Ken Berwitz
What does a major news organization which loves and supports HillaryClinton – oh, I don\’t know, maybe the New York Times – do when, in her firstprimary, she essentially ties with a political nonentity who no one ever heardof a few months ago…and is almost certainly about to get her pants-suithanded to her by that same political nonentity next week? How in the worlddo you spin this into a cause for optimism?\’\’
Here\’s how, via an Associated Press article in today\’s Times:
Hillary Clinton emerged from Iowawith a razor-thin victory over Bernie Sanders – and a new round of nervoussecond-guessing from supporters.
Topping the list of concerns isClinton\’s staggering disadvantage with young voters, a crucial Democraticconstituency that overwhelmingly sided with Sanders. Clinton supportersare also worried that the campaign is still struggling with a muddled message,a problem that plagued her not only in the opening months of this campaign butalso in her failed 2008 White House bid.
But this time the Democratichand-wringing is balanced by something more positive: cautious optimismthat she has an organization that might overcome her weaknesses.
“Momentum was withSanders”, said Mo Elleithee,a former Clinton campaign aide. “The organization kicked in, and she got scrappy.”
There you go. Hillary\’s organization is going to save theday, because it gets her scrappy.
That is how the Associated Press is trying to explain away what, from a political standpoint, was a devastating loss in Iowa (maybe even a numerical one, given the accusations that cheating put her ahead), and a likely devastating loss in New Hampshire.
How stale must Hillary Clinton be to young Democrats, for them to consider Bernie Sanders, a 74 year old relic with 40 years in elective politics, the fresher of the two?
And do not believe the people who tell you that Sanders will only win New Hampshire because he is from the neighboring state of Vermont. For eight years, Hillary Clinton was a U.S. Senator from New York. Check your maps: that ain\’t the other side of the country.
No, if Bernie Sanders beats Hillary Clinton there – which all indications are that he will – it is for the same reason he won in Iowa: a lot of people are tired of and fed up with Hillary Clinton. And all the “organization and scrappy” rationalizing in the world is not going to change that.
To be continued after the New Hampshire primary….
