Jonathan Tobin writes at National Review Online about the impact of the Clintons’ unwillingness to leave the public stage.
The last thing Democrats wanted to do in October 2018 was talk about the Clintons.
Bill and Hillary Clinton aren’t just the past of the Democratic Party. The once-enormously-popular two-term president and the party’s 2016 standard-bearer are the living embodiments of two of the Democrats’ biggest problems: hypocrisy about the #MeToo movement, which they believe they can exploit politically, and contempt for the working-class voters who cost the party the last presidential election.
Any mention of the Clintons, whether with respect to Bill Clinton’s predatory personal behavior or Hillary’s insatiable need to relitigate her 2016 defeat and to justify her incompetent presidential campaign, distracts the voters from the topic Democrats want to discuss: President Donald Trump.
And yet, talking heads even on the network shows and cable-news outlets most hostile to Trump have spent a considerable amount of time reacting to the Clintons’ latest foray into the public square. Rationalizing Bill and Hillary is hard duty, yet some on the left are still up to the task, though they seem to be doing it more out of habit than conviction. But even those most inclined to sympathize with the Clintons seem to understand that justifying their latest statements — or even their puzzling decision to take to the road as a duo on a pricey lecture tour — is a counterproductive exercise for those who would rather be expending effort attacking Republicans.
