Is Hillary Clinton a Good Candidate?

Jason Zengerle: “The grind can be obvious watching Clinton on the campaign trail. In her two successful Senate races and her unsuccessful presidential run in 2008, she often struggled to exhibit the basic qualities required of politicians… Where most pols project warmth, she often runs cold. Her speeches can be leaden and forced. She tightens up in unscripted moments. Above all, she bristles at what the public and the press now want most from politicians: authenticity.”

“And yet, there’s an increasingly popular school of thought, especially among political scientists but also among some political consultants, that being a good candidate is overrated. Some even argue that it’s irrelevant — not just to what sort of president a candidate would be, but also to whether he or she can get to the White House in the first place.”

First Read: “But here’s the fundamental question we’ve asked before about Clinton and 2016: Is she so flawed of a presidential candidate that she was destined to lose in 2008 — to anyone who was “decent”? Or did she lose what was essentially a 51%-49% Democratic race to the only person on the planet who could beat her?”