http://www.nationalreview.com/node/422521/print Handicapping the 2016 Field, Round Three
By Charles Krauthammer — August 13, 2015
Both presidential nomination contests having been scrambled by recent events — the FBI taking control of Hillary Clinton’s private e-mail server and a raucous, roiling GOP debate — the third edition of the Racing Form is herewith rushed into print.
Legal disclaimer: This column is for betting purposes only. What follows is analysis — scrubbed, as thoroughly as a Clinton server, of advocacy. (Unless I simply can’t resist.)
Hillary Clinton: Ever since her disastrous book-launch performance, I’ve thought her both (1) a weak candidate and (2) the inevitable Democratic nominee.
No longer. She has fallen from her 95-percent barring-an-act-of-God perch. The e-mail imbroglio has already badly damaged her credibility. But now that she’s lost control of the server, there is potential for further, conceivably fatal, damage. It hinges largely on how successful she was in erasing the 32,000 e-mails she unilaterally deemed private.
Whatever happens, she will stay in the race. Clintons never quit. But if more top-secret information is found, if she did destroy work-related e-mails, and if her numbers continue their steady decline, the party might decide it simply can’t afford to continue carrying her baggage.
Odds: 1-3.
Bernie Sanders: A less flighty, more serious Gene McCarthy. Fiery and genial, Sanders is the perfect protest candidate. But can a 73-year-old dairy-state Brooklynite socialist win? Of course not. If Hillary falls, Joe Biden fills the vacuum. Possibly even John Kerry. (Note to Dems: The beatified Jon Stewart is currently unemployed and at large.)
Meanwhile, over at the GOP . . .
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