Jonah Goldberg in The National Review writes Will Hillary’s Accomplishment Deficit Be Her Undoing

Excerpts:

So, the best case for her is that she weathered a lot of scandals and, to borrow Robert Hoover’s defense of the Delta Tau Chi fraternity in Animal House, Hillary Clinton has “a long tradition of existence.”

Supporters also said she knows how to get stuff done but can’t name anything she’s actually, you know, done. This is like praising a coach for knowing how to win football games but not being able to cite any actual wins.

In fairness to them, Clinton can’t name anything significant she did as secretary of state either — because she didn’t do anything very significant.

The consensus inside the Beltway is that this isn’t a big problem for Clinton. I’m not so sure.

Swing voters put more emphasis on particular personalities. They also put a premium on their own self-conception as independent thinkers. Thus, they give a lot of weight to things like accomplishments, if for no other reason than to justify their “swing voterness.” If neither Clinton nor her fans can offer evidence she’s effective, that could hurt her among swing voters in swing states.

And that’s why the 2016 election will be an ugly affair. Going by her own fan base in Iowa, Clinton is not a fresh face. She has more baggage than the luggage-claim level at O’Hare Airport. Her record amounts to surviving scandals, many of her own making. Her most compelling selling point is that she’s a woman. And her strategists have decided she needs to energize the “Obama coalition” of low-information voters.

Read more at: http://www.nationalreview.com/article/418746/will-hillarys-accomplishment-deficit-be-her-undoing-jonah-goldberg

 

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