Despite dismal job approval ratings for President Biden, soaring inflation, food shortages, labor shortages, and war in Europe, former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton shrugged off concerns from Democrats about the rapidly approaching midterm elections, saying “hand wringing is part of the Democratic DNA.”
In an interview on NBC’s “Meet the Press,” Sunday, host Chuck Todd called this “an interesting moment” in the Democratic Party and noted similarities between now and in the early 90s, when the party was struggling to define what it stood for ahead of midterm elections.
“Well, I don’t know. I do think hand wringing is part of the Democratic DNA,” Clinton said. “It seems to be in style whether we are in or out of power. We’re in power and there still is hand wringing going on.”
“From my perspective, Biden is doing a very good job,” Clinton added. “I think that his handling of Ukraine, passing the American Rescue package, the huge infrastructure package — I’m not quite sure what the disconnect is between the accomplishments of the administration and this Congress and the understanding of what’s been done and the impact it will have on the American public and some of the polling and the ongoing hand wringing.”
In the 1994 midterms, when President Bill Clinton was in the White House, Democrats lost their majorities in the House and Senate, a fate that befalls many presidents who typically see their party lose seats in their first midterm election.
With such a slim majority in the House of Representatives and only VP Kamala Harris’s vote in the Senate to give Democrats a majority, the battered and gaffe-ridden Biden is facing an even more precarious midterm. But according to Hillary, there are a lot of things for Democrats to brag about.
“I’ve always thought that the best politics is doing the best job you can do, and there’s a lot that Democrats can talk about in the upcoming midterms,” Clinton said. “I’m well aware that midterms are obviously always difficult for the party in power, but we’ve got a great story to tell, and we need to get out there and do a better job of telling it.”
“And for those who say it hasn’t gone far enough, that’s always the chorus in Democratic Party politics,” Clinton continued. “But I would add that in Republican Party politics, you have an even greater disconnect. Unfortunately, most of that party has now gone to the extreme and are saying and doing things that have no basis in reality. So we’ve got a good case to make if we get our focus in the right place to do it.”
While she acknowledged that President Biden’s disastrous withdrawal from Afghanistan probably didn’t unwring any Democratic hands, Clinton stressed that Democrats need only push their accomplishments.
“I think a lot of lessons have been learned, but there is a lot of good accomplishments to be putting up on the board, and the Democrats in office and out need to be doing a better job of making the case,” Clinton said.
“And, frankly, standing up to the other side with their craziness and their calls for impunity and nuttiness that we hear coming from them,” Clinton added. “I don’t think the average American, frankly, wants to be governed by people who live in a totally different reality.”
In other news, a pot was formally introduced to a kettle…
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Melissa Fine is the former executive editor of Casino Player, Strictly Slots, and Poker
Digest magazines. She is a UCLA graduate, news junkie, and dedicated Stargate SG-
1 fan. Melissa currently lives with her dog and two cats in a tiny town in the Sierra
Nevada foothills.
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