Hillary Clinton may be the most qualified of all the 2016 presidential candidates, but she “struggles to connect” with voters, the Des Moines Register’s editorial board decided Friday morning.
The former secretary of State possesses a solid grasp of the issues, and proved this week during a meeting with the newspaper that she’s the best candidate for the job, they said. “She was not only well-informed and articulate, she was also personable, engaging and persuasive — all the qualities one would expect from an experienced lawyer, politician and diplomat,” the editorial read.
There are, however, some visible cracks in her candidacy.
“[S]he also was defensive and, in some respects, evasive, when discussing her use of a private email server to conduct State Department business,” the editorial board wrote, referring to an ongoing scandal that has prompted a criminal probe from the Federal Bureau of Investigation.
“When asked whether she thought her use of that server made her communications more vulnerable to hackers, she sidestepped the question entirely with a lawyerly response: ‘There is no evidence at all that my server was breached,'” the board added.
Clinton apologized this month for the scandal, saying in an interview with ABC News that using a private server was a “mistake.”
But as the Des Moines Register’s editorial board noted of its meeting this week with Clinton, the Democratic front-runner appeared less contrite, and more annoyed that people have suggested serious wrongdoing on her part.
“I’m sorry it has been so much the subject of speculation and curiosity,” she said in a remark of which the editorial board said, “perhaps [she didn’t realize] just how condescending that sounded.”
They added, “Clinton’s command of the issues is such that it’s almost inconceivable that she would commit the sort of verbal gaffe that has derailed the campaigns of other candidates.”
The board does make an effort, however, to cast Clinton in a sympathetic light, claiming that she is somehow being persecuted by political foes.
“In some respects, Clinton’s defensive posture is to be expected, if not excused. No other modern-day political figure has been subjected to the relentless barrage of scurrilous, wholly unfounded attacks, both personal and professional, that Hillary Clinton has endured for the past 23 years,” they write. “For the most part, she has handled it all very well. But there have been times, as the email scandal demonstrates, in which she has dismissed legitimate concerns about her conduct with the scorn and disdain that’s best reserved for the fringe elements who work 24/7 to disseminate anti-Clinton propaganda.”
And despite that she now appears to be making an effort address concerns about her leadership abilities, she still hasn’t shaken off the image that she’s merely going through the motions to capture the party’s nomination.
The board admits that, “Clinton’s tightly controlled, choreographed campaign events of the spring and summer, which were clearly intended to shield her from the press and the public, have helped fuel that perception.”
They then praise her for making herself more “forthcoming” and readily available for media interviews. This would include recent appearances with Ellen DeGeneres and Lena Dunham. Nevertheless, there are still problems.
“[I]t’s surprising that some of her policy positions are not fully fleshed out. When asked how she would address the issue of Social Security insolvency, for example, she said that for now she simply wants to challenge the Republican claim that because the program is in crisis, privatization must be considered,” they note.
“[L]ike most politicians,” they added. “Clinton’s greatest weakness seems to be her inability to recognize, or at least acknowledge, her own weaknesses. It’s an affliction that plagues almost everyone who dares to run for president, but it’s one that could, if she’s elected, greatly undermine Clinton’s performance in office — just as it has her campaign.”
If Clinton wants to do well in the forthcoming Iowa caucuses, the board concluded, she will need to continue to work hard to connect with voters. This means that she will need to do more to appear contrite for any possible past mistakes, and be willing to look like she has learned from them.
