But we sent a squirrel. A SQUIRREL.
The as-of-yet gawdawful dullness of the Democratic road to the 2016 presidency is taking its toll on political reporters. On the Republican side there's fun to be had nearly every day; on the Democratic side, there's only one semi-confirmed candidate at this point, ex-Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, and she hasn't been campaigning so the pickings for reporters have been damn slim.
This is upsetting.
The negative headlines for Hillary Clinton have come fast and furious in recent weeks: Public in-fighting at her affiliated PACs. Trouble with fundraising targets. Donations from foreign governments.
But count the most committed Democratic party officials as unperturbed by — and in many cases unaware of – the fallout.
When even the "most committed" political insiders haven't heard of your scandal-of-the-moment, sure, that's bound to be depressing. So now we've got stories making the rounds of how boring things are.
But the stories have apparently done little to penetrate Democratic leaders’ confidence. “Even among the group of people who are prone to anxiety attacks, I have not been getting phone calls,” said Roy Temple, chairman of the Missouri Democratic Party. “I pay a lot more attention to the fundamentals than I do to day-to-day dramas.”
It does make for a boring season. On the other hand, it's a bit nice that we've gone nearly a whole four months since the last national elections without having to commit ourselves to obsessing over the next one—on
one side of the aisle, anyway. The other side of the aisle has already set up the lion-taming chairs and set fire to the trapeze net.
Until someone aside from Clinton makes much more serious noises about entering the fray, however, the sum total of Democratic primary stories from now until then will consist of only stories about Hillary Clinton, and stories about people who like or do not like Hillary Clinton, and stories about the advisers to Hillary Clinton. And the problem with that is that the Republican conspiracy apparatus has been on that beat for 20 years solid, flogging everything from murder theories to secret lesbianism (secret lesbianism was the original secret Muslimism, for you youngsters) to something-something-Benghazi!, and compared to all of that "prominent Clinton staffer has spat with others" is Not Much. The Republican Party spent much of last summer following Clinton around in a giant fuzzy squirrel costume in their own attempt to stir outrage during the dull non-primary days, and if that isn't a cry of desperation I don't know what would be.
Here's a thought: Let's just revel in the boredom for a while. To be honest, it's a pretty nice change of pace. I admit the dreary-dull news cycle does give the sweats to both reporters and especially the political pundit profession, and especially-especially to conservative-leaning pundits who would kill for the kind of Democratic fiasco-of-the-day that has roiled so many of Republican primary contenders, but a few months of the sweats while doing the single cushiest job on earth isn't going to break anyone.