Nice Guys Finish Last—Against Hillary By William McGurn
http://www.wsj.com/articles/nice-guys-finish-lastagainst-hillary-1439852872
The only way a Democrat can defeat Mrs. Clinton is by making an issue of her Nixon-like character.
At least since 1968, Democratic campaigns for the party’s presidential nomination have been loud and raucous affairs. This is in marked contrast to the Republicans, who have traditionally operated more like the Elks, bestowing their nomination on some distinguished elder whose “turn” it is to run—whether Bob Dole in 1996 or John McCain in 2008.
Today the parties appear to have switched. Now it is Democrats who look set to nominate their elder, Hillary Clinton, in what has so far been the wimpiest nomination fight in history.
The switch is particularly baffling given that each new day brings new headlines quoting Democratic insiders panicked by what the growing scandal over Mrs. Clinton’s handling of classified information means for the party. Thus the whispering campaign, here floating Joe Biden or Al Gore or John Kerry as an alternative; there noting the turnout for Bernie Sanders; here again watching the FBI seize Mrs. Clinton’s email server and fretting about a nightmare scenario where she enters the 2016 election under federal indictment or investigation by a special prosecutor.
Mrs. Clinton’s woes are striking. Even more striking, however, is the disconnect with the actual Democratic race. At a time when Mrs. Clinton’s greatest weakness is her integrity—polls show most Americans believe her dishonest—her Democratic rivals all refuse to make an issue of it.
Take Bernie Sanders. Notwithstanding the enthusiasm that the independent senator from Vermont has generated, the first CNN/ORC poll of likely Democratic caucusgoers in Iowa highlights his own disconnect.
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In only one category does Mr. Sanders trump Mrs. Clinton: honesty. Yet this is the one area where Mr. Sanders refuses to go. At a college campaign rally in Iowa on Sunday, he put it this way:
“Time after time I’m being asked to criticize Hillary Clinton,” he said. “The reason this campaign is doing well is because we’re talking about the issues that impact the American people.”
Here’s the problem with this strategy. First, whatever disagreements the Democratic candidates have on the big issues—from foreign policy and the economy to health care—they are more about nuance than substance.
Second, if the Democratic voters want their nominee to go in a given direction, Mrs. Clinton is bound to get there first. For example, former Defense Secretary Robert Gates disclosed in his memoirs how Mrs. Clinton admitted she had come out against George W. Bush’s 2007 troop surge in Iraq because she was trying to outflank Barack Obama in the coming Iowa caucus.
The point is, Mrs. Clinton cannot be beaten in her party on policy differences, especially given her advantages in money, in endorsements, in the out-sized influence she and her husband exert over their party. The only way a Democrat might defeat Mrs. Clinton is by breaking the protective silence and making an issue of her Nixon-like character.
But Mr. Sanders isn’t the only one to adopt the see-no-evil approach. Former Maryland Gov. Martin O’Malley says voters aren’t interested in Mrs. Clinton’s emails, and this past Sunday he told the host of CBS’s “Face the Nation,” John Dickerson, “I will leave you to ask Secretary Clinton” about her use of a private server.
Even Jim Webb, the former Virginia senator who is arguably the Democrat most likely to break with party niceties, so far has not confronted Mrs. Clinton here. At the Iowa State Fair this past weekend we saw the result of all the pulled punches: Mrs. Clinton was left to spin her growing email scandal on her own terms.
Only Lincoln Chafee, the former Rhode Island governor and senator, has been willing to say that Mrs. Clinton’s ethics are something “we should be talking about.” Still, the most Mr. Chafee has mustered is a tepid reference to her “self-inflicted wounds.”
Maybe these Democrats think they can beat Mrs. Clinton by harping on her Wall Street pals or her vote as senator for the Iraq war. More likely is that they understand the cost of a real attack: Unlike her rivals, Mrs. Clinton has proved she can play rough, and she and her husband have the money and machine to do it.
The other big problem for Mrs. Clinton’s rivals is that today’s Democratic Party has no figures with the power and stature to take on the Clintons. It was different in 2008, when Sen. Ted Kennedy was still around.
After a phone call from Bill Clinton that offended Kennedy, the Massachusetts senator gave a barnburner of a speech at American University—Caroline Kennedy, JFK’s daughter, by his side—anointing Mr. Obama as the future of the party. In so doing, Kennedy not only endorsed Mr. Obama but provided cover for any Democrats who wanted off the Clinton train.
Not today. Today we have a Democratic Party where insiders are said to be frantic over a growing Hillary Clinton scandal that not one of her rivals for the nomination is willing to mention.
Write to mcgurn@wsj.com.
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