It is happening again. The media tell us there is a huge groundswell of support for Hillary Clinton to run for the presidency in 2016. Already an enormous political action committee has been formed. She is again — as she was in 2008 — the inevitable candidate and, by the way, the inevitable president. Moreover, the mainstream media are, of course, with her.

These are what I have been calling for over 20 years the media’s Episodic Apologists. Their professional lives have followed a well-worn arc since at least 1992 when the Clintons first emerged nationally — though the arc was there in Arkansas back in the 1980s. At first, the Episodic Apologists are full of hope for the Clintons — they have such charisma, such political promise. Then, splat, they fall headlong into a scandal of their own making — Troopergate, Travelgate, Monicagate, Impeachment, or their incomparable exit from the White House. Of a sudden, the Episodic Apologists fall into darkest despair. “How could they? They had it all,” and The Episodic Apologists’ funk continues.