At this point, the Clinton campaign’s slogan might as well be 'Hillary 2016: Why Aren’t You People More Excited?'

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If it weren’t for the fact that she represents nearly everything that’s wrong with American politics, you’d almost be tempted to feel bad for Hillary Clinton.

Here she is, 67 years of age, whatever vigor she once had long since departed, running a presidential campaign with no clear sense of purpose to win over a progressive electorate that regards her as serviceable at best and a charlatan at worst.

This wasn’t the way it was supposed to be. One imagines that Mrs. Clinton always thought there would be a pot of gold at the end of the political rainbow that took her from Little Rock to the White House to the U.S. Senate to the State Department. After all, she’s in line to be the first female chief executive of the United States of America. Shouldn’t that occasion the same kind of rapturous enthusiasm that accompanied Barack Obama’s campaign in 2008?

And yet Mrs. Clinton draws little adulation outside of the ranks of those who are on her payroll. At this point, the Clinton campaign’s slogan might as well be “Hillary 2016: Why Aren’t You People More Excited?”

To be fair to the former Secretary of State, this isn’t all her doing. Barack Obama is essentially handing her the keys to a car with an empty tank of gas. Yes, the president has racked up many major progressive victories over the course of his two terms, but he’s done so with a stunning disregard for public opinion.

Don’t like ObamaCare? Tough, we’re going to pass it anyway — even if it destroys our congressional majorities. Won’t confirm our nominees? We’ll blow up the entire recess appointment process (and earn a unanimous smackdown from the Supreme Court in the process). Won’t give us the immigration bill we want? We’ll just do it by executive fiat.

That’s all well and good for the President, who seems to precisely calculate just how much he can get away with without suffering any personal sanction. It’s not a great arrangement, however, for the candidate who carries the burden of succeeding him — and of defending a record of lawlessness, weakness in international affairs and persistently mediocre economic results.

Barack Obama’s legacy is an anchor that threatens to take Hillary Clinton down with it. How haunting must that idea be for the former Secretary of State? Obama could cost her the presidency twice in the course of eight years. Except, let’s be honest: That’s an overstatement.

The Clinton people told themselves that, in hindsight, it was virtually impossible to overcome the Obama juggernaut in 2008. And while no one doubts the fierceness of that fight, let’s not forget how close the race — which ran through to the final primaries in June — actually was. Barack Obama didn’t win because he was destiny’s child. He won, at least in part, because Hillary Clinton was a bad candidate.
 
That fact is becoming clearer in a 2016 race where Hillary has no foil of comparable stature. Having the spotlight all to herself only magnifies the myriad deficiencies: the robotic speaking style, the icy demeanor, the contempt for anyone who dares to question her, the long history of cutting ethical corners. Will America really give a woman who doesn’t wear well in 30-second TV appearances four years at the epicenter of national life?

Well, maybe not. A CNN/ORC poll released in late May revealed that 57 percent of Americans thought Mrs. Clinton was not “honest or trustworthy.” That’s not a great place to be starting when you’ve got 18 months of campaigning in front of you — doubly so when you’re a figure as well known as Hillary, diminishing the chances that you’re going to be able to change minds that have long since been made up.

There was a time when the idea of a Hillary 2016 campaign seemed like the logical next chapter in the story of the Democratic Party’s ascendancy in American politics. These days, it looks more like a replay of the 2008 Republican campaign: one in which the candidate is unloved and the party is intellectually exhausted. At some point in the next year and a half, Mrs. Clinton is going to begin having to entertain a disquieting thought: Despite the exertions of 40 years, she may never reach the end of that rainbow.