Cut Clinton some slack
By Dana Milbank
February 2, 2016
Q: When is a win not a win?
A: When the winner is Hillary Clinton.
The Iowa Democratic Party confirmed in its final tally Tuesday that Clinton had won Monday night’s caucuses. She not only beat Bernie Sanders but got more votes than any Republican candidate, and she becomes the first woman ever to win the Iowa caucuses. Clinton remains the prohibitive favorite to win the Democratic presidential nomination.
Yet from the coverage of Monday’s caucuses, you’d think Clinton was on the ropes.
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Why the disparate treatment? Some see sexism, which is difficult to prove. But there does seem to be a long-running game in which Clinton can never quite meet the expectations set for her, even if her actual achievements are considerable. She raised a ton of money — but Sanders raised almost as much! She won the Iowa caucuses — but she didn’t win by enough!
Yes, the narrow win in Iowa could make for a more protracted nomination battle. So would an expected loss in New Hampshire, which the media will likely attribute to Clinton’s weakness rather than Sanders being a New Englander (like previous New Hampshire victors Romney, John Kerry, Paul Tsongas, Michael Dukakis and Edmund Muskie). But it may have been a hard slog no matter who was in the race with Clinton: She’s a candidate of steadiness at a time when the electorate wants iconoclasts.
Voters, particularly young ones, are easily wooed by talk of free college and free health care. They can be intemperate (as demonstrated by the supporters at the Sanders rally in Des Moines on Monday night who booed Clinton when she appeared on television and chanted “She’s a liar!”) and can fall for unrealistic promises. But Clinton, to her credit, is not pretending to be something other than herself this time. “I come to you with a lifetime of service and advocacy and of getting results” was her less-than-soaring pitch here Tuesday.
https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/cut-clinton-some-slack/2016/02/02/5656a30e-c9f5-11e5-ae11-57b6aeab993f_story.html
Hillary has to fight on two fronts, attacks from the Left and the Right. Milbank is correct, the media acted as if she had lost, and lost by a country mile. They seemed disappointed that she was declared the winner. I can imagine the endless bloviating we can expect after the NH primary, if as predicted, Sanders wins it handily.
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Poor Hillary.
I think that Super Tuesday will give everybody a clearer picture of where this race is going.
It's just that I don't believe that he would be able to enact even a quarter of what he proposes. People came out in droves to see Obama, where did all that "hope and change" go? What Mario Cuomo used to say, and what Hillary has often quoted, is true. You campaign in poetry and you govern in prose. 60s Socialism will not come to fruition in this era. Young people graduate from college and move on. The majority of them will not start a revolution. Sanders was in Congress for 26 years. If he couldn't convince his fellow Congress critters to pass more progressive laws when he was a member, how would he do it as president? The Republicans have the largest majority in the House that they have had since 1929. A good portion of those Reps. are members of the Tea Party, not even Boehner could control them. One of the reasons why he got so frustrated that he resigned. The only thing in foresee in a Sanders presidency is gridlock.
Response to DrDan (Reply #25)
You prefer Sanders, that's your right. I don't and never will. Of course I would vote for him if he's the nominee, but I'll be wondering if Americans on the Left lost their minds as much as Americans on the Right.
Hopefully Sanders and his supporters will come down from the clouds soon and work to help Sec. Clinton beat the Republican nominee.
Welcome to DU! 
I think we know.
Feel the Bern!
excuse for our problems with her is that we have been brainwashed with right wing talking points! Got it? The right hates Wall Street and the military industrial complex, dontcha know?
The vast numbers of what was formerly called the base of the party: union folks, AA, gays, Hispanics, Asians, the middle class, etc. These are the people supporting her. I guess only the young and the very liberal are considered "real" people in Sanders' world?
No one here is changing anyone else's mind. We all know who we support.
I think that pointing out differences in policy between the candidates is fair game, but the personal attacks on a supposed Democratic site are as vicious as those on any RW site. That's what I object to and find disgusting. Many Hillary supporters have moved on to other sites. This one has always been anti-Clinton.
