First Lady. Senator from New York. Secretary of State. Hillary Clinton has been part of the American political landscape for 25 years. Even longer, if one includes her stint as First Lady in Arkansas before she and her husband, then President-elect Bill Clinton, arrived in Washington in 1992. After a seven-state win on Super Tuesday, she is well on her way to securing her place as the Democratic Party’s presidential nominee. Senator Bernie Sanders didn’t make it easy. “The Bern” was real, and his supporters remain fiercely loyal. They forced her to highlight her progressive stance on domestic issues. Many have said Clinton has been her own worst enemy over the years, creating doubt or suspicion unnecessarily, and collecting a lot of baggage along the way. But the breadth of her career in politics cannot be denied – from bake sales and community fundraisers across America to being on the Watergate impeachment inquiry staff, tackling healthcare in the 1990s and the controversies leftover from her time as Secretary of State — Benghazi and a private email server. History books already will have a chapter written about Hillary Clinton, even if she doesn’t make it back to the White House.
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Hillary Eyes November, With the ‘Bern’ Firmly in Her Rearview Mirror
How It Looks From Afar
A crucial part of the job of President of the United States is steering relations with allies and enemies alike. American foreign policy, diplomacy, military action and much more all depend on perceptions. President Barack Obama was hailed as decisive and bold in 2011 when he signed off on a risky, and ultimately successful, covert operation to take out America’s most wanted man, Al-Qaida leader Osama Bin Laden, who was living in plain view in Pakistan. Five years later, Obama is taken to task by some, including current 2016 presidential hopefuls, for refusing to deploy a full-scale military effort to stop Islamic State in Syria and Iraq. Which raises a question: how is the rise of the most unorthodox presidential hopeful ever, billionaire and reality television star Donald J. Trump, playing across the pond?
Politics, Punditry and Puffery
Time is running out for Republican Party establishment figures to execute a “Stop Trump” strategy. Next week’s Super Tuesday primaries in 12 states will go a long way in determining whether Trump and Hillary Clinton will be the presumptive presidential nominees. And less than 24 hours after a debate in which Marco Rubio was declared the winner by most political experts, Donald Trump stole the spotlight from him by winning an important endorsement from former presidential candidate Chris Christie. Trump’s ascension — and, to a lesser extent, that of Democrat Bernie Sanders — has upended conventional wisdom in American politics. But political blind spots have allowed Trump’s anti-establishment message to take root.
Wising Up to Big-Money Bribery of Both Parties
It’s harder to get out than to get in because you have people who have invested their time, their money, and their sweat and reputations to help you. You want to give them your best and leave it all on the turf for them.
Young Voters, Motivated Again
This is the first presidential campaign in which people age 18 to 29 make up the same proportion of the electorate as do baby boomers — about one-third. This year, the youth turnout for both parties in the primaries so far is rivaling 2008, the year of Barack Obama’s first campaign.
Hillary Clinton Will Win Because She’s the True Conservative in the Race
A new order is coming, and there are no guarantees about what will come next, whether the new order will bring more liberty, equality, peace and prosperity, or less…. That is essentially Hillary Clinton’s argument against Bernie Sanders: Change is hard.
He’s Beatable
Choosing Donald Trump as the Republican party’s nominee would be a mistake. He lacks the character to be a trustworthy president and the convictions to be a conservative one.
Trump & Sanders Win, Bewildering Political Establishment
Less than 24 hours after Republican presidential hopeful Donald Trump and his Democratic counterpart, Vermont Senator Bernie Sanders, both landed decisive victories in the New Hampshire primary, pundits and columnists began dissecting the outcome. Is this a case of “it’s just New Hampshire, we have long race ahead of us, a lot can change before Novemeber!” ? Or, alternatively, “the American electorate has spoken; the populist movement is here!” ? Hard to say. What we do know is that the establishment machine is a bit gobsmacked. They know Trump doesn’t need or take their money, and Sanders relies heavily on individual contributions. They also know what New Hampshire’s exit polls tell us: namely, that young people really like Sanders over Clinton – and that Trump supporters are willing to show up and vote. It’s not just a reality show anymore.
GOP insiders: It Was a Rough Night for Ted Cruz
More than 4 in 10 GOP insiders — given the choice of the seven GOP candidates on the stage, plus Trump — rated Cruz as the loser of Thursday night’s debate, citing his defensive posture on his past immigration stances and opposition to ethanol subsidies.
For Trump, Honesty Isn’t Best Policy
Trump seems to lie, distort or simply make stuff up about anything that fits his narrative that the country has gone to hell, that President Obama is an incompetent weakling and that immigrants are threatening to destroy the nation. When challenged with the facts, Trump almost never backs down.
The U.S. Political Turmoil is Ultimately a Strength
America often looks dysfunctional because its problems are on display and debated daily. Everything … is out there and open to constant criticism. But this transparency means that people have information, and it forces the country to look at its problems, grapple with them and react.
366 Days Away
366 days from today — one calendar leap year — someone new will be reciting the oath of office to become the 45th President of the United States. And so far, the 2016 presidential campaign has been defined by the term anti-establishment. Bernie Sanders — a self-described socialist and independent — is making a strong run at the Democrats’ establishment candidate, former Secretary of State and First Lady, Hillary Clinton. Among Republicans, the anti-establishment candidate is the front-runner. Donald Trump jumped into the lead in the polls and has yet to be toppled. While Democrats are not questioning Sanders’ party credentials, the same cannot be said for Trump and the Republicans, to the point where some icons of the conservative movement say they can envision a third party conservative candidate if Trump is the Republican standard bearer.
Palin Endorse Trump: Yea, We Saw That Coming
Corralling Palin aboard the Trump train is like doubling down on his outsider appeal. She is still something of the darling of grass-roots conservatives.