{"id":9546,"date":"2015-05-31T00:36:18","date_gmt":"2015-05-31T00:36:18","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/highplainsblogger.com\/?p=9546"},"modified":"2015-05-31T00:36:18","modified_gmt":"2015-05-31T00:36:18","slug":"hrc-doesnt-deserve-a-free-ride","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/highplainsblogger.com\/?p=9546","title":{"rendered":"HRC doesn’t deserve a free ride"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
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\"Omalley<\/a><\/p>\n

One of the recurring themes of my column, back when I worked as a daily print journalist, used to drive incumbent officeholders nuts.<\/p>\n

I liked to write during election season that no incumbent — regardless of his or her record — deserved to run unopposed for public office.<\/p>\n

Every so often, I’d write such an essay and I’d hear from an incumbent who’d gripe half-heartedly about my insistence that they draw an opponent.<\/p>\n

“Too bad,” I’d say. “You shouldn’t get a free pass. You need to work for it.”<\/p>\n

So it is with some joy that I welcome the entrance of another challenger to Hillary Rodham Clinton in the 2016 Democratic Party primary race for president of the United States.<\/p>\n

Wait. Hillary’s not an incumbent?<\/em> Oh, I almost forgot. But she’s such a prohibitive favorite to win her party’s nomination next that she might as well be one.<\/p>\n

Former Maryland Gov. Martin O’Malley has joined the field. I’m not sure precisely how he’s going to separate himself from Clinton. He wants wage equality; so does she. He wants to improve everyone economic future; same for Clinton. He calls himself a “liberal”; I’m betting Clinton will tack to the left as well.<\/p>\n

http:\/\/www.realclearpolitics.com\/articles\/2015\/05\/30\/omalley_joins_2016_presidential_race_126796.html<\/p>\n

He referred to Clinton as a “dinosaur,” and promises to bring fresh ideas. The “crowd” that greeted his campaign kickoff was, to say the least, modest in size — about 300 or so supporters; Clinton draws that many while she’s eating at a diner.<\/p>\n

O’Malley’s in, along with Vermont U.S. Sen. Bernie Sanders, a card-carrying socialist; it looks as though former Rhode Island Gov. Lincoln Chafee — a one-time Republican — is going to run as a Democrat, too.<\/p>\n

Good. The more the merrier.<\/p>\n

Clinton remains the heavy favorite for the party’s nomination and is a favorite still to win the White House in November 2016.<\/p>\n

But she’s going to get a test in her primary. The individuals who will challenge her will — and should — ask her about her coziness with big banks, overseas contributors, her work with the Clinton Foundation and whether she actually built a record as secretary of state and as a U.S. senator before that.<\/p>\n

Competition is good for the process, not to mention for the candidates’ souls.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n\n

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One of the recurring themes of my column, back when I worked as a daily print journalist, used to drive incumbent officeholders nuts. I liked to write during election season that no incumbent — regardless of his or her record — deserved to run unopposed for public office. Every so often, I’d write such an … Continue reading HRC doesn’t deserve a free ride<\/span> →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[13,14],"tags":[73,597,1338,2139,2795,2936,5246],"class_list":["post-9546","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-national-news","category-political-news","tag-2016-campaign","tag-bernie-sanders","tag-democratic-party-nomination","tag-hillary-clinton","tag-lincoln-chafee","tag-martin-omalley","tag-white-house"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/highplainsblogger.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9546","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/highplainsblogger.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/highplainsblogger.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/highplainsblogger.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/highplainsblogger.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=9546"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/highplainsblogger.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9546\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/highplainsblogger.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=9546"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/highplainsblogger.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=9546"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/highplainsblogger.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=9546"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}