April 27, 2015
Clinton Campaign In Trouble With Democratic Insiders?
The Democratic field for 2016 has been dominated by Hillary Clinton so far, but top Democratic insiders are starting to wonder whether the recent revelations and allegations concerning donations to the Clinton Foundation, speaking fees paid to former President Bill Clinton, and Hillary Clinton's tenure as Secretary of State are just too much to overcome, according to National Review Online national correspondent John Fund.
...many people have come to the conclusion that Hillary Clinton’s campaign is in deep trouble and she is no longer as inevitable as people once thought...
Privately, they fret about a recent Quinnipiac poll in which 54 percent of Americans say Clinton is not honest or trustworthy. Among independents, that number hits 61 percent. “Candidates distrusted by that many people can win the White House, but it leaves no margin for error or another big scandal,” one Democratic former officeholder admitted to me...
What Democrats really worry about is that no one will beat the Clinton Machine for the Democratic nomination — it will survive and go on to become an inviting target for Republicans in the general-election battle...
Democrats privately believe that the Clintons can recover from the e-mail and foundation scandals because it’s unlikely reporters will ever find a “smoking gun” that explicitly links foreign donations with public actions. But Democrats also know that other scandals may soon be unearthed. And if they do, not only will Hillary Clinton prove unable to establish herself as an “authentic” candidate, she also will establish herself as a pro at conducting an “authentic” cover-up.
Clinton has endured more than two decades of controversy on the national stage, and it would be a mistake to think she can't recover from this latest. But the most important comment in the piece is probably the one regarding there being "no margin for error or another big scandal." Nearly every candidate commits errors and faces scandals, both real or imagined, during their presidential campaign. But one of the biggest dangers for any candidate is that the errors and scandals become either so serious or so numerous that it sends them over the edge so they spend too much of their time defending themselves, or apologizing, or looking evasive, that it takes away from time that needs to be spent talking about their vision and agenda.
One more big error or scandal concerning Clinton may still not be enough to tip her over that edge, but it surely moves her closer to an edge she was probably already much closer to than any other candidate.