In the run-up to the 1968 presidential election, Americans could be forgiven for thinking that the country was tipping into the abyss. Liberals had waged war on the normal people for most of the decade. A vast expansion of the federal government, race riots, nation building in Asia and the cultural revolution left normal people wondering if America was going to survive. In less than a decade the country had gone from the middle-class prosperity of Eisenhower to the madness of LBJ.
Americans have a habit of using elections to address previous electoral mistakes. In 1960, a peaceful and prosperous country decided it was time to pass the torch to a new generation and passed on Dick Nixon, the sitting Vice President. Three years later Kennedy got two in the hat from a communist, putting LBJ in the White House. Mostly out of grief for the death of Kennedy, the public elected Johnson in a landslide the following year.
Whether it was suicidal guilt or a desire to gain respect from the Yankee elite, Johnson set off on a five year rampage through the American culture. The massive expansion of the welfare state, the unleashing of black violence, degenerate youth culture and nation building in Southeast Asia had many people thinking it was a colossal mistake voting for Kennedy over Nixon. Who knows how things would have unfolded if the Chicago mob had not fixed the 1960 election, but it could not have been worse.
Nixon was no one’s idea of a popular figure. Buckley conservatives hated his social liberalism and liberals hated his red baiting. Yankees hated his decidedly downscale tactics and aesthetic. Even so, Nixon was willing to punch the hippies and he represented a line in the sand middle Americans could respect. He was also a staunch anti-communist, but willing to put an end to the pointless Vietnam War. Tricky Dick was a low-risk chance to stop the bleeding so he won in a landslide.
I’ve often compared Hillary Clinton to Dick Nixon. In 1968, Nixon had been a public figure for over three decades. Here in 2016, Hillary Clinton is now halfway through her third decade in public life. Of course, the ethical comparisons are obvious, even though Nixon was a boy scout compared to the Clintons. Tricky Dick played rough when it came to politics, but he was never a crook. Still, like Nixon, the Clintons play rough in politics and are willing to cut deals with anyone.
If you look at the broad outlines of the Clinton campaign in 2016, you see some hints of the Nixon campaign of 1968. She wanted to run as the solid, stable choice that would curb the excesses of the Obama years. Hillary may be a crook, but she was going to get the race mongers and foreign weirdos out of government. Whatever her ethical and moral defects, Clinton would have been the better choice in 2008 when the country, high on the narcotic of racial justice, elected Obama
The problem is that Hillary is attached to the weirdos and lunatics that have been running wild the last eight years. Her cynical attempts to position herself as a restoration of sober governance is ridiculous, given that she worked in the Obama administration for six years. There’s also the fact that Obama’s Attorney General is the only thing standing between Hillary and an orange jumpsuit. It’s simply laughable to think of Hillary as anything but a fun house mirror version of Obama.
It’s why they have shifted gears and decided to run Hillary as the defender of female virtue against the boorish womanizer, Donald Trump. The campaign is now selling vagina cards and the liberal media is running stories about Trump’s wildly successful sex life. The hope is they can pivot off Trump’s alleged hostility toward woman and make the election a referendum on the awfulness of white men. Instead of a charming black guy promising vengeance, it will be an old lesbian.
That’s the irony of this election. Hillary started her life in politics as a minor staffer on a Congressional committee hounding Nixon. Like all liberals of her generation, she defined herself in opposition to Nixon. Now she finds herself as a post-modern caricature of Nixon, but at odds with those same forces. She’s both the square representing the status quo and the radical weirdo that freaks out the squares. She is the worst of both sides of late 1960’s politics.
Compounding her dilemma is the fact that Trump is a master at deflection. In the primary, he made the campaign about one candidate after another, rather than a referendum on Trump. It was Bush, then Fiorina, then Rubio and finally Cruz. Worse yet, Trump’s critiques reinforce his general theme of being a restoration of commonsense over the deranged fads of an out of touch ruling class. This makes him the worst possible candidate for Clinton.
As the saying goes, a week is a lifetime in politics and we are five and a half months from the election. The Trotsky wing of the GOP is still plotting a third party candidate to try and derail Trump. The Progressive media will coordinate with the Clinton campaign on the war on women nonsense. Trump has made blunders so he is capable of saying or doing something stupid this summer. Still, all of the trends are working against Clinton and she has proven to be a fantastically bad candidate.
