The November, 2016 election is still more than two years away. That is the good news. The bad news is there are still 28 more months of presidential politics jostling before it is behind us.
As far as we know, Hillary Rodham Clinton is still a contender. With negative vibes circling around her, she is not hearing the fat lady sing, so she hasn’t dropped out and she hasn’t jumped in. But it’s a long way in politics from now until polling day.
If she continues on her way to win the Democratic nomination for president in 2016, Hillary will undoubtedly face a challenger, because the prize of the presidency is too tantalizing not to be contested. Now we are seeing increased media scrutiny of Ms. Clinton’s finances, over her years as Secretary of State and also back as far as the White House years with her husband. Some pundits think she is vulnerable.
Enter from stage left, actually stage far left, the liberal Massachusetts Senator Elizabeth Warren. Luckily for Elizabeth Warren, it is just as Hillary is defending her tarnished image, clashing against a somewhat reawakened press. Warren, darling of the far left, fits the bill to a tee.
Hillary has one major defense against any legitimate contender, that no others currently have. That is her bulging campaign war chest. There are, of course, others lurking in the wings. Some may be waiting for Hillary to falter, before playing their hand. Of course, there is also the joker candidate, VP Joe Biden.
Speaking about Elizabeth Warren, Michael Barone, senior political analyst for the Washington Examiner speaking on “The Steve Malzberg Show” on Newsmax TV said, “She faces a certain amount of quandary in the Democratic primaries even though she starts in with support from a majority of voters.”
“But it’s also clear that the rising tide of sentiment in the Democratic Party is on the left,” he said Monday. Barone and other pundits think Warren could be the “go to” replacement for Hillary Clinton if she stumbles and her brand becomes too tarnished or controversial to withstand the eventual republican attacks. He is saying Warren could be a viable candidate.
Barone continued, “We’ve seen that that could hurt the Democrats as it did in 2000 when Ralph Nader got 3 percent of the vote rather than going to Al Gore.”
It must also be noted that this is the way that the George H. W. Bush second-term bid was derailed, when Ross Perot entered the race. Perot gained a lot of votes, and a sizeable percentage of those would otherwise have gone to Bush.
It is a long way to November, 2016 – 28 months – and if Hillary Clinton is to make it through to become the Democratic Party nominee, these possibles must be addressed by her campaign. Hillary is in the spotlight, and that is the way the Republicans like it, because they can let the pundits, the social media activists and the press hack away at her, while they stay away from the cameras.