Even when she actually had the job, Hillary Clinton was never really wild about being the First Lady and neither, one could argue, was the rest of the country.
There are many reasons why candidates fail, come up short, lose elections.
To be sure, stands on issues are important. And much like the stand-up comedy, timing is critical, too.
And while this might violate the pundit’s code, not to mention Political Science 101, sometimes an electoral setback can be atrtributed to the most simple, the most visceral of causes.
Why did Hillary Clinton finish third in the Iowa caucuses? Why does her air of faux invincibility now seem so absurd in restrospect?
Perhaps it is as banal as this
After all these years on the national scene, it is entirely possible the public doesn’t see a former First Lady running for president of the United States. It sees the ex-wife from hell, coming back and demanding more alimony. Brrrrrrrrr.
The Hillary Clinton campaign sees history in the making with the first woman president. The country sees Joan Crawford with the nuclear codes.
Take the election night comments of the candidates.
Both Illinois Sen. Barack Obama and former North Carolina Sen.John Edwards gave strong, emotion-laden rally-the-troops speeches. Hillary Clinton delivered a domestic policy recitation.
Passion ought to count for something in politics.
To pursue the presidency requires a drive, a fire in the belly for the job.
To be sure the country is electing a commander-in-chief, and the CEO of the land. It is also electing a leader - to lead.
The nation is not electing Aunt Bee meets Leona Helmsley.
And that is Hillary Clinton’s problem - not her vote on the Iraq war, or her health care policy, or illegal immigrants with driver’s licenses.
At the risk of being accused of presumptuousness, Tuesday, the people of Iowa took one last long look at candidate Hillary Clinton and saw Elizabrth Taylor’s Virgina Woolf staring back them. And she was not happy. And she was no fun.
And the people of Iowa were afraid. Very afraid.