I linked to a smart National Journal story this morning, and now I’m linking to an unbelievably dumb one. Michael Hirsh has declared the 2016 presidential election to be over.
…the trend lines are unmistakable, and they’re looking better all the time: If she wants to run in 2016, Hillary Rodham Clinton could have the easiest walk into the White House of any candidate in either party since, well, one has to go back a very long way. Maybe to Reagan in ’84. LBJ in ’64, or Eisenhower in ’52, or even FDR in 1932, 1936 and 1940. The presidency is looking like it’s hers to lose, more than ever.
This is just unbelievably stupid. This is bookmark-it-and-get-ready-to-mock-the-fuck-out-of-it-in-two-years stupid. You can’t predict what an electoral landscape is going to look like next year, let alone three years from now, and to lay out a prediction like this is to set yourself up for a lifetime of mockery. It’s still too soon to be doing this, internet. Let’s all agree to cut it out until at least after the midterm elections, which, I’d like to remind you, are still over a year away.