Hillary Clinton hopes to stage a comeback in New Hampshire tomorrow after her dismal showing last week in Iowa, but that may prove more difficult than anyone could have predicted a week ago. She has lost the mantle of inevitably; Clinton is no longer the presumptive nominee. Her lead over Barack Obama in New Hampshire evaporated after he trounced her in Iowa. Is it possible that the Americans who, inexplicably, admire the Clintons have finally come to their senses? Dare we hope that their presence on the political scene — our long national nightmare — is nearly over?
Hillary Clinton faces a major obstacle in recovering her front-runner status: Historically, she has found favor with the public only by pretending to be something she is not. When her husband was first elected governor of Arkansas, his scruffy, refried ’60s wife — Ms. Rodham — was not well-received. Only after she reinvented herself as the preppy, headband-wearing Mrs. Clinton, did Arkansans warm to their first lady.
When Bill ran for president and claimed her as an asset – Americans would get two presidents for the price of one – the public declined the offer. That prompted Hillary’s bitter observation that she could have “just stayed home and baked cookies.” When she became first lady, Americans rejected her proposals for remodeling the nation’s health care system – and they tired of scandals traced to her: the White House travel office firings, the questions about Whitewater, the scent of financial chicanery in her business investments.
Invariably, she lashed out at her critics and incurred even more criticism. Routinely, she was compelled to don her pink suit and try to project a softer image.
But now she is a knownquantity; it’s tougher to pull off pretense. For instance, Clinton presents herself as an agent of change when what she’s peddling is a return to the past. The Clintons were banking on Americans wanting to return them to the White House, hoping to restore the boom days of the 1990s. But whenever her haggard husband stands behind her – the years of dissipation showing in his face – it is a stark reminder that another Clinton administration would be a step backward rather than forward.
Hillary Clinton also bills herself as the candidate with experience, but that, too, is an artful construct. Obama has been a senator since 2004, Clinton since 2000. Her so-called experience consists almost entirely of being a spectator to her husband’s career. Granted, she had the best seat in the house; but if she had season tickets on the Redskins 50-yard line, that wouldn’t qualify her to quarterback the Super Bowl.
Unfortunately for her, she is most experienced in being Hillary Clinton. That is her biggest drawback because — stripped of pretense — she is profoundly unlikable. Clinton’s response to criticism is to demonize the critic; her natural state is attack mode. She blamed her poor showing in Iowa on that state’s practice of holding caucuses in the evenings. “[In New Hampshire] you’re not disenfranchised if you work at night,” she sneered. “You’re not disenfranchised if you’re out of state.”
She simply cannot accept that many Iowans did not vote for her for good reasons. Do they really want another two-for-one Clinton presidency? Even more frightening, do they want her husband trolling in the White House again?
Demonstrating the skillfully veiled malice that is a Clinton hallmark, she recently attacked the other candidates’ character without giving specifics to which they could respond. “Of all the people running for president,” she said, “I’ve been the most vetted, the most investigated and — my goodness — the most innocent.” If Clintoncan get the public to accept that, she will have pulled off the pretense of a lifetime.
Unlike the most successful politicians, Clinton lacks the graciousness to understand that opponents don’t have to be adversaries. Like Richard Nixon, she views anyone who disagrees with her as an enemy. Consequently, she has a lot of them. Were the results in Iowa an indication that that has finally taken a toll? Could the Clintons actually be on the verge of becoming little more than an unhappy memory? Tomorrow, voters in New Hampshire will give us a clue and — if Clinton loses there — hope.
Examiner Columnist Melanie Scarborough lives in Alexandria.
