Despite Hillary Clinton’s disappointing book sales, and a gaffe-prone publicity tour, she remains the prohibitive favorite for the Democratic nomination. If anything, the last few weeks have only confirmed her advantage. Despite these disappointments and mis-steps, there is no substantial anti-Clinton movement building in the party. All we hear are crickets.

This is very peculiar, when we think about the role that the Clintons have long occupied in the Democratic party. They have long had a troubled relationship with the left wing. Bill Clinton left it on the outside looking in after the Republican wave election of 1994. He dealt with congressional Republicans on taxes, welfare, and entitlement reforms, with the left having little or nothing to do with it. Indeed, if you believe Steven Gillon’s account in The Pact, Clinton and Newt Gingrich were on the cusp of a grand bargain over entitlements and taxes that would have “privatized” Social Security, which liberal Democrats have harangued the GOP over. The only thing that killed the deal was the Monica Lewinsky scandal.