The “Ready for Hillary” movement was so pre-scandals.
While Team Clinton and the media have been working for years to convince the world that a Hillary presidency is inevitable, many Democrats would like to dump her. And the recent spate of revelations, scandals and unethical, if not illegal, actions have opened the door to express their doubts. (See stories in Politico, CNN and The Hill.)
Who are these Democratic factions who would dare challenge the Clinton Machine?
The “Clinton fatigue” faction
Conservatives are familiar with this feeling. As Jeb Bush—who was a great governor and once considered a solid conservative—begins testing the presidential waters, and donors, many wonder whether the country is burned out on the Bush brand. Ditto the Clintons.
At least the former Bush presidents had the decency to move off center stage and mostly out of the public eye; not so the Clintons. Bill and Hillary are constantly in the news—and not always in a good way.
In an era where the public seems ready for a fresh face and new ideas, the Clintons are anything but. They have their supporters, but a lot of Democrats correctly see the Clintons as yesterday’s news and unable to excite the public the way Barack Obama did before the public got wise to him.
The “we want someone who can win” faction
For some Democrats the primary goal is nominating a candidate who can win. Does that describe Hillary?
She did win her Senate seat twice, but that was more than a decade ago and in New York, where you would have to be almost dead—or a Republican—to lose.
More importantly, the negatives from all their scandals and questionable behavior are very high.
There are the recent revelations of Bill’s multiple trips to convicted pedophile Jeffrey Epstein’s private island. A lawsuit that could force Bill to testify about what he saw there, and whether he engaged, could simmer on the front pages for months.
Nothing like having the spouse of your presidential candidate repeatedly denying he had orgies with minors—which everyone knows is perfectly plausible—while refreshing voters’ memory of when he lied about not having sex with Monica Lewinsky.
There’s also the foreign donations to the Clintons’ foundation, which may become the subject of a congressional investigation. And then there are Hillary’s private email revelations and the fact that she ran them through a server in her house that she controlled.
When issues like that are swirling around a campaign it can’t focus on its message, and no one cares anyway because all the media want to talk about are the scandals. And the fear is there may be an endless stream of such revelations during the presidential campaign and, if Hillary were to win, even into the White House.
The far-left “Ready for Elizabeth” faction
The Republican Party has become more conservative and libertarian over the past several years, and the Democratic Party has moved much further to the left.
As liberal as Hillary is, she’s not liberal enough for many Democrats these days, who see her as too close to Wall Street and the banks, too hawkish on foreign policy, and too willing to do whatever it takes to become president (that last point is almost certainly true).
Those lefties would eagerly dump Hillary, and they are actively seeking someone to take her place. Hence the drive to get the left’s new star, Senator Elizabeth Warren, to enter the race.
Democratic power-players must be asking themselves at what point they may have to have a Hillary intervention, explaining to her that she is hopelessly compromised, has little real support among many of the Democratic faithful, and for the good of the Party, and the country, she needs to suspend her presidential dreams.