Until recently, the conventional wisdom among Beltway elites was that Hillary Clinton would waltz, or at least walk unassisted, to the Democratic nomination in 2016. Now that narrative has come under attack, amid mounting evidence that Hillary’s most recent quest for power has already failed.
Consider, for example, the embarrassingly sparse crowd at Georgetown University on Wednesday, where Clinton delivered a lecture on “Smart Power: Security Through Inclusive Leadership.”
As Hillary Clinton takes stage for policy speech at Georgetown Univ, scores of student seats, balcony are empty. pic.twitter.com/y2DzUprk8E
— M. Scott Mahaskey (@smahaskey) December 3, 2014
View from balcony as Hillary Clinton speaks at Georgetown Univ. in DC. pic.twitter.com/ckciKemPug
— M. Scott Mahaskey (@smahaskey) December 3, 2014
Tickets to Clinton’s Georgetown event were offered to all students. School says less interest is byproduct of last week of classes/finals.
— Dan Merica (@danmericaCNN) December 3, 2014
This is precisely the demographic Hillary will have to turn out in large numbers to be successful in 2016. Anyone who thinks she can come close to inspiring the same amount of enthusiasm among people as Barack Obama is kidding themselves. In fact, Hillary has been struggling to draw crowds of all ages.
Gov. Deval Patrick (D., Mass.) has said the sense of inevitability surrounding Hillary’s candidacy is “off-putting to voters.” The American people view inevitability as a sense of entitlement, Patrick said on Meet The Press, and prefer candidates who make an affirmative case for themselves. “The American people want–and ought to want–their candidates to sweat for the job, to actually make a case for why they are the right person at the right time,” he said.
Meanwhile, recent polling suggests Hillary’s aura of inevitability is fading.