The Democratic Race That Isn’t: Hillary Clinton will be the Democratic nominee in 2016
Psst.
Here’s the little secret nobody’s telling you:
Barring an unexpected, serious health crisis, or the emergence of a scandal far bigger and more substantive than the laughable “Emailgate” controversy, Hillary Rodham Clinton is going to be the Democratic nominee for president of the United States in 2016.
The Bernie Sanders campaign won’t tell you that, for obvious reasons. Surely, his team believes otherwise, while some — who are more tuned into the realities of the contest — simply want to keep him appearing viable as long as possible so he can continue getting the message out.
The Potomac punditocracy won’t tell you this, because if there’s no real contest on the Democratic side, there’s no story. If there’s no story, your attention will drift elsewhere. (Of course, these same people also told you Vice President Joe Biden was just hours away from declaring his candidacy, as if wishing upon that twinkling star would make all their dreams of a horse race come true.)
Even the Clinton campaign won’t tell you that the Democratic nomination is all but foreordained. The former Secretary of State’s team needs the appearance of a truly competitive race so progressive complaints about a “coronation” can be dismissed, and nobody likes a candidate who behaves as if he or she is a sure thing. Her perceived “inevitability” clearly worked against her in 2008, and her campaign is being careful to avoid a repeat.
The Clinton operation also understands that if donors believe she is in no danger, they’ll sit on their money and wait until the general election. This occurrence could hinder her ability to make her case to the public prior to the convention next July.
The behavior of both the Clinton and Sanders camps tells us the real story. Witness Team Hillary’s speedy and vehement denials that two recent Iowa polls showing Ms. Clinton with leads of more than 38 percentage points over Mr. Sanders were accurate. When was the last time you saw a campaign deny that it had a massive polling lead over its nearest opponent?
From Team Bernie, we get a revealing Bloomberg Politics interview of top Sanders campaign staffers postulating how to go negative—despite Mr. Sanders’ repeated boasts that he has never run a negative ad—and tweaking Ms. Clinton by saying they’d be happy to consider her for vice president. The gambit here is obvious: goad Ms. Clinton into attacking first so Mr. Sanders has cover for going negative in response...
http://observer.com/2015/10/the-democratic-race-that-isnt/
= new reply since forum marked as read
hold my nose and vote, after-all? Great News! Thanks! 
The more her team has to convince us that she is inevitable, the less inevitable she actually is.
