Last week I posted a first attempt at a Thursday Hillary Bash. Here's week two's installment, broken down into a few different items.
Installment 2A: Did Hillary get it right on Egypt? Either she was lying, or she was clueless. Watch and see:
Installment 2A: Did Hillary get it right on Egypt? Either she was lying, or she was clueless. Watch and see:
Installment 2B: A bit of not-a-good-week-for-Clinton news indicates her polling has not fared so well in the last little while. Via HotAir last week,, Allahpundit points out the results;
Her leads over Jeb Bush and Rand Paul in hypothetical match-ups have also shrunk to single digits, which is … encouraging, I guess? Despite ample evidence that State knew just how dangerous Benghazi was for diplomats stationed there and did little to demand appropriate security, Hillary’s popularity remains sufficiently strong to keep her ahead of every prominent Republican. What you’re seeing in these new numbers, I think, is less a reaction to Benghazi specifically than to her re-emergence as a polarizing “political figure.” For four years, as diplomat-in-chief, she was even further above the fray than President Above the Fray was. There was residual sympathy for her over losing a tough race in 2008, and she sure did seem to be working hard at State even though her actual foreign-policy accomplishments remain obscure. (She helped put together the “reset” with Russia, which is working out smashingly right now in Syria.) As you can see above, she remains almost uniformly popular with Democrats; it’s Republicans and independents who’ve soured on her a bit over the last three months, her favorables among the GOP dropping from 27 to 18 percent and among indies from 59 to 46 percent. Her topline number of 52 percent remains impressive at a moment when virtually every major politician on the American landscape is in negative territory, but compare that figure to where she’s been over the past five years.
She's still in friendly territory but headed in the wrong direction. This far out, that's a good sign for those of us who don't want to see a victorious Hillary 2016.
Installment 2C: Even Politico is now questioning her coronation.
The rest of Clinton’s record reads like an excruciatingly long CV that seeks to overwhelm with content but out of which nothing particularly impressive pops out.She carpetbagged her way into a safe New York Senate seat but did little that was particularly notable during eight years in which she mainly seemed to be nesting on Capitol Hill until she could hatch her presidential campaign.Though lacking qualifications for the job, she was chosen secretary of state after her failed presidential bid as part of President-elect Obama’s “Keep Your Enemies Closer” strategy — often misinterpreted as a “Team of Rivals” approach — and proceeded to again do little that was remarkable.She worked hard, of course, traveling incessantly, but there never appeared to be any grand plan or theory of world politics going on inside her head.She’ll be remembered more for her failures, including a “reset” button with Russia that was mistranslated and then ultimately failed to work, the ascension to power of Muslim fundamentalism in the Middle East, the failure to protect the U.S. mission in Benghazi, and the editing by her aides of the talking points framing the cause of the Benghazi attack. Meanwhile Iran continued on the path toward an atom bomb and tens of thousands died in Syria at the hands of Bashar Assad, whom she had suggested was a “reformer.”
Not a good few weeks for Hillary.
