For those of you who think Hillary is going to blow it again, a few of David Atkins’ posts at the Washington Monthly will fuel your fire. Sample:
Inevitability is bad for candidates. It makes them careful, comfortable and defensive. No modern candidate should want it. If a candidate is fortunate enough to hold a lead in an intra-party presidential primary, they should follow the opposite of their instincts and their consultants’ advice and stay hungry: hold rallies, initiate bold legislative proposals and make provocative statements to win a news cycle or two.
The American people have an intense anger at elites right now, and they feel both culturally and economically insecure. Inevitable candidates run the risk of incurring their anger as the entrenched elites who need to be removed. It’s perhaps the most dangerous position for a modern presidential candidate to hold.
Here are a couple more that detail some ugly recent polls for Hillary.
Overall, I don’t know if I agree with this. Sanders is certainly exciting a core group of progressives and beating Hillary in a couple of polls, but it’s too early to take polls of a generally unengaged electorate too seriously. And getting the hell out of the way of Trump as he heads to his almost certain death from overexposure is probably the smartest thing any Democrat can do at this point. Still, even though I fully expect to vote for Clinton next Fall, I can definitely imagine a thousand ways the Clinton campaign could blow it.