In a van, she “toured America”from Chappaqua, New York to Iowa, and it was a tour like no other candidate’s. Her van was not emblazoned with her name or red, white and blue bunting, but was undecorated and more resembled an armored limousine used to shuttle Royalty from one place to another in safety and obscurity. Her route was not announced in advance; her stops were not campaign events; her one “public appearance” was when she deigned to wait in line and order a meal at a Chipotle restaurant like a Hollywood celebrity who wants to be let alone and unrecognized, without having any contact with the public. When she finally reached Iowa, she had a “roundtable discussion” with a small knot of people – all Democratic Party operatives masquerading as “ordinary citizens,” but even though they were tame – they were vetted, screened, were trucked in from elsewhere, were given a list of questions to ask, had to surrender their cell phones and cameras, and had to sign vows of secrecy. She didn’t take the van back to New York. She flew back, and was greeted on the tarmac by her limousine, again enabling her to avoid as much unfiltered contact with the people as possible. On to New Hampshire in the van, where she completed a rare double: it was spotted parked in a handicapped space in Iowa and speeding, in New Hampshire but don’t worry –, where she again “listened” to “ordinary citizens” yet managed to avoid the adversary press.
If a Republican candidate had done any of these things, his or her campaign would have been a laughingstock. Had he or she done all of them, it would have been destroyed. If Hillary had been an obscure candidate for the Presidency, and began her campaign in an identical fashion, trying to establish her name, her political future would be over. But – fear not, Hillary’s is not like any other candidacy: it takes more than a botched launch, embarrassment, ridicule and failure to stop it. Behaving more as an Heiress Presumptive, with a sense of Inevitable Entitlement, than as an aspirant, her campaign will continue to roll along, chock to the brim with tons of cash; stage-managed events, hand-picked audiences, and scripted questions,pretending to be accessible as she avoids the scrutiny that other candidates must endure, she will display a haughty disdain for anyone who suggests that she is not the best choice.