Of the many people pawing through the tea leaves in an effort to understand the political implications of Tuesday's election there are likely none doing it with a more intense interest than Hillary Clinton and her advisers. What does it mean for her presidential aspirations? The New York Times has an article which takes the position that it is all good from her perspective.
Midterms, for Clinton Team, Aren’t All Gloom
The Democratic debacle in Tuesday’s midterm elections has put new urgency on Mrs. Clinton’s efforts to create a blueprint for a 2016 presidential candidacy, including exploring White Plains as a possible national headquarters and digesting exit polls to determine what the midterm results could mean for the presidential electoral map.
A number of advisers saw only upside for Mrs. Clinton in the party’s midterm defeats. Before then, opinions had been mixed about when she should form an exploratory committee, the first step toward declaring a presidential candidacy, with some urging her to delay it until late spring.
But over the past few days, a consensus formed among those close to Mrs. Clinton that it is time to accelerate her schedule: She faces pressure to resurrect the Democratic Party, and she is already being scrutinized as the party’s presumptive nominee, so advisers see little reason to delay.
In many ways, Tuesday’s election results clear a path for Mrs. Clinton. The lopsided outcome and conservative tilt makes it less likely she would face an insurgent challenger from the left.
And a Republican-led Senate creates a handy foil for her to run against: Rather than the delicate task of trying to draw a stark contrast with an unpopular president in whose administration she served, her loyalists say, Mrs. Clinton can instead present herself as a pragmatic alternative to what they predict will be an obstructionist Republican Congress.
This all fits comfortably into the DLC playbook that got the Clintons in the White House in 1992. When the Republicans manage to pull the country further to the right, the best strategy for the Democrats is to scurry over and join them. The people who have been supporting Clinton in her presumptive bid will doubtless see the Democratic defeat as confirmation of this view.
There is no way to empirically prove the cause of the electoral shift. Turnout out was especially low even for a midterm election. That hurt Democrats more than Republicans. Polls reflected broad dissatisfaction with the present state of the nation on the part of voters across the political spectrum. Progressives are taking the position that if the Democrats had adopted a more populist posture more of their base would have shown up and voted for them. That will continue to be a central point of debate within the party.
The prospect is that with a congressional majority Republicans will be able to be even more effective in creating governmental gridlock. Fairly or not there will be a strong tendency for the public to put the blame on the man in the White House. We will be arguing about whether the lack of action to deal with problems is a result of Republican obstruction or a lack of assertiveness by Obama. The people calling for all Democrats to put aside their differences and present some kind of united front will likely find themselves on the sidelines. It should be fairly easy for Hillary Clinton to build a narrative of the Republicans being the great threat to the country and that she is the only person who can save us.