Sam Smith – As long as we seem to be headed towards the election with the worst pair of major party candidates in American history, it’s useful to consider some damage control.
Voting Democratic is clearly the best damage control route since we’re also de facto choosing some Supreme Court justices and perhaps even turning the Senate around, not to mention selecting the battlefield on which we want to struggle for the next four years.
But we should keep in mind that the election is still six months away and a lot could happen in that time, especially since the FBI is doing a criminal investigation of the Democratic choice. Further, the GOP has yet to launch their real attack on Clinton and no telling what that may produce.
Clinton’s liberal backers – whose loyalty includes believing that nothing possibly can go wrong – should be aware of some basic facts, such as that her favorability rating has declined from 61% in August to 36% in April. That’s a 25 point drop compared with Bernie’s 23 point rise from 29% in August to 52% in April. In comparison, Obama’s favorability went up in his first election year from the mid fifties to the mid sixties. Even in his second run his favorability was at its worst in the low fifties. almost twenty points about where Clinton is now.
In short, Clinton – given her stats as well as numerous ethics problems (which are not imaginary) – is an extraordinarily high risk candidate.
The convention could recognize this and go for Sanders but it doesn’t look likely.And what if she has to pull out of the race after she’s nominated? The Democratic National Committee gets to choose a replacement. Let’s hope it doesn’t get that bad, but we shouldn’t kid ourselves. This is not a happy contest.
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