Hillary's BIg Problem

Hillary Clinton. The name alone is enough to end a conversation and start an argument.  Ask 10 people off the street their opinion of Hillary and you are likely to get strong opinions. "Strong leader", "Butcher of Benghazi", "Liar", "Strong Policy Mind", the list could go on for days.

No one in the presidential race, save Donald Trump, has as much name recognition as Hillary, good or bad.  She was first lady, a U.S. Senator, Secretary of State and twice a presidential candidate.  And for all the ill will her political enemies have towards her, she currently holds a twenty point lead in most national polls over Bernie Sanders, her closest Democratic primary rival.  She millions of dollars in campaign funds at her disposal and yet Hillary has a big problem: Hillary.

But Clinton is no stranger to scandal.  Even since her early political days in the Arkansas state house, scandals have followed the family.  Her time in the White House was no different: Whitewater, Monica Lewinski, and the "vast right wing conspiracy" to name a few. 

Her time as Secretary of State may be even more troubling.  Between the Benghazi debacle, where four American's lost their lives and which the public still knows very little about, to her most recent and dogged scandal involving the use of unsecured private servers to send and receive official state department emails, many of which were deemed classified, her time as Secretary has definitely been tarnished. 

Which is why Hillary's biggest problem has always been Hillary. 

Her obstinate and aloof attitude towards the private server email scandal has already cut into her commanding primary leads. She is effectively losing Iowa and New Hampshire now and the threat of a Joe Biden(!) run threatens to cut into her lead even further.

So it's really no surprise that Hillary's camp is looking to reboot her campaign. The problem is, as Al Gore, John Kerry and Mitt Romney know and Scott Walker is finding out, these reinventions rarely work. They work even less effectively the more people know about you. And people know A LOT about Hillary.

So Hillary will go through the motions. She'll do easy interviews with friendly hosts and audiences, she'll show her affable and warm side (presuming such a side exists!), she may even steal some of the populist thunder from Sanders. 

The real question will always be: is anybody buying what she's selling?  I, for one, am not.

--Ray--