The repubs have no one who can beat her, all they have is a bunch of idiots who think the majority of people care about their social agenda. Be nice to have an independant run who actually had a platform of a fiscal tightwad and pushed that non stop
walrus speaks the truth! Never thought I'd write that...
What pundidiots as well as most of the lamestream media won't mention is that people will vote for Hillary due to the historic nature of her candidacy. To argue differently would be like stating that Catholics weren't that interested in seeing JFK elected President. Not saying any of this is right, it just is.
That was something overlooked in Obama's election. Older Americans who pulled the lever 3 times for Reagan-Bush I most likely voted for him. They voted for him because his election, regardless of him personally, signified that all those struggles of the 50's and 60's for Civil Rights had ultimately been victorious. All the beatings, jailings, murders in some cases, etc weren't for naught. Drove conservatives nuts, probably because they were never that into civil rights in the first place(I kid, I kid
) but people aren't robots. These things matter.
Now, take a look at Hillary. A bedrock supporter of the current Republican party is older married women. The very people who came of age in the 60's-70's. Its not realistic to think these people aren't going to be attracted to her candidacy, knowing full well it could the last time in their lifetimes they get this close to seeing a woman President. Couple that with the almost certainty that the GOP will nominate a hard right social issue warrior, and yet another piece of the GOP coalition, such as it is, breaks away at least for this election.
So, why Hillary? Two reasons:
1) Aside from Biden who else can stake a claim for the Dems? She's got the most experience, paid her dues, already ran once, etc. She also represents a continuation of the most successful Presidency in most people's memories. Sometimes the heir does end up winning the general election(Reagan, GWB).
2) In the general election, the Democrats can nominate a potted plant and win 250 electoral votes. I know this because they have nominated two potted plants (Gore, Kerry) who did just that. Meanwhile, the high water mark for Repubicans electorally in the last 6 (!) elections is 286. Now perhaps the party becomes more popular 3 years from now, or Republican Jesus gets the nomination, but assuming that doesn't happen she doesn't need to keep that much of the Obama coalition to win. As I'm guessing Rand Paul is the nominee it'll be a lot easier than that.
Final note: Chris Christie. IMHO he's the only potential candidate who can change the daunting electoral math. Presumably he puts NJ and PA in play. Doubt he plays well down South but maybe he grabs Rubio to put Florida in his column. This all sounds good, but he'd still have to draw a straight flush as NJ and PA haven't gone Republican since 1988 I believe.
More likely than not he doesn't make it out of the primary though, and I doubt he runs this time. Let some lunatic like Paul get nominated and then crushed. Serve out your term as governor, which ends in Jan 2018, which is perfect timing to pivot towards a Presidential run against a now 73 year old Hillary in 2020. Sorta sets up a reverse of the 1992 election theme of handing off to a younger generation (think Christie will still be in his 50's even by that point).
I mean, no wonder they're angry all the time.