She’s going to need a miracle to win.
The election is all but sewn up for Trump. Well done to the geezer, I am going out on a limb and going to say that he will be a damn good President too. She is as good as knackered. Her mental and physical health is on the wane. I will be surprised if she makes it to September.
Heaven forbid Hillary get elected! Please Dear God!
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We are at a historic turning point. Trump will destroy Hillary, and she will destroy the Democrats for a generation if not forever. The country is ready for big changes. Governor Gary Johnson the Libertarian will come in second in popular votes and everyone will be talking about how great the libertarians are. Getting rid of the IRS and ending the drug war will be the lasting legacy of their rise, and In 2018 they will elect several legislators. Watch this compilation of Trump and you will see what he will do to Hillary: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dDmb4pd3VNQ
The ONLY thing the Democrats have is the pro-choice on abortion issue. But Governor Johnson is pro-choice.
If Trump loses, this might be a big downfall for those of us who can’t stand what political correctness is doing to the West. People might think that being anti-pc is a dead end. If Trump wins, even the Democrats might shift a little to the right.
America is much better positioned than Europe to avoid being Islamicised. America has a much smaller percentage of Muslims, a smaller percentage of crazy Muslims and a much healthier birth-rate. It shouldn’t be squandered.
If the Democrats are elected, they might find a way to import a millions of muslims while they’re in power, essentially trying to make it impossible for America to avoid becoming Muslim and stopping Conservatives from ever winning another election.
People seem to miss just how laser focused Donald Trump is. Media coverage is all about him swinging wildly this way or that…but generally that is simply misdirection. You don’t take out 16 (mostly) accomplished Republican candidates if you have strategic ADHD. Maybe the first few, but not 16. Trump has managed to survive in a business that grinds most to dust early their careers and is all about the long game and crowding out big fields of competitors. And I’ll bet he is happy to let people think he is an undisclined boob. Costs him nothing and makes his opponents do stupid things.
This article by Milo about what Trump will do (written a year ago) predicted pretty much everything.
http://www.breitbart.com/big-government/2015/06/19/donald-trump-king-of-trolling-his-critics-should-be-the-internets-choice-for-president/
They don’t call Trump the “Nimble Navigator” for nothing!
Fascinating that Hillary isn’t running a “back to the future” campaign. Liberals have been touting Bill’s miracle economy since approximately 0.002 seconds into the W. Bush administration. They paused for a sec to take it easy on Soetero, but now it has come roaring back. I thought for sure she’d go with a “it’s the 90s again!” theme. Yes, that would bring back memories of Bill’s philandering, but that’s a sunk cost at this point (and besides, Trump is pretty much the only politician who can’t throw stones on that account). And she dodges the “Hillarycare” debacle as well, since there’s an even bigger healthcare debacle now that she can claim to have nothing to do with. I also seem to recall that the 90s were one of Trump’s lower low points, with high profile casino failures and whatnot. Maybe I misremember, but “vote for me and re-live the 90s!” seems to be a much better way to go than… whatever it is she’s doing now. Is she that besotted with identity politics, or does she really think Trump can do more damage to her as Bill’s enabler than as the one who screwed up Benghazi, sold national secrets, etc. etc.?
I see Hillary as nothing but a leaf in the wind of liberal politics (which is exceedingly illiberal and illogical). I don’t think she has any principles and will jettison common-sense politics the way people in hot-air balloons jettison their sandbags.
At least Bill had a mind and some principles and his heart was in the right place. Of course he too would bend to these winds but with Hillary one gets the feeling there’s nothing there at all.
Bill Clinton was always an old school Southern populist. That’s his natural inclination. He bolted on various Progressive fads out of political necessity, but I don’t think he was ever a true believer. Bubba’s only true passion is to make little Bubba happy.
Hillary was a doctrinaire Yankee scold. Her years of living with Bubba have made her a man-hating old shrew. There’s not much of anything ideological in her act these days. She has no natural constituency and she appeals to no particular voter group.
Of course she has a natural constituency. It is the man-hating old shrews. She will likely get all 200 votes with no defections…..
It’s the Movement, which hates men. Hillary is an empty vessel. She likes and hates whatever the movement dictates.
