How can Hillary Clinton embark on a presidential campaign by telling us she is re-inventing herself, and then expect to be taken as in any way sincere?
The odds on that are pretty long. Especially when compared to other presidential candidates who do not have to “re-invent” themselves, and are just being themselves.
Excerpted from Mark Thiessen\’s latest piece for the Washington Post:
The whole purpose of Clinton\’s road trip was to counter the image of her as a creature of Washington who can\’t relate to regular folks. Instead, she highlighted that fact by planting party insiders posing as regular folks.
Clinton made a big deal about driving across the country in a van, just as regular Americans do. But even that simple idea backfired. First, she picked an ominous black van with tinted windows as dark as her shades. And second, by her own admission, she hasn\’t been behind the wheel since 1994. She wasn\’t driving across country; she was being driven across country. Big difference.
Meanwhile, Scott Walker announced in Nashua this weekend that he plans to visit all of New Hampshire\’s 10 counties on his Harley. Word is that he will actually be driving himself. In Concord, Jeb Bush said at a GOP event that when he goes to Chipotle, “Drive my own car. Park my own car. Get out of my own car.” The former Florida governor (who lived in Mexico and whose wife is from Mexico) added, “We normally cook our own Mexican food at home – it\’s pretty good.”
See the difference?
Look, all of these people currently lead elevated lives. Some, like Bush, have always had the chance to (though his background tells you that he voluntarily lived very differently) and some, like Walker, have not.
But the only one who has to put on a patently fraudulent dog and pony show to “prove” commonality with average folks is Hillary Clinton. And it has about as much chance of succeeding as a tomato garden in northern Siberia.
In his 1881 classic story “The Prince and the Pauper”, Mark Twain tells us of a prince who lives a royal life far from the common people, and is unwillingly cast into the real world, where he finds out how common people live and adjusts his thinking about them.
In the not-so-classic 2016 presidential season, Hillary Clinton\’s political advisors tell us of a princess, who lives a royal life far from the common people, and willingly goes out into the real world where she tries to show the common people that she lives just like them so they will adjust their thinking about her.
Somehow, Mr. Twain\’s version works a bit better.
