Clinton retreats deeper into her cocoon
With the conventional wisdom on the left congealing against the idea of even a symbolic challenge to Hillary Clinton's march to the Democratic nomination, her team is now publicly toying with the idea of continuing to delay the official launch until the middle of summer. On Monday, the campaign offered a sneak peak to Politico, indicating that the campaign would come out of the shadows in April.
In what appears to be a rebuttal to the staff assumptions from "a Democrat familiar with Clinton's thinking," the news site reports today that "the actual kickoff would be in July." Clinton would submit to partial scrutiny from the Federal Elections Commission starting in April, the story says, but would keep most of her operation off the books until the beginning of July. The stated reason: the candidate wants "develop her message, policy and organization." Because the previous 14 years of running for president haven't given them enough time to nail it down…
[Additional white dudes retained - Politico also reports that two 2012 Obama digital gurus are at the top of the list for Hillary's campaign-in-waiting, Teddy Goff and Andrew Bleeker.]
The money line in the rebuttal from whoever Politico was quoting in throne room is this: "[Clinton] doesn't feel under any pressure, and they see no primary challenge on the horizon. If you have the luxury of time, you take it." This should terrify Democrats. If the campaign cocoon is so dense and so deep that courtiers are publicly quibbling in the press about the right moment for the monarch butterfly to emerge, they are farther out of touch with reality than even previous reporting had indicated.
But if this really is Clinton herself speaking through an emissary, it would suggest the kind of stage fright that foretells a risk-averse, bloodless, pre-fab campaign. Sound familiar? Those were the hallmarks of Clinton's losing endeavor in 2008 and, if the leaks are to be believed, the tendencies have deepened in the past seven years. Clinton's book tour showed not a candidate who was "rusty" but one who was unwilling to acknowledge political reality. A rusty candidate might complain about being "dead broke." But only an arrogant one would insist that she was right to say so.
The first hazard of being so blithe as to say Clinton "doesn't feel any pressure" is that it would not take long for a Democratic revolt to spring up. The presumptive nominee could be caught unawares, like this guy. While Clinton would be hard to stop from seizing the nomination, the effort of quelling an insurrection might be a strain.
The other, larger, hazard is that this trend depicts a candidate who will not be ready to meet the challenges of the general election. The longer Clinton stays inside the palace, hiding her treasury and ducking behind her retainers, the harder her eventual emergence will be...Also read:
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