This is turning into the summer of discontent for the Democrats.
The BuzzFeed report that former Vice President Al Gore is considering entering the Democratic presidential race is being disputed by Gore allies but it underscores mounting Democratic worries that Hillary Clinton’s campaign is floundering. With fewer political analysts and party officials willing to say that Clinton’s nomination next year is a slam dunk, a political power vacuum of sorts is forming that is enticing others to enter the race, or at least give it serious thought.
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“She has had a stunningly rocky road,” Stuart Rothenberg, a political analyst, said of Clinton’s performance this year in tamping down controversies and rallying her party. “This has been a whole other level of ineffectiveness as a candidate.”
“I still expect her to be the nominee, but the real danger for her is growing concern that might bring in a really serious candidate,” added Rothenberg, the publisher of The Rothenberg Political Report. “I think all this churning points to a growing nervousness on the part of Democrats as to Secretary Clinton’s strengths or weakness in a presidential election. And she kind of looks wounded now, and that’s why all these names are … coming out of the woodwork.”
BuzzFeed reported on Thursday that supporters of Gore have begun talking among themselves and directly with the former vice president about his seeking the 2016 presidential nomination. Gore, 67, a former Tennessee senator and vice president throughout the Clinton administration, won the popular vote for president in the 2000 election but still lost to Republican George W. Bush in the electoral vote after an historic recount in Florida.
However, a spokeswoman for Gore said yesterday that there was “no truth” to the idea Gore is considering another run for the White House, while CNN and other news organizations have quoted Gore associates as saying that the mid-summer speculation was groundless.
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Meanwhile, Vice President Joseph Biden is vacationing in South Carolina -- home to an early, critical primary election next year -- and continues to gather opinions about the wisdom of hopping into the race. Biden, 72, who has run for president twice before, is expected to make a final decision on whether to challenge Clinton for the nomination in September.
The New York Times reported yesterday that Biden described the recent tragic death of his son Beau Biden as an “open wound” that has begun to heal, and that he was wrestling with the question of whether he could devote full energy to a grueling year-long campaign. There is also the question of whether Biden should risk another embarrassing loss at the end of a long and distinguished career. And if he decides to run, he may have trouble convincing voters that he is his “own man” and not an apologist for President Obama’s more controversial domestic and foreign policies.
Biden consistently has garnered 9 to 12 percent of Democratic support in national and statewide political polls, well behind Clinton and Sen. Bernie Sanders of Vermont – the self-described socialist Democrat who is drawing large crowds with his populist, liberal message. According to the latest Real Clear Politics average polling figures, Clinton leads nationwide with 55 percent of the overall Democratic vote to 19.4 percent for Sanders, 12.3 percent for Biden, 1.8 percent for former Virginia senator Jim Webb and 1.6 percent for former Maryland governor Martin O’Malley.
Amid the relentless controversy surrounding her handling of emails during her four years as secretary of state, Clinton is suffering the lowest favorable ratings of her career, and she even trails Sanders in New Hampshire, 44 to 37, according to a new Boston Herald poll.
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It’s possible, of course, that Clinton is simply stuck in the summer doldrums and that her campaign will catch fire this fall, especially once the Democrats begin to stage their own debates and the gloves come off. The Democratic National Committee announced on August 6 the slate of debates it plans to sponsor beginning in October, with one per month before the primaries and caucuses begin next January.
Neither Sanders nor O’Malley are happy with the schedule and want more chances to go head to head with Clinton as the Democratic presidential campaign heats up. In a news release, O’Malley complained that, for now, the schedule “seems geared toward limiting debate and facilitating a coronation.”
The biggest danger for Clinton, however, is that Biden, Gore or another big Democratic name – such as Sen. Elizabeth Warren of Massachusetts – decides at the last minute to come off the bench.
“There’s a little blood in the water, I think,” Rothenberg said.
