I clicked on an article that said that Trump is Clinton's worst nightmare as an opponent. I haven't the faintest idea if this is true, and I'm betting even the professionals don't have a clear eye on this either.
Yet it did put me in mind of a derivative set of questions. What if Trump can't win, but his accurate attacks on her make her unable to govern even her own party if elected? She could win by default in an ugly match and be a lame duck on the day she takes office. Similarly, if Trump is elected, does he have the least control over his own party, let alone the country?
Stay out of the questions of whether Obama can or could, whether Romney could have, or all the other subsidiary questions.
Run that further down the list. If Hillary is arrested and/or falters, can Sanders or O'Malley get enough delegates to be nominated? And even if they do, can they be presidents who can sway even their own friends, let alone the opposed or undecided? Opposing-faction Ted Cruz and Jeb Bush cannot unite a bitterly divided GOP, though people might vote them in while pounding their heads. Who among the Republicans or Democrats has the stature to bring in the recalcitrant by virtue of strong personality, or has allies strong enough to herd the sheep?
None, I think. Hillary may have some force of punishment, and she has a talent for it, but that's nowhere near enough to run a country. I am bad at predictions. Yet I think we may be looking at the experiment of what happens in Congress when the President has no control.
There's some precedent for rule by executive decree. Unfortunately.
ReplyDeleteThere is also some precedent for Congress running rampant over a President, too: Andrew Johnson's administration 'worked' that way.
ReplyDeleteIt's not necessarily a disaster, if what you want out of the Federal government is less. That is, for the most part, what I do in fact want out of them. Congress will be stymied by a President with whom it disagrees, and the President by a Congress that won't do anything he or she asks -- we might get left alone for a while.
Although I suppose the Johnson administration, on reflection, is a bad example of being left alone. Congress managed the Reconstruction amendments over his objection, as the President isn't involved in that process.
ReplyDeleteHmm....