As political analysts continue to unpack what the 2014 midterm elections meant for each party, one theory has emerged that ought to make Hillary Clinton smile.
According to an Al-Jazeera report, the beating the Democrats took helped Clinton’s probable bid for the White House in 2016 in two ways: First, it suggests that one of her potential rivals might not be as much competition as everyone thought, given that he didn't win with a terribly impressive margin; and second, the distance-yourself-from-the-incumbent strategy is still a great option for Hillary.
“The midterms clearly did not mint any significant threats to her expected path to the Democratic nomination—potential rival Gov. Andrew Cuomo of New York did not have the sort of landslide re-election that might have emboldened him—and the lousy showing for her party gives her a clear strategy of distancing herself from Obama by reviving her 2008 argument that she was the better, more competent Democrat for the job,” Al-Jazeera says.
If Obama and the Democrats had done well, and Hillary tried to run on the coattails of the Democrats, the public might experience “fatigue” with a liberal administration and vote for a Republican president, Al-Jazeera says. But now that Obama is sort of unpopular, Clinton can brand herself as a different kind of Democrat, and that may bode well for her chances in 2016 if she decides to throw her hat into the ring.
Read more at Al-Jazeera.