Queen of the Hill (Still)
I sort of regret watching the third democratic presidential debate on Saturday night. It was an unsurprising outcome, but the moment Hillary Clinton looked straight into the camera and ended her closing statement with, “May The Force be with you,” she confirmed for me that this is all a game of sorts — and that it is hers to win.
Many millennials look at candidates like Senator Bernie Sanders and feel the fire of hope and change, not rekindled at anytime since 2008. Still others look at Governor Martin O’Malley, albeit an nearly invisible candidate at times, he is seen by some as more relatable, handsome and pragmatic with seemingly practical ideologies aligned more with the popular dark horse Senator Sanders than the establishment candidate Secretary Clinton. Nevertheless, at this time, there was no other candidate on that dais who boasted the outward qualities of a president more than Hillary Clinton. She owned that stage Saturday evening more than she had in any other debate before. Maybe because she had finally gained a sense of political righteousness that Bernie Sanders had monopolized up until the short-lived Datagate (Even Bernie’s usual burn that he was the only candidate without a SuperPac was rather perfunctory and weak). Either way, I personally estimate she was talking at least 75% of the time, partly because of the other two invoking her name in their responses or challenges, but also because it seemed a bulk of the questions were either directed to Secretary Clinton or somehow she had more to say on the topic than the original responder. The common critique of debates are that they are, more often than not, mini stump speeches for individual candidates rather than actual substantive policy debate. Saturday night’s debate was all about Hillary.
FiveThirtyEight’s analysis shows that by all accounts Secretary Clinton is performing far better than any other past successful Democratic nominee was at this time. Did I mention that she has the most political endorsements, too? Not that it was a real competition there since we cannot even divide the endorsements of Bernie and O’Malley evenly between the two of them.
What this all means is that with only a handful of weeks until the Iowa caucuses and 3 debates to go in 2016, short of a miracle (i.e. a campaign blunder as large as Bernie Sanders’ Datagate), Hillary Clinton is nearly unstoppable in this race. There does not seem to be enough momentum anymore for Bernie while O’Malley’s campaign never seemed to pick up enough steam to hold the spotlight for more than two seconds (a reflection of just how exemplary Secretary Clinton and Senator Sanders’ political reputations are, not necessarily on O’Malley ability to lead). Some may disagree, but despite being consistently overshadowed by these two political titans, O’Malley is not the Lincoln Chafee of the Democratic Party. Time and time again he has made substantive contributions to the dialogue, advocating for more intelligence gathering and building (a sentiment that parallels President Obama’s own agenda as was described in his end-of-year interview with NPR), a de-escalation of conflict in the Middle East via negotiations with leaders rather than regime toppling (a view Bernie also shares, sort of?), increased efforts at coalition building with other nations in the War on Terror, fortifying national security through energy independence on a green agenda, and etcetera. Although O’Malley’s run as governor is criticized heavily by even Marylanders, the truth is, he has done well. But that’s not enough and I’m not sure that he will be able to do much with the few opportunities that he has left.
This primary is about who is strong enough to lead the Party after a presidency like Barack Obama’s. To lead the U.S. after him, in the face of the sort of candidates the Republican Party is touting, we need someone who exudes equal strength and cool, if not more, and has a foundation of experience upon which the American people can confidently rely upon. We need a candidate that can and is willing to conceivably bridge the divide between two seemingly diametrically opposed political parties. By all accounts, at this point in time, only one person has proven that she is that sort of candidate and that person is Hillary Rodham Clinton.
I should have watched Star Wars.
