More Great Mysteries of Life

[Content Note: Misogyny.]

It continues to be a real mystery why Hillary Clinton might be genuinely indecisive about running for president:

It's widely accepted that it hasn't been a good couple of weeks for Hillary Clinton. She is being attacked by Republicans over various foreign policy problems, including Benghazi and Boko Haram; her approval ratings are sliding, Monica Lewinsky spoke out, and Bill Clinton's vocal defense could be making things worse.

And now some Democrats are questioning aspects of her strategy.

Massachusetts Gov. Deval Patrick said he is concerned about the "inevitability" factor with a potential Clinton nomination.

"I do worry about the inevitability thing," Patrick said on CNN's "State of the Union," adding that it's "off-putting to the … average voter."

"I think that was an element of her campaign the last time," he said, without having to specify how that turned out (Barack Obama won). "I just hope that the people around her pay attention to that this time around."

...Sen. Dianne Feinstein, D-California, expressed concerns similar to Patrick's.

"I did talk with her and thought it would be better that she not get out there early, because her favorability was so high, that all that could happen in this is go down," Feinstein said on "State of the Union."

Feinstein was right. Clinton’s approval rating has slipped.

California Gov. Jerry Brown, who is dealing with severe wildfires in his state, said on ABC's "This Week" that while Clinton is the "overwhelming favorite" for the Democrats in 2016, front-runner status comes with challenges.

"Being a front-runner is being on a perch that everyone else is going to try to knock you off of," he said on ABC's "This Week," adding that Clinton needs to be "wise" on how she proceeds.

These are people in her own party. And irrespective of whether one feels that Clinton projected an air of entitlement the last time around, it's manifest garbage to lay that at her feet at this point. If she announced her candidacy more than two years ahead of the election, she'd certainly be accused of entitlement, but somehow not announcing her candidacy, for whatever reason, also gets construed as a belief that her nomination is inevitable.

Can't win. Can't fucking win.

Meanwhile, even people in her own party are happy to assist the media in promulgating the meme that she's definitely made up her mind, but is just playing games with the announcement. This is just routinely taken as truth, despite the fact that it's easy to imagine Clinton's decision might be affected by how the midterm elections shake out.

If the Republicans retake the majority in the Senate, as well as retaining their majority in the House, it will be extraordinarily difficult for a Democratic president to be an effective president. Clinton's so ubiquitously framed as a voraciously ambitious harridan who just wants to be president for the sake of being president that commentators don't seem to imagine that she might have some interest in being a successful president.

I don't think Hillary Clinton just wants to be president. I think Hillary Clinton wants to govern.

And a wall of Republican Congressional obstructionism would make the kind of governance she wants to do all but impossible. If that's not something she's taking into consideration, I would be shocked. Because she is a good politician. And a smart politician.

Funny how she is ruthlessly calculating when people want to demean her, but never so when they want to compliment her. Or even see her as a human being making a very human decision.

Anyway. This is the shit that's going on when she's not even running. She knows damn well what will be unleashed if she decides to run. Again, it's a real mystery why she might be reluctant.

Even as she somehow simultaneously conveys to the world that she is INEVITABLE!