As of about 4:30 p.m., a search at the Politico on "Hillary Clinton" (in quotes) returned about 20 results -- for April alone. While a few of the results are teases for longer items, that's out-of-control coverage of someone who officially left government weeks ago.
The reasons for the obsession, of course, are to try to convince Mrs. Clinton to run for president in 2016 and to clear the field of other Democrats who might think that a strong presidential resume does not consist of 25 years of playing the good wife for a political and behavioral scoundrel, eight years as senator from a state in which she never live until the year she first ran for election, and four years as Secretary of State which ended in "What difference does it make?" after four Americans died in Benghazi on her watch. The lastest Politico offering from Maggie Haberman indicates that we can expect the website's obsession to continue indefinitely, because they think, or want us to think, that "average Americans" are just as obsessed:
A viewer's guide to Hillary Clinton Fever
Will she run or won’t she?
The obsessive speculation about Hillary Clinton’s plans for 2016 promises to be the longest and most intense parlor game in the history of American politics. It is a consuming fixation already, not just among the operatives and reporters who always inhale this stuff but to an extraordinary degree among average Americans.
The official Clinton line — she hasn’t decided and won’t for perhaps two years to come — has done nothing to quiet the national argument. She’s too tired, and, in her mid-60s, just wants to enjoy life, says one line. Nonsense, says the other: Why would anyone, especially someone as ambitious as she is, decline a historic presidential nomination that many believe is hers for the asking.
Of all the possible 2016 candidates, Clinton can most afford to take her time deciding. But there are a number of different choices — about her financial future, about her public profile, about whom she surrounds herself with — that will make clear whether Clinton is organizing her life in anticipation of a second presidential run or has decided to liberate herself from ambition and just do what she wants.
Here is a checklist of things to watch about Clinton’s future — a kind of viewer’s guide to Hillary Fever ...
On and on it goes for about 1,600 words, with Haberman even suggesting that we look to the length of Hillary's hair as a possible indicator as to whether she will or won't run. Readers who think they can stand it can read the rest themselves.
If Mrs. Clinton indeed seeks the presidency, it's going to be a long 3-1/2 years. Politico's saturation strategy to prop up her candidacy will likely be mimicked by other press outlets for the purpose of minimizing the visibility of her Democratic opponents and whoever emerges from the Republican side of the field in 2016. By then, they hope, hers will be the only name everyone recognizes.
This is how the press tries to rig elections.
Cross-posted at BizzyBlog.com.
