Senator Bernard Sanders of Vermont has been making coy about running for President. He will be visiting Iowa this weekend and yesterday, as CNN reports, he established some distance between himself and Hillary Clinton, the nominee in waiting.
Mrs. Clinton has the money, the name recognition, the support of the media, and everything, it seems, except a willingness or ability to say or write (even with the help of ghost writers) anything interesting or original. If she runs – and she has promised to let us know by the end of the year – then it will be a long and unedifying campaign.
Mrs. Clinton can be challenged from within her own party. And should be. The Sanders dare points up her vulnerability on the matters of income inequality, her friendly relations with Wall Street, and her personal status and style as a member of the one-percent and the elite of the political class. And, then, there is her record as secretary of state in an administration whose foreign policy is in tatters. She has already attempted to put some daylight between herself and the president but there is only so much she can accomplish in this regard without alienating people she will need.
It would be good for Mrs. Clinton, and the nation, if she should be pushed into actually working for the nomination, rather than having it bestowed upon her like a crown.
So, please Senator Sanders, run. You, too, Senator Warren. And Governor O’Malley.
And bring it on, Jim Webb.
