OPINION:
As Republicans face historical trends that make their 2018 mid-term prospects look bleak, they seem to continue to find positive electoral prospects from an unusual ally: Hillary Clinton.
.@LarryOConnor: “I’m begging Hillary to stay on the stage— it’s the best thing Republicans have going for them right now.” https://t.co/VwbhKQiOVK @foxnewsnight pic.twitter.com/fk3PRb4xiY
— Fox News (@FoxNews) March 22, 2018
Unlike Mitt Romney, who faded into the background for several years after his loss to Barack Obama in 2012, Clinton is still making headlines on an international tour designed to sell her book and boost her ego.
Last week’s folly in India where she said she lost the presidency in 2016 because of the sexist, racists in middle America and white, married women who only vote the way their husbands tell them dominated the news cycle for days.
“We do not do well with white men and we don’t do well with married, white women. And part of that is an identification with the Republican Party, and a sort of ongoing pressure to vote the way that your husband, your boss, your son, whoever, believes you should.”
“I won the places that represent two-thirds of America’s gross domestic product. So I won the places that are optimistic, diverse, dynamic, moving forward. And his whole campaign, ’Make America Great Again,’ was looking backwards.”
Republicans are starting to realize that those areas Clinton is referring to, are also the areas where 10 Democrats are facing reelection this November. And linking those incumbents to Hillary is just good politics.
Witness the latest ad in Missouri from Republican Josh Hawley:
Devastating.
And it’s only begun. McCaskill and her fellow Democrats who continue to vote with Chuck Schumer and Nancy Pelosi can’t run from their records and they can’t run from their support for the deeply unpopular former Secretary of State.
As challenging as it may be for Republicans to run in the Trump era, Hillary’s refusal to fade away with whatever dignity she has left is nothing but a boon for the GOP. And why should she fade away, anyway? First of all, she’s making good money. And, let’s face it, the Clinton’s have always loved every opportunity to grub a little more money… no matter how odious the endeavor.
But Hillary’s refusal to go away runs even deeper than the direct financial rewards she reaps from these appearances. There’s also a certain level of principled consistency behind her post-election “Bash American Voters Tour.”
She really thinks she deserves to be president. And she really thinks she won the election. And I haven’t seen any prominent Democrats bold enough to contradict her fever dreams. It’s basically official Democratic Party dogma that Trump is illegitimate, Hillary should be the president and Putin illegally stole the election for his puppet.
If that’s what one truly believes, than why shouldn’t Hillary Clinton be out there every day screaming from the rooftops that she got robbed?
If Democrats really believe the dangerous and destructive “Russian collusion” rhetoric they keep repeating and raising money on, they should embrace Hillary’s public temper tantrum against the American voter. They should make 2018 all about her. Hillary Clinton should be front and center in every senate race. The message should be “right the wrong of 2016.” and “Justice for Hillary!”
McCaskill, Joe Manchin, Heidi Heitkamp, Bill Nelson, Tammy Baldwin, Jon Tester, Sherrod Brown, Debbie Stabenow, Joe Donnelly and Bob Casey Jr., all Democrats running in states that Trump won, should embrace their party’s leader. Stump with Hillary and have her explain to their state’s voters how they only voted for the president because of their racist, sexist and backward thinking. This is what the party believes, so they should own the message.
Let’s see how that works out, shall we?
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