Booman asks if Hillary can kill the modern GOP. If she wins Texas Arkansas and Kentucky (and recent polls show her leading all three states), that means she can win in North Carolina, Indiana, Montana, the Dakotas, Tennessee, Georgia, Missouri, and Arizona, and if she wins all of those states, and all the Obama blue states from 2012, yes, I think she can.
There are signs that a Clinton candidacy could be strong enough to force the Republicans to play defense in Texas. A recent Public Policy Polling survey found Clinton beating Rick Perry, Marco Rubio, and Chris Christie in the Lone Star State. My explanation for this is that hostility to Obama’s skin color is masking the true weakness of the modern Republican Party. In a very real way, racism is propping the GOP up and giving them a false sense of confidence that they are still a force to be reckoned with in national elections.
That’s part of it. If I am right, then any white Democratic nominee is going to start out in a commanding position in 2016. But Clinton brings something else. Her husband was able to carry states like Arkansas, Tennessee, Kentucky, West Virginia, Missouri, and Montana, that have been hostile to the President Obama. Those states are critical to keeping the GOP a viable alternative to the Democrats. They can’t be playing defense in those states.
The question I have is, have those states moved irrevocably into the conservative camp during the W. and Obama years, or can Hillary Clinton bring those people back into the Democratic fold? And, is this something that only she can do, and not other likely candidates like Govs. Cuomo of New York, O’Malley of Maryland, Vice-President Biden, of Senator Mark Warner. You know, add your own dream candidate, since none of the ones I mentioned are likely to quicken the heartbeat of progressives.
Most analysts think Texas will be purple by 2024 and blueish by 2028. But the chairman of the state’s GOP is already concerned. […] So, the conundrum for a progressive is this. Is this real? Is Hillary Clinton uniquely suited to the job of destroying the modern Republican Party? Can she (and she alone) accelerate this process by as much as two presidential election cycles (or eight years)?