It isn’t that many now believe a man who thinks he’s a woman is a woman because he says so. It’s because the Movement says so.
It’s as though people’s minds receive updates about what to think from The Movement of Political Correctness the way your computer receives updates from Windows.
I don’t know if Trump can change that but I desperately hope he can. Steyn would be a better choice but he isn’t and cannot be up for election.
Oh, I don’t know, the ex-first wives’ club is pretty large: you know those women who after the honeymoon was over, decided that all that make-up, skinny-ness and actual sex with the husband, was no longer necessary, since they could always win cash and prizes in divorce court? That’s a very large club, now motivated by the fact that “child support” (supposedly for the children, but more often for bad boys, coke and champagne) is gone since the kiddies hit 18.
She does have a natural core constituency: die-hard feminists, self-hating white men, the fraction of the black electorate that does what it’s told (i.e. maybe 80% of it) and of course the homosexuals. My guess is that’s not even 25% of the electorate. That puts at least 75% of the electorate in play for Trump. Barring monumental election fraud, the question isn’t whether Hillary can win, but how badly she will get beaten.
You’re talking as though she’s one of a hundred candidates and asking why someone would pick her.
She’d be running as a Democrat. She also has poise. So did Obama. Poise counts for a lot. And at a certain level, people know that she, as an individual, stands for nothing. She’s just “A Democrat”.
Her flaws will mean she’ll lose a lot of votes but it will not only be man-haters who vote for her.
We all know that intern was blessed to suck Bill’s thing. She didn’t just wake up and find it in her mouth. A society which can’t be at least somewhat honest about this is in trouble.
Poise? Really? Have you watched her speak? She is the most wooden person ever. She even does these weird fake accents. And now she’s saying that she’ll have Bill run the economy. I guess you might mean unflappable, as she will lie at the drop of a hat.
Well, maybe poise isn’t all that important, given that Bernie Sanders has none. But Hillary is mostly unflappable, stands up straight. She looks at least kind of dignified.
I think someone showed that almost always, it’s the taller candidate who wins.
The way people look matters.
Even with Sanders, if he were 40 years old, nobody would take him seriously.
I said she has poise. I didn’t say she’s dynamic.
And she’ll lie before the hat hits the ground.
The accents are too appalling for speech, but “free sh*t”!
I’ve seen that “fags for Hillary” assertion all over the place, but there isn’t any evidence for it. Who cares what Dan Savage thinks. He’s about as influential among buggers and TaNehisi Coates is among blacks, that is to say not at all.
as* TaNehisi Coates
“Bubba’s only true passion is to make little Bubba happy.” True enough. But I also got the feeling that, unlike Obama, Bill Clinton didn’t mind if other people were happy too. If it didn’t interfere with his pleasures, he was content to know that Americans were getting some enjoyment out of life too. He didn’t have that urge to spoil things for everyone, just to show that he could, and he didn’t have a grudge against normality. Hillary, though, I feel has got a get-even list longer than Don Juan’s catalogue of conquests. And she’s got the Yankee scold strain particularly strong, which would drive her to punish the world and feel virtuous while doing so.
Bill seems to be a people person. Anyway, even though it will not be only ‘men-haters’ voting for Hillary, she has a limp and should be very beatable. She tried being a loyal soldier to Obama but it only made her look like his lackey. Her only gift to the people is her email scandal.
So maybe Hillary should start playing Bon Jovi’s “Livin’ on a prayer” in her rallies?
Because vagina, semen on blue velvet, 22 caliber lead in the head Vince Foster style…
The trail of dead bodies behind this psychopath with a strap on certainly gives her a head start on ending up on the rarified list of history’s most illustrious megalomaniacs.
‘She is going need a miracle to win.’
Hmmm… I wish I could agree. You know far more about US politics than I ever will but right now I think the Dems still hold all the best cards to somehow squeeze and twist a win out of this. I suspect no one will be happy much with the outcome, other than the Clintons and their foreign enablers, but she will have power one way or another.
Hillary HAS to be aware that things aren’t going that well for her, so there is time to pull out some underhand actions to make it happen for her.
