Poll: New speed bumps for Clinton

[jeff47]

90. Did you know that spending on science and technology is killing people with their bedsheets?

http://www.tylervigen.com/spurious-correlations

Restricting your list to endorsement by Senators is a fantastic way to lie with statistics. You're also picking the most meaningless endorsements. "Oh, a Senator from CA likes Clinton? Well that totally changes my vote in IA!"

How about total party endorsements? Might not tell the same story you want to tell.

Again, inevitability is not a good strategy once the race has started. It can be helpful in restricting the number of people who decide to run against you, but once you have opponents, "inevitable" does not work as well.

All of our heroic epics are one person or small band fighting against inevitability and winning. The Nazis victory was inevitable until Indiana Jones showed up. The Empire was crushing all opposition until Luke Skywalker showed up. Skynet was slaughtering humans until one human (or reprogrammed T-101) showed up over and over again. Those plucky hobbits destroyed Sauron's inevitable victory. There's no way a small band of people driving cars out of a plane can win, but they did it anyway in all the "The Fast and The Furious" movies. Jesus was one god-man fighting against the entire Roman Empire.

Culturally, we like underdogs. Especially on our side of the aisle. Running as inevitable means you are running on the opposite side of that. It helps energize your opponents and their volunteers. It's the exact opposite of what you want in a campaign.

Doing it after you already lost is even worse. Because there is proof you are not inevitable. "Nevermind the last Death Star got blown up. We're totally going to win with this new one!!"

Run as "this is going to be tough" even when you think you are inevitable. Start running against the Republicans early if your primary opponents are laughably inept.

Want proof? It's exactly what Clinton did in 2008 late in the campaign. And she did surprisingly well even though it was too late for Obama to lose. I have no idea why she didn't learn that lesson, but not learning from 2008 is one of my concerns about her as a candidate in 2016.