Seems nobody wants Bill or Hillary Clinton around these days. Oh, the media still loves them. They will still put the elder-statespersons of the Democrat Party on camera, knowing that they boost ratings. After all, Hillary, the twice-failed presidential candidate, is always good for sound-bites such as just this past week when she addressed the lack of civility in politics these days.
“You cannot be civil with a political party that wants to destroy what you stand for, what you care about. That’s why I believe, if we are fortunate enough to win back the House and/or the Senate, that’s when civility can start again,” Clinton told CNN.
Heidi Heitkamp (D-N.D.) who is in an uphill battle to keep her senate seat in North Dakota, a very red state, called Mrs. Clinton’s comments “ridiculous.”
“I mean, I can’t imagine how you get anything done if you don’t bring civility back into politics,” Heitkamp said. “And that goes for both sides.”
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Right now, vindictive sound-bites are about all the former Secretary of State is good for, at least as far as Democrats running for election in the 2018 mid-terms are concerned. Even though many still consider the Clintons the faces of the Democrat Party, neither has been in high demand for campaign assistance during this election season.
The Democrat power-couple does have an upcoming 13-city tour, in which they will conduct “one of a kind conversations,” about “the most impactful moments in modern history” but, to the Democrats relief, that tour will not begin until well after the November 6 election.
“I think they’re measuring how they can have the best, positive impact and have kind of decided to wait until after the election,” said Senator Dick Durbin (D-Ill.).
Mrs. Clinton is infused with the stink of failure, which has clung to her since her 2016 loss to Donald Trump. The mainstream media and the party considered an election win for Clinton in 2016 a fait accompli, especially given all the assistance Clinton was given. The party even rigged the nomination for her while she faced a stiff challenge from Bernie Sanders. The media was no less a cheerleader for Mrs. Clinton, having even given her debate questions ahead of time, in addition to their consistently positive coverage of the scandal plagued candidate.
Mrs. Clinton’s approval ratings — which for some reason Gallup still measures — still hover at around 36 percent. Despite constant negative reporting on him, President Trump’s approval rating is at 43 percent, according to Gallup.
“I think it’s pretty wise for her to not show up,” said Senator Joe Manchin (D-W.Va.), who was the only Democrat senator to cross party lines and vote for Brett Kavanaugh’s confirmation.
The only campaigning of any note by Mrs. Clinton was for Illinois Democrat J.B. Pritzker, the Democrat candidate for governor in her home state of Illinois. She is also scheduled to host a fundraiser for New Jersey Democrat Senator Bob Menendez on Monday.
Ironically, both Pritzker and Menendez are scandal-plagued candidates. Menendez was under indictment for corruption earlier this year before the charges were dropped and Pritzker is accused of avoiding property taxes on luxury homes he owns on Chicago’s Gold Coast. If anyone knows how to get out from under a scandal, it’s Hillary.
As for former President Bill Clinton, the #MeToo movement has, for the first time, caused Democrats to cast a critical look at the affable rogue. The litany of sexual harassment accusers of Clinton is long and includes one very credible allegation of rape by Juanita Broddrick. In June of this year, Mr. Clinton exhibited a complete tone-deafness on the issue of sexual harassment in the current age, with an appearance on NBC’s Today Show, when asked about his treatment of Monica Lewinsky.
The former president, who was on the show to promote a book, was visibly annoyed when NBC’s Craig Melvin broached the subject of Lewinsky, and whether a personal apology was ever offered to the woman. “I’ve never talked to her,” Clinton answered testily. “But I did say publicly on more than one occasion that I was sorry.”
“I’ve tried to do a good job since then with my life and my work and that’s all I have to say,” the former president irritably concluded.
It was a bad look for Bill Clinton and he was forced by the Democrat and media mobs to apologize to Lewinsky the following Monday.
So, on the stump at least, neither Clinton has been much requested or missed by the “blue-wave” chasing Democrats. Hillary does engage in her specialty – fundraising. But national level campaigning has been left to the cool kids like Kamala Harris (D-Calif.), Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) and even former V.P. Joe Biden. Former president Barack Obama has been all over the map campaigning from Pennsylvania to California on behalf of Democrat candidates.
But neither Clinton is in much demand for campaigning these days. They are considered toxic by Democrats, he for his serial sexual misconduct in the age of #MeToo, and she for the aura of failure that follows her everywhere.
Photo of Hillary and Bill Clinton: AP Images