(By the way, I saw a video of her waving to a crowd and telling everyone how great it was to be here, wherever it was, and I have to say I had one of those moments — all too rarely, alas — when I suddenly saw the utter lack of honesty in her. I can’t exactly relate what I saw, but she was so shallow it would barely wet the soles of one’s shoe. The last time I was aware of such an ability to lie was when former UK prime minister in an interview, when asked how it felt to be the PM, unctuously said “Happy to serve.” The dishonesty that came through his words was the equivalent of begin hit in the face with a wet kipper. I got the same slap from your next president… ouch)
There’s one of the many problems she faces. She was never likable. She has never liked people very much. When you get to her age, the desire and energy to fake it fades. For someone with a sincerity problem, this is not a good thing. It’s why they try so hard to keep her out of the spotlight. The more she is seen, the less she is liked.
A lot of people here see her dishonestly. It literally pains me to here her speak as every word comes across as a grating lie. A lot of women, including my wife, despise her.
I doubt she’ll win. Hillary is just a horrendous politician. She has won a single election in her life – and lost what should have been a sure thing to an unknown, unqualified first-term Senator in 2008. Given her scandals and health problems, it’s not a sure thing that she will even be on the ballot in November.
I think if the Democrats had anyone they could run as an alternative, Clinton would be under indictment. My sense is Team Obama is happy to see her flame out and will allow the steady drip of scandal to go on through the summer. On the one hand they get to pretend to be shielding one of their own, but in so doing they cripple her campaign. As I said, she has all the baggage of Nixon, but none of the savvy or a natural constituency she can tap for support.
ZMan, the democrats did have someone they could have run as an alternative: Joe Biden. I would love to know the real story behind why he never got in the race. I suppose he still could as an Independent, but time is running out.
Hillary’s 2016 campaign reminds me a bit of Bush the Minor’s 2000 effort in that it started very early and focused on draining the money pool and sewing up insider support. In 2000, Bush could pull this off as the public was ready for a change in party. He also had a respectable name. Jeb tried to repeat this, but the Bush name is now crap and the voters are just as pissed at the GOP as the Democrats.
By the time Biden got serious, Hillary owned all the party machinery and Bernie owned the Progressive machinery.
That said, I will not be shocked if Hillary drops out and the Democrats pull the old switcharoo.
Yes that is possible, I think if that scenario is in play, you will see Obama turn the DOJ loose and let them indict her. Then they will pressure her to step aside, “for the good of the party”, and then try to install Biden. But that would enrage the Bern Victims so badly that a significant fraction of them would sit out or vote for Trump, possibly putting the Democrats back where they started– a no-win situation. My guess is, they’ve already done this calculation and passed on the Biden option. And frankly, I’m sure Biden doesn’t have the energy for an independent run, as it’s late in the game, and he’s a really old man.
“Hillary’s 2016 campaign reminds me a bit of Bush the Minor’s 2000 effort…..”
Please Z-man, its Bush the Punier.
Don hasn’t even touched her health yet. Oh boy.
The talk of July will be Healthy Hillary. Game Over.
She is probably the most dreadful candidate ever. Don’t forget the Dems have their own problems with Bernie. His supporters don’t like the way they are being shown that their votes don’t matter. They will stay home during the General or give Trump the vote.
She is almost reptilian in person. And is worse when Bill (or at least the old Bill, not the Casper meets Skeletor version today) is around–he simply sucked in all the oxygen leaving her standing there making “knowing nod” movements.
I’ve noticed (beginning some months ago) that the commentariat in various lefty (e.g., Boston Globe) forums began referring to John Kasich as the “sensible” “grown up” Republican candidate. Now Romney wants him to run third-party. Today I see his name floated as Hillary’s running mate. That wouldn’t surprise me at all. See the article “Hillary: the Conservative Hope” by Bret Stephens in the May 9 WSJ. The masks are falling. The establishment is for the establishment. This may be the last election where they even pretend to court our vote.
She doesn’t have a card left. She is holding the 3 of clubs. Don has the Ace of Spades.
Great to see a no bs call on the election. All those Republicans in short pants were and are terrified of the inevitability of Hillary. But Trump is no Republican. And oh yeah, women are just gong to hate hearing how successful the Donald is with the women. That issue about crushed Bill, and Jack too before he got capped. Come to think of it, they even gave a day to Marty jr. What women hate is a guy who can’t get laid.