Benghazi. A private email server. Whitewater. All scandals with the name Clinton attached. Ever since the Clinton’s came to Washington more than 20 years ago, controversy has plagued the power couple, who have built a very loyal following right along side a long list of enemies. Now as the former First Lady, senator from New York, and former Secretary of State makes her case to be President of the United States, she faces an unexpectedly tough battle from Vermont Senator Bernie Sanders, who has attracted support from Americans who are tired of business as usual in Washington. It has widely been assumed that the Democratic Party nomination was Hillary’s to lose. But with polls showing more and more voters supporting non-mainstream candidates like Sanders (and billionaire Donald Trump on the Republican side), there are concerns that, despite her gravitas, Hillary’s credibility gap has weakened her hold on Democrats.
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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.
For Clinton, 2016 Is Looking Too Much Like 2008
…[As] the first nominating contest approaches, Clinton seems to be caught in a political time warp, buffeted by the same headwinds that felled her 2008 campaign as she seeks to blunt the rise of Sen. Bernie Sanders.
Sizing Up the U.S. Election’s Opening Round
If you find America’s presidential election campaign puzzling, you probably have a better grasp of it than those who are willing to predict an outcome. At this point, with both major parties set to choose their nominees in state-level primary elections or caucuses, there can be no predictions, only informed (or uninformed) guesses.
Barack, Hillary and Bernie
Keeping with tradition, President Obama is traveling to the American heartland to sell his State of the Union message. That message — the country is in better shape than the presidential campaign rhetoric makes it out to be — seems to be aimed helping his party continue to occupy the White House and burnish his legacy. As most of the media attention is focused on the fractious campaign among Republicans, the race between democrats Hillary Clinton and Bernie Sanders is getting closer and more contentious. How unscathed either can emerge will go a long way to determine how shiny the Obama legacy will look.
5 Takeaways From the GOP Debate
There were sharp, sometimes contentious exchanges on immigration and military intervention, but for the most part the eight GOP contenders presented themselves – for the first time – as a diverse but essentially coherent field united against Hillary Clinton, who seems increasingly likely to win the Democratic nomination. Read more:
Why Republicans are Turning Hillary Clinton’s Old Friend into the Benghazi Villain
Blumenthal was a hot topic at the Benghazi hearings not because he had anything to do with the attacks but because he’s a convenient villain. In the Republican imagination, Blumenthal exists more as a mythological figure than a real person.
Still Waiting for the Truth
[Charles] Woods is the father of Tyrone Woods, a retired Navy Seal killed in the attacks on Benghazi on September 11, 2012. Shortly before the hearing began, I asked him what he hoped to learn from the hearing. “The truth, hopefully,” he said, not sounding hopeful at all.
Benghazi Panel Asks All the Wrong Things
Congress should be asking: What is being done to bring to justice the terrorists responsible for the Benghazi tragedy? …. What, if any, U.S. diplomatic outposts remain vulnerable to attack?
Clinton Faces Congressional Query on Benghazi – Again
17 months and $4.5-million. That’s how long — and costly — the Republican-led probe of former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton’s role in the deadly 2012 attacks on the U.S. consulate in Benghazi, Libya. The congressional committee will hear from her once again on Thursday. Critics say the hearings are simply a witch hunt against Clinton, who is now running for president as a Democrat. She is expected to be grilled about her assessment of the security needed for the high-risk mission, along with questions of transparency about exactly what happened and, of course, all those emails she wrote during her post on a private server in her home. Republicans say they want honest answers to their pertinent questions. Democrats see it as an opportunity to pile on Clinton, and hope she will come across as the victim of an overly-politicized panel intent on tarnishing her.
DC Insiders Think Bernie Sanders Lost the Debate. Here’s Why They Might Be Wrong
One of Sanders’s most important moments in the debate — his defense of Clintonand criticism of the media over the email issue — was generally scored by pundits as a victory for Clinton…. But to Democratic voters, it could also speak to Sanders’s character, and mark him as a different kind of politician, who’s not interested in […]
Who Won in Vegas? Depends On Who You Ask
If you believe the majority of the pundit class, it is apparent that Hillary Rodham Clinton won Tuesday’s night’s premier showdown among the Democratic Presidential Candidates. It was also clear why Clinton, despite being criticized for her own arguably poor decisions, her loss to Barack Obama in 2008 and a near constant barrage of conservative vitriol has been so successful. With panache’ and polish she navigated the criticism and took a star turn in Las Vegas. But pundits aren’t voters, and in the online world of non-scientific post-debate polling, Bernie Sanders is proving the big winner.
Betting the Odds in Vegas: Democratic Hopefuls Hold First Debate
It’s the Democrat’s turn. Tonight, the five candidates running for the party’s nomination will appear together on stage in Las Vegas. There’s a lot at stake for Hillary Clinton and Bernie Sanders, the two frontrunners who have been in a quiet sparring match for months. The former secretary of state has been the presumed Democratic nominee for months, but her status has been weakened by her own missteps and years of conservative criticis.Vermont Senator Bernie Sanders’ populist message of income equality has pushed his poll numbers up, making the Clinton camp nervous. Add to the mix Virginia Senator Jim Webb, Maryland Governor Martin O’Malley and the Rhode Island Governor Lincoln Chafee – all potentially fiery candidates. Looming over the entire campaign is one key question: Will Vice President Joe Biden toss his hat in the ring?
How Gen. David Petraeus Gets It, And Hillary Clinton Still Doesn’t
We recently learned that Hillary Clinton and David Petraeus recently shared secret emails. But they are bound by more than just a chain of communications. Both are accused of misusing their classified emails. One has come clean, admitting mistakes. The other can’t seem to admit a mistake or tell the whole truth, and it’s only getting […]