海角大神

Reacting in part to this week's latest revelations about donations to the Clinton Foundation from 2009 to 2013,聽Chris Cillizza聽argues that Hillary Clinton鈥檚 biggest problem going forward is likely to be Hillary Clinton herself:

In support of his argument, Cillizza points to聽a poll released today from Quinnipiac University:聽(the same poll I referenced in the post earlier today about Marco Rubio):

This has been an issue for Clinton from the beginning, of course. Even in 2008, there were many who wondered whether voters would really be eager to return to the Clinton era, given that such a return is just as likely to mean a return of the ethical questions and partisan warfare that marked the better part of the 1990s as it is to mean a return to an economy that was booming largely for reasons unrelated to President Clinton鈥檚 policies. Additionally, to put it bluntly, Hillary Clinton has never seemed to be able to project the same sense of, well, warmth, that her husband did when he was running for and serving as president, and that we鈥檝e come to know in his years since leaving office. Unlike Bill, Hillary tends to come across as far more taciturn and far less empathetic than her husband, and this plays into much of the reason that Mrs. Clinton does not poll well on questions regarding honesty and trustworthiness. In addition to that, though, the history of the Clinton administration itself, which Mrs. Clinton was heavily involved in from the beginning, includes many instances where the trustworthiness of the president, the first lady, or those speaking on their behalf was questionable at best. Voters faced with a choice between Hillary Clinton and someone else in 2016 may have to decide just how eager they are to return to that era.

The other characteristic of American politics from the Clinton era, of course, was the never-ending stream of accusations and partisan attacks that were aimed at president and Mrs. Clinton from critics on the right virtually from the time he announced his candidacy for president. There were substantive political issues that were part of the attacks such as the administration鈥檚 push for gun control bills in Congress and the first lady鈥檚 aborted health-care reform initiative, and of course once the Republicans took control of Congress in 1994 there were frequent battles over the federal budget and other issues that continued for several years until both the White House and Congress came to their senses and realized that they needed to work together to get anything done. In addition to those policy disputes, the Clinton years also saw a wide variety of fringe accusations and conspiracy theories become part of the mainstream political discussion. To a large degree, this was due to the rise of the Internet, talk radio, and cable news, but whatever the cause, it was the beginning of a political culture that has only gotten worse over the years. Given how much frustration they鈥檝e expressed with the way Washington has worked in recent years, one wonder how eager voters may be to return to the era that gave birth to today鈥檚 political culture.

Just as Mrs. Clinton has baggage, of course, the Republican Party does as well. Both due to their party鈥檚 position on issues such as same-sex marriage and immigration and because of the gridlock that they have been responsible for during the Obama administration, the public reputation of Republicans is quite low, notwithstanding the outcome of the elections in 2010 and 2014. Additionally, the party has been hurt by things such as the inability of some of its politicians to keep quiet on an issue as seemingly radioactive as abortion and rape. Notwithstanding Clinton鈥檚 own problems, the GOP鈥檚 problems may be enough to give her an edge when the general election rolls around. Whatever the outcome, though, it seems pretty clear that American voters are going to be faced with two rather unpalatable choices in 2016. If that鈥檚 the case, then you can expect a lot of them to just decide to stay home on Election Day.

Doug Mataconis appears on the Outside the Beltway blog at http://www.outsidethebeltway.com/.