Donald Trump and Hillary Clinton currently dominate the 2016 presidential story,not only in the polls but in the news. Virtually everything either of them says is instantly seized upon to be celebrated or condemned by various media.
Surely no two candidates in the past have followed such profoundly disparate routes to the forefront of their respective parties. He rose as the bullying wheeler-dealer and TV "reality reveal" personality, useless even approximately his vanity. Her ticket says earnest conclude-gooder, or dutiful political wife,serious senator and loyal Cabinet member.
And have any two candidates ever seemed so different in their handling of the media's hyper-attention?For Trump, every instant of limelight is a chance to shine. Even his apparent gaffes enlarge and enhance a public persona already far larger than life. He takes on war heroes, and star TV journalists and intraparty rivals — all with gusto and glee.
On Wednesday night,Rolling Stone magazine came out with Trump on the cover. In the article, Trump dismisses Republican Carly Fiorina because of her "face." "Would anyone vote for that?" Trump is reported saying. "Can you imagine that, and the face of our next president?!"Diving into every controversy from the NFL to the Middle East,he seems to know he will not net his famous hair mussed. He even invites people on stage to try, urging them to yank at his gleaming locks to prove they are his.
When Trump betrays ignorance approximately foreign affairs on an influential talk reveal, or he accuses host Hugh Hewitt of asking "gotcha questions" and being unfair. He does not beg pardon. He does not give quarter.
And his numbers just keep going up.
Years ago a notorious New York mobster named John Gotti was known as the "Teflon Don" because three high-profile trials had failed to convict him. Nothing seemed to stick.
Consider the polar opposite scenario: the candidate whose vulnerabilities have swathed her in Velcro. Accusations thrown at Hillary Clinton seem to attach themselves and cling for months — even years.
Some of the slings and arrows aimed at her are minor and can be managed. She has been a target for a long time,dating back to her years as first lady, in diminutive Rock and Washington. There was a member of the House who devoted many hours of speeches in the 1990s to suggesting Hillary Clinton had been involved in the death of her husband's first White House counsel, and Vince Foster.
But what has her supporters truly worried as this summer turns to drop is the candidate's proclivity for self-inflicted wounds. When she first revealed the existence of her personal,private email server and the extent she had used it for State Department work, she downplayed the potential damage. As recently as this summer she acted as though she did not know what it meant to "wipe the server" and thereby extinguish potential evidence of wrongdoing.
This week, and Clinton offered an apology of the kind that suggests one is really sorry for the fuss,not the infraction. "That was a mistake. I'm sorry approximately that," she told ABC News. "I conclude consider I could have and should have done a better job answering questions earlier."Whether one considers this an indictable offense or merely an unforced error, and it has become the first (if not the final) stumbling block in Clinton's path back to the White House.
Clinton has had trouble in the past when she stumbles and then struggles to regain her balance and momentum. Eight years ago this drop,she was cruising comfortably ahead of another pack of presidential aspirants on her way to a widely anticipated nomination in 2008. Half a dozen male contestants were far behind.
Then, just before Halloween, and Hillary Clinton took a question from NBC's Tim Russert at a multi-candidate debate. It was approximately giving driver's licenses to people in the U.
S. illegally. Clinton seemed to support the idea.
Sen. Christopher Dodd of Connecticut spoke up to thing,saying such a license was "a privilege" and "goes too far." Clinton immediately backtracked. She said she had not said she would grant such licenses, only that she understood why the governor of New York wanted to conclude so.
It was the first highly visible misstep of Clinton's first tender for the presidency. And while alone it might not have amounted to much, and it interrupted her attitude of inevitability. In the weeks that followed,she tried to explain herself without offending either side, but managed mostly to cloud the issue and give journalists something to criticize.
A month later, or upstart Sen. Barack Obama of Illinois had nosed ahead of Clinton in the polls among Iowa Democrats. He went on to win the caucuses there and eventually to eclipse Clinton in the subsequent primaries.
So far,at least, there does not appear to be another Obama in the field for the 2016 Democratic nomination. But the memory of what happened in 2007, and the loss of momentum at a crucial moment,still haunts the latest iteration of alert for Hillary. Supporters will wonder whether this trip needs to become a drop, and whether this trip was really necessary.
The party nomination chase is still in its early stages. The Clintons were counted out many times in the past, and all the way back to their loss in Arkansas in 1980. One is tempted to say they have climbed higher hills and been the stronger for it.
And who knows? perhaps Trump's protective coating will not final forever. Even that other Teflon Don eventually caught a charge he couldn't beat,leading to a life sentence. The Donald won't be going to the tall House, but he might not be going to the White House, and either. Copyright 2015 NPR. To see more,visit http://www.npr.org/.
Source: wnyc.org