How Weird Is That?

Listen to how amusing Hillary finds getting the rapist of a 12-year-old "off with time served".

Many of the greatest mysteries hide in plain sight. The best example right now is the Democrat line-up for the primaries:

Hillary Clinton, the front-runner has been involved in scandals her entire political life. And with Hillary there is truly a scandal for every taste. If you care about women’s issues, you’ll no doubt be put off by her despicable intimidation of Bill’s sexual assault victims, or her laughing about getting the rapist of a 12 year old girl off on the Hillary Tapes. If you hate corruption, then you’ll get excited about Whitewater or Hillary’s murky fundraising . If you hate malicious cruelty, there’s the Travel Office scandal in which Hillary had a loyal civil servant she knew to be innocent indicted for corruption. If you’re a patriot then Hillary’s Benghazi lies will no doubt grate a bit. And for law and order types the terrorist pardons that Hillary arranged for Bill’s last day in office to help her Senate campaign will no doubt rankle. And finally if you’re a cat lover you might not look at her in the same light after finding out what she had done to Kathleen Willey’s furry friend. At HillMart there is truly a scandal for every budget and taste.

But, God help us, she’s the front-runner! on 40.5% (RCP average).

Next in the field is Bernie Sanders or as his campaign logo has it just plain “Bernie” on 25%. I guess being identified by a diminutive makes Bernie the politics equivalent to Brad or J-Lo. And as with their monikers Bernie brings to mind an instant image. In his case of  everybody’s favourite cranky old granddad. The curious thing about Bernie’s place in the field is that he’s not even a Democrat. He serves in the Senate as an Independent but is in fact a life-long lonely advocate of socialism. On the plus side, at least he’s up front about his desire to collectivise America, which is more than can be said for most Democrats.

Third in the field is not even officially running. It’s the vice-president, old wandering hands himself, Joe Biden on 21%. Biden’s greatest claim to fame apart from his dumb gaffes is his boast that he was the poorest senator. This was supposed to give the impression of incorruptibility, but mostly tends to support the general impression of a modest man with much to be modest about. Already rejected in two presidential bids in 1988 and 2008 this is clearly is his final throw of the dice.

The next in the field is … nobody. That’s it! Okay, apart from three never-have-beens that don’t poll more than 2% between them.

How weird is that?

Think about it. One of America’s two main parties in an open society of 320 million people has to choose a presidential candidate from among a vicious harpy, an ineffectual socialist and a dim non-achiever.

As to the reason for this stunning state of affairs, my own theory is that it has something to do with the disadvantage of advantage theory outlined by Malcolm Gladwell in David and Goliath.

It’s commonly thought that liberal domination of the media and Hollywood is a huge advantage and, of course, it is. But it’s also a huge disadvantage. Hillary would have been annihilated by the media decades ago if she were treated the same way as a Republican and it would have done the Dems a huge favour if they had. But as a very well-connected Democrat she has been able to weather crisis after crisis. I think the lack of thought process in non-political Americans goes something like this. “All those smart, caring TV talking heads clearly admire Hillary. That’s good enough for me!” Big advantage for Hillary, huge disadvantage for the Democratic party. They will now have to slap the lipstick on this pig a full three feet thick to drag her across the line next November. Even with their dominance in opinion forming, I don’t think they’ll manage it.

In short, liberal dominance of the U.S. media has foisted an almost unelectable candidate on the Democrats. That’s the disadvantage of their advantage.

How weird is that?