The latest dump from Wikileaks shows that in March, progressive writer Brent Budowsky, who writes opinion columns for The Hill and The Huffington Post, was emailing Clinton campaign chair John Podesta about some of his reservations about the Clinton campaign, namely that the former first lady is relying too much on Trump being the GOP nominee. He also said that Clinton should stop attacking then-primary challenger Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-VT). Instead, the Clinton campaign should find areas where the former secretary of state can “dovetail” on issues Sanders had advocated on the stump, like free public college education through a tax on Wall Street.
Yet, what’s telling is Budowsky’s tacit acknowledgement that Clinton is a very weak candidate, whose chances can only be buoyed by an equally worse candidate in Donald Trump. He even noted that hard-core conservative Sen. Ted Cruz (R-TX) would have a 50/50 shot in beating her, which scared “the hell out” of him:
Right now I am petrified that Hillary is almost totally dependent on Republicans nominating Trump....she has huge endemic political weaknesses that she would be wise to rectify.....even a clown like Ted Cruz would be an even money bet to beat and this scares the hell of out me.....
In fact, some of those fears have been proven right. The emails, the Clinton Foundation, her inability to come off as authentic to voters, her failure to energize young voters, and the fact that most view her as a liar and dishonest is more ammunition to use to bring her down in the polls. And it has—even with Donald Trump leading the GOP this election cycle. For most of the cycle, Clinton has been unable to break 50 percent in the polls. Both candidates are viewed unfavorably—and all of this is with Donald Trump leading the Republican ticket. Imagine if Rubio, Cruz, Perry, or any other Republican who hasn’t hit as many media obstacles Trump has would be doing right now.
But that’s not for debate. Trump beat all of them. He’s the nominee. And for all of his faults—the FBI hasn’t investigated him; he hasn’t put our national security in a vulnerable state by having an unsecure and unauthorized email server; and he’s still a more palatable choice for Republican voters than Clinton.
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