The State Department’s Award for Corporate Excellence is a prestigious honor for U.S. corporations, established in 1999. It “recognizes the important role U.S. businesses play abroad as good corporate citizens.”
So what makes a good corporate citizen of the world? It turns out that when Hillary Clinton is secretary of state, this quality strongly correlates with donations to the Clinton Foundation. The Washington Examiner‘s Sarah Westwood reported Thursday that 22 out of 37 corporate nominees for the award during Clinton’s tenure — and six of the eight winners in those four years — just happened to be donors to the Clinton Foundation.
Naturally, if even serious official decisions about foreign ownership of American uranium can fall under the cloud of Clinton cash, then it is hardly surprising that an insignificant award could as well. Clinton’s campaign probably has little to worry about these scandals for now. If the Clinton era has taught America anything — from Gennifer Flowers to Marc Rich, and on to President Clinton’s post-presidential popularity — it is that Democratic voters can forgive a scoundrel. For example, the latest Quinnipiac poll shows that only 75 percent of Democrats believe Clinton to be “honest and trustworthy” (17 percent say she is not) yet between 85 and 90 percent plan to vote for her, depending on which Republican she faces.
But what Democrats will not forgive is a scoundrel who is also a loser. This is why a new poll should have Team Clinton more concerned than any number of apparently conflicted or corrupt arrangements ever could.
The survey, released Monday by Virginia’s Christopher Newport University, should be seen as nothing more than an early warning sign. It shows Clinton trailing Jeb Bush in the Commonwealth, 48 to 46 percent, after Barack Obama carried Virginia twice. She only narrowly leads most other Republicans — edging Rand Paul by two points, for example — despite her vastly superior (96 percent) name recognition in the state.
For now, this is just one poll, and an obscure one at that. It’s still very early in the election cycle, and this means little in terms of next year’s presidential race.
But if polls like this one begin to pile up in important presidential swing states, then Democratic voters and donors will begin to question the wisdom of their one-woman field in 2016 and the expected Clinton coronation.
Clinton is already not every liberal’s cup of tea. But up to now, her potential to overwhelm the opposition with financial resources and keep the White House in Democratic hands has made her, as President Obama might say, “likable enough” for the base. This advantage of inevitability is now in danger.
If Clinton can’t maintain her early lead over her Republican competitors throughout this year, don’t be surprised to see one or more of Clinton’s longshot Democratic challengers gain traction and perhaps even repeat President Obama’s feat of toppling her in 2008.
