This week in presidential campaigns: Happy Hillary
 Date: November 8, 2016 |
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October 23, 2015
Alexandria, VA—Pharrell Williams’s “Happy” and Taylor Swift’s “Shake It Off,” looped on the music mix blaring out at an outdoor rally for White House hopeful Hillary Clinton in Market Square of this historic city, just across the Potomac River from the congressional hearing room where less than 24 hours earlier, the Democratic frontrunner was grilled by Republican House Members over the Benghazi terrorist attack. The two pop tunes are staples at Clinton rallies, but they seemed like a particularly fitting coda for a week that was one of the best she has had in quite a while.
Indeed, Clinton could feel pretty upbeat after a potential roadblock to her bid for the 2016 Democratic presidential nomination fell by the wayside on Wednesday when Vice President Joe Biden announced he was not going to jump into the race. And on Thursday, Clinton successfully deflected hostile questions by Republican lawmakers who repeatedly tried to hold her responsible for the deaths of four Americans in the 2012 terrorist attack on the U.S. consulate in Benghazi, and raise more questions about her use of a private email server while she was Secretary of State.
Clinton was mirthful as she mounted the campaign stage 49 minutes after she was scheduled to begin speaking, but few in the crowd seemed to care as she, and Virginia Democratic Gov. Terry McAuliffe, a longtime confidant of the Clintons, soaked up the cheers. Introducing Clinton, the ebullient McAuliffe alluded to Thursday’s combative hearings saying, “We know that she’s a fighter and she’s been a fighter her whole life… You want to talk about a fighter, how about those 11 hours of testimony yesterday?” Milking the moment and an appreciative audience, McAuliffe roared, “And how about those debates last week? Folks, she’s got it all!” (McAuliffe seemed to be inspired by another one of Clinton’s rally songs, "Let’s Get Loud," by Jennifer Lopez.)
Clinton didn’t crow as much, although she hinted at being cooped up in the Longworth House Office Building for 11 hours on Thursday. “I can’t tell you how great it feels … to be out in the sunshine,” she declared as she began to speak. Joking about her pal McAuliffe, she added, “I know he’s the shy and retiring type.”
Her remarks, 26 minutes worth, were a pretty standard recitation of her campaign stump speech, calling for pay equity, college debt relief, family leave, gun control, Medicaid expansion and comprehensive immigration reform, among other things. She praised President Barack Obama saying, “I don’t think President Obama gets the credit he deserves for leading the economy” out of recession. And she gave a shout out to her former potential rival: “I agree with what Vice President Biden said yesterday in the Rose Garden, Democrats should be proud of that record of achievement and we should defend it.”
The week also saw the two extreme long shots withdraw from the race for the 2016 Democratic nomination. On Tuesday, former Virginia Sen. Jim Webb abandoned the quest, and Friday morning former Rhode Island Senator and Gov. Lincoln Chafee announced he was out. Clinton didn’t mention either one of her two remaining rivals, Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders or former Maryland Gov. Martin O’Malley, but she did take a veiled shot at the Vermonter, who is running well in Iowa and New Hampshire, the first caucus and primary, respectively, in the presidential nominating contest. Clinton referred to a 2005 vote in the Senate on legislation that gave some protection to gun dealers and fire arms manufacturers from lawsuits when their weapons end up being involved in a crime. Sanders voted for the measure, while Clinton voted against it. At the Alexandria rally she called the legislation a “gift” to gun companies.
Towards the close of her remarks, Clinton told her adoring audience, “Your fights are my fights and I won’t quit until all Americans get a chance to get ahead and stay ahead again.” And she added, “A lot of things have been said about me, but quitter is not one of them.”
It was as if Clinton was channeling some of the lyrics from the pop star Williams’ hit song “Happy”:
Here come bad news, talking this and that
Yeah, give me all you got, don't hold back
Yeah, well I should probably warn you, I'll be just fine
Yeah, no offense to you, don't waste your time
Clinton may never earn the nickname of “Happy Warrior,” that Democrats gave to two of its presidential nominees who failed to win the White House: Al Smith in 1928 and Hubert Humphrey in 1968. As two-plus decades in the political arena suggest, she’s tended to be just “warrior.” But for this week at least, you can probably add “happy.”
James A. Barnes is a senior writer for Ballotpedia and co-author of the 2016 edition of the Almanac of American Politics.
See also
- Hillary Clinton presidential campaign, 2016
- Presidential candidates, 2016
- Presidential debates (2015-2016)
- Presidential election, 2016/Polls
- 2016 presidential candidate ratings and scorecards
- Presidential election, 2016/Straw polls
