http://www.washingtonexaminer.com/can-any-2016-dem-have-that-new-car-smell/article/2556564Can any 2016 Democrat have that 'new car smell'?
By Byron York | November 23, 2014 | 12:53 pm
President Obama set off ripples in the political world Sunday morning when he said voters in the 2016 presidential race will want "that new car smell." Speaking with ABC's George Stephanopoulos, Obama said in picking a new leader, Americans will "want to drive something off the lot that doesn't have as much mileage as me."
Obama spoke in the context of saying complimentary things about Hillary Clinton. She was "an outstanding secretary of state," Obama said, and is "a friend" who would be "a formidable candidate" and "a great president." Still, Obama stopped short of actually expressing support for a Clinton run. "I am very interested in making sure that I've got a Democratic successor," Obama said, adding that Clinton or whoever else wins the Democratic nomination will inevitably adopt some policies that are different from Obama's. "One of the benefits of running for president is you can stake out your own positions ... and have a clean slate, a fresh start," Obama explained. "I think the American people, they're going to want, you know, that new car smell."
But can Clinton really have that "new car smell" in 2016? Certainly the former Obama administration secretary of state can find some positions that differ a bit from her former boss', but can her candidacy have anything approximating a "new" feel to it? And beyond that, can any Democrat running in 2016 — running essentially for Obama's third term — have a "new car smell" candidacy?
It's not just a matter of age, although the two candidates closest to Obama, Clinton and Vice President Joe Biden, will be 69 and 74, respectively, on Inauguration Day 2017. The two will also have been on the national political stage for an enormous length of time — Biden at 44 years since he was first elected to the Senate in 1972 and Clinton at 24 years since she became first lady in 1992.
New, they're not. And while other potential Democratic candidates, whatever their age or experience — from Martin O'Malley to Elizabeth Warren to Bernard Sanders to Jim Webb — could present varying degrees of newness to voters, each will shoulder the burden of convincing the electorate that Democrats should be allowed a third consecutive term in the White House. That is, by definition, not something that gives voters a "new car smell."
Biden and Clinton would have the greatest burdens — at the high end of the presidential age scale and familiar figures to Americans for decades. But no Democrat will be able to argue that a third term for the party will amount to something fundamentally new. That's just a burden two-term presidents place on their party's next candidate.
