Here it is, just months before Election Day, and I'm feeling 95 percent sure we can already call it. I'm not talking about the midterms this fall; I'm talking about the presidential election 28 months from now. Yes, I'm that sure Hillary Clinton will win the 2016 presidential race.
So there's no need for the Divide America industry to gin up billions in presidential attack ads — the GOP may as well save their cash for Congressional races, which they have been good at winning lately. Still, we can expect a steady anti-Hillary diet of Benghazi along with a side of Lewinsky. Heck, they'll eventually field a candidate, but it won't be enough. Hillary is a nightmare for today's GOP. She has foreign policy experience. She lived in the White House for eight years. She was a U.S. Senator. She already ran for president once. And she is a woman, so she can righteously bring the hammer down on all the dissers of her sisters.
Back in 2008, I favored Barack Obama in part because I thought Hillary had too much baggage — how could we get anything done when the Republicans had such a primal aversion toward her? The past six years have shown that it wasn't her — Republicans are fine hating on any old Democrat.
So Republicans probably deserve Hillary Clinton. But lately it even feels like they're rolling out the red carpet for her. Letting the Tea Party wrap their anchor around the GOP and doing nothing on immigration reform are two great ways to deliver votes to Hillary, according to former White House insider and CNN commentator David Gergen. The Tea Party has just 15 percent support, according to a May CBS News poll; and by fanning the anti-immigration flames, the GOP is turning its back on Jeb Bush and Chris Christie, perhaps the only candidates who could actually win.
I'd love to see some new blood — not just in the White House, but all over Congress. But the Dems won't allow it. Watch carefully: As Hillary Clinton remains cagey, her handlers are ironing out every possible wrinkle. When she announces her candidacy — and she will — her nomination will be a done deal. No actual voters will need to bother.
And don't think the GOP is much better — they want to wean the voters out of the process, too. They've already limited the number of primary debates after the 2012 self-inflicted bloodbaths between party giants like Rick Perry, Michele Bachmann and Herman Cain.
We worry about apathy, lack of trust in government and politicians who seem to have forgotten who they work for. Here, 28 months out, the next presidential cycle is already looking like more proof that our leaders would prefer we just stay out of their business. ♦
