelled to be the first one to say out loud what the rest of us are thinking. Captain Obvious.

I'm sorry Mark, but I can't think of a single authentic American conservative, no unashamed American nationalist, who doesn't "get it."

Just because we laugh at this rapacious monster doesn't mean we don't take her seriously. I think we're all on the same page. How about coming up with an original idea on how to counter this cultural swamp, or grab a mop?

[Dr. Sivana]

Is Davis that naive?

If you listened to him subbing for Rush, I would be more inclined to take him as being less intelligent than he thinks he is, and utterly tone deaf for a supposed conservative.

[RedStateRocker]

I think she’s using Nixon as a model.

He was not an inspiring speaker, had little in the way of real beliefs and values, really almost entirely negative, was not telegenic, not physically graceful, few friends, and paranoid, sometimes vindictive and secretive.

And yet he won.

Infrastructure, loyalty, having a good team and, as the article brilliantly points out being aware of one’s negatives and knowing exactly how to minimize them.

[Alberta's Child]

This guy misses a huge point.

Barack Obama was nothing more than a jug-eared nitwit of an exchange student from Kenya. He was trotted out by the Democrat Party to derail Hillary Clinton's campaign in 2008. Why would anyone think they won't do the same in 2016? Hillary Clinton is eight years older, looks and acts like a worn-out old hag, and is no more trustworthy than she was before.

No, the biggest problem the Republicans face is that Hillary Clinton will attract a lot of support from the big-government globalists who pushed John McCain and Mitt Romney on the GOP in 2008 and 2012. I can just see the likes of William Kristol, Charles Krauthammer and John McCain fawning all over her because she promises to "get tough on Iran."

[Alberta's Child]

Ronald McDonald would have won the 1968 election as a Republican candidate, with the Vietnam War such a disaster on the national stage.

In fact, the better parallel for the 1968 election would be the 2008 election. Ronald McDonald would have won that election, too -- if he ran as a Democrat.

[Old Sarge]

To your whole post, I say:

[Organic Panic]

By hook or by crook, the democrats already have 49.99% of the vote. The democrats have the stupidest constituents that will vote democrat “Vagina ‘16” just because. It’s going to be up to the republicans to aggressively stop vote fraud and the illegals from voting. I don’t see any issue or candidate being on the ballot for ‘16.

I am still expecting the sudden departure of Hillary and being replaced with Moochelle. Something in my gut tells me that’s what is brewing in the choom smoke filled dark rooms at the DNC.

[thirst4truth]

...keeping the party going is what cannot happen but probably will.

Yesterday I was thinking until it hits them personally nobody cares that ISIS is right over the Mexican border, nobody cares that BO issued a half a million new SS cards to illegals, nobody cares that he will probably give amnesty by fiat to over 5 million in the next 19 months. Nobody even cares that one of the candidates set up her own server and email system while working at top levels of the government, and deleted what she deemed appropriate. Nobody cares that the Benghazi review board published a report about what happened, without interviewing the main actor, the Sec of State nor looked at her emails. That people are even considering someone like her corrupt and sold out to the core to over see our America makes me sick.

I am thinking about voting for the dem to cause the collapse of America to come quicker to get on with what will happen next.