This announcement is a bit of a catch 22 for Hillary who, through her silence, has maintained an overwhelming lead over all other potential democratic presidential hopefuls yet, through her announcement yesterday, Hillary has relinquished the luxury of being able to remain tight lipped.
Hillary will now have to face what will no doubt be a relentless barrage of attacks on her. She will be forced to answer questions pertaining to her less than stellar record as a US Senator as well as to her tenure as Secretary of State which was void of any notable achievements. On the foreign policy front she will certainly be challenges on her roll in destabilizing Libya as well as the infamous Russian reset. Maybe the most damaging will be the questions raised regarding her refusal to disclose what took place in her office for the eight hours during the Benghazi attack. And the course, the most recent issue to plague her long history of scandals and cover-ups, her continued attempts to hide the content of her State Department emails which she held in private until recently but did not release in hard copy until after scrubbing clean the email server to which they resided. There are plenty more shortcomings in her political career, each one of which is likely to find its way to the surface at the aid of her political opponents.
Entering in what most consider a pool of one, most assume Hillary’s defense against these attacks will be met with the standard comebacks that do little more than demonize the opposition and never answer a question. But what happens when the opposition comes from within her own party, what will she do then?
The only hope any democrat wishing to capture the presidential nomination has in beating Hillary is to take the very same approach that republicans will be taking. Voting democrats have place Hillary on such a high pedestal that her political positions and promises mean little if anything, she has sealed their endorsement and so it leaves little else but for her democratic opponents to go directly for her jugular. The danger of this is is that attacking Hillary on some of the very controversial issues and dealings she has been accused of being involved in exposes the party.
But after the past six, and then what will be eight long years of compromising the future of their political careers in order to protect the party, many democratic hopefuls are simply fed up. Democrat up and comers cannot help be feel some level of disdain for Hillary, whose current party popularity is driven by name and historical value only. Under the leadership of Hillary, many see a future of another 4 and possibly 8 years of a White House constantly under fire, political dysfunction and the further damaging of the Democratic Party brand.
The likelihood of no other democrat throwing their name in the hat is highly unlikely and you can be assured, anyone even considering doing so is already developing their anti-Hillary campaign. This will take huge pressure off of Republican’s who can remain focuses on policy issues and leave all the dirty work to those democrats who will be going after Hillary from a moral and ethical standpoint and who may even push the point of how damaging she could be to the future of the party.
Then there is the issue of the current administration and how Hillary will deal with following an unpopular president and a list of failed and failing policies. Another catch 22 for Hillary who has to be careful to not paint herself as an Obama 2.0 yet in order to disassociate herself from the current administration she has few options other than calling the Obama’s policies a mistake that have not served the better good of the nation.
And nobody is watching closer than the democratic hopefuls who are no doubt waiting in the wings and are ready to pounce on any opportunity Hillary presents them to damage her campaign. A savvy republican campaign will ensure that those opportunities transpire.
Hillary and Bill certainly have their work cut out for them. In their effort to defend Hillary’s past and separate her from the Obama Administration, they have to do so without playing to the hand of the Republican Party. This could prove to be the impossible task.
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