The 2016 election needs to be considered as follows:
Hillary wins by being a victim. It worked as First Lady when people thought she was a mean battleaxe, during the Monica affair, and in every election for her except for the last one. That’s because she waited too long to pull the card. If she did it 3 weeks earlier she’d have been wrapping her second term now. She knows it and her advisers know it and her supporters aren’t bright but implicitly they also know it.
She crushes weak candidates easily (strong Hillary) and strong candidates even more easily (victim Hillary). So from now on, every candidate has to be seen as how they would face one on one against her, and I don’t feel like anyone is doing that even though they probably feel like they are.
Hillary would destroy:
- Paul
- Santorum
- Perry
- Rubio
- Graham
- Snyder
- Bush
- Walker
- Pataki
Hillary would struggle with:
- Huckabee
- Cruz
- Trump
- Carson
- Jindal
- Fiorina
- Christie
- Bolton
Hillary would lose to:
- Kasich
What one needs is the right balance of smarts, guts, and detachment to get the job done.
Most of the ones on the “struggle” list have the guts and a few have guts and smarts.
She anticipated Obama’s smarts. She quickly learned of his detachment. But she wasn’t prepared for the guts. That was the Mortal Kombat move that finished her.
Voters don’t want to vote for a try-hard. You have to have a cool form of detachment from the process while remaining gutsy and involved.
Few have that combination and fewer still combine it with smarts.
That’s where Kasich becomes formidable.
And to steal a quote from Airplane — “the best chance we’ve got”.