Empress Hillary has no clothes. You don't believe me? Read Maureen Dowd's latest New York Times op-ed entitled "Joe Biden in 2016: What Would Beau Do?" Savaging the former secretary of state, Dowd declares:
"A PATTERN of cutting corners, a patina of entitlement and inevitability, has led to this.
Destroying digital messages and thwarting official investigations while acting all innocent about wiping out sensitive material.
Avoiding reporters after giving disingenuous explanations at uncomfortable news conferences. Claiming egregious transgressions are a private matter and faux controversy while sending out high-power lawyers and spin doctors to deflect and minimize.
. . . .
[I]n the case of Hillary, problems of style and substance are starting to scuff her sheen of inevitability."
Who's preparing to step up and take her on in the Democratic primaries? Dowd points to Joe Biden. And although Biden is, on occasion, a clown - you will of course recall Biden's recommendation to a mother to buy a shotgun for protection - his antics do not rival those of Donald Trump.
Be it at Beau's behest or otherwise, Joe, welcome to the race.
My advice to Hillary: Get dressed, get divorced (What's all this talk about the Energizer, who brings cookies to the Secret Service detail?) and get yourself a new life.
Ms. Dowd has not bothered to read what has become a powerful predictor of presidential succession (it was the core reading for my "History of the Presidency" class in 2004) :
ReplyDelete"The politics presidents make : leadership from John Adams to George Bush " Author: Skowronek, Stephen.
"...The author aims to demonstrate that presidents are persistent agents of change, continually disrupting and transforming the political landscape. But each president also inherits a particular political context, a regime shaped by his predecessors which he either rejects or affirms. Presidential leadership needs to be understood in "political time". Who is a new president replacing? What previous programme is he extending or rejecting? And how strong is the resistance to his new agenda? ..."
So, the Democrats are doubling down on wanting Obama's 3rd term with a coalition of African-Americans, single women, young people, and they think the Class of 1968 (Hillary, Biden, Sanders) will be a winner when it was Nixon who won in 1968 and 1972?
Skrowenek's theory will not work if Jeb Bush is the GOP 2016 nominee unless Jim Webb somehow gets the Democratic nomination.
My sincere apologies, but my ironic dream ticket is currently Brangelina. The Dems get their symbolic female, but one who has superb diplomatic skills, the GOP gets a VP who likes guns, and everyone gets a team they can respect, now that they are married.
k