Was our restaurant table bugged? Last night over date-night dinner, my wife, a perspicacious observer of the political scene and, yes, a Bernie backer, said she sensed that Hillary's moment had passed and that people were tired of her.
Cut to today's Morning Joe, and there were Donny Deutsch, Joe Scarborough and an initially reluctant Mika Brzezinski saying much the same thing: that powerful, influential Dems have come down with a bad case of Hillary blahs. The context was talk that Al Gore might be jumping into the race.
Highlights included plugged-in New York Dem Deutsch saying that "Americans have fallen out of like" with Hillary and that "she cannot lead effectively." Scarborough saying that powerful Dems he's spoken with are "exhausted," knowing the email scandal will get worse, and have concluded "we just can't do this." Mika at first tried to resist the trend, saying that whereas elites might be feeling that way, she's not sure America at large does. But later she seemed to relent, mentioning that while sitting around a hospital the last two weeks [presumably at a loved one's bedside], "I heard this . . . there is a fatigue." Hmm, don't tell us Zbig is deserting Hillary's ship!
JOE SCARBOROUGH: I see the press spinning wildly and some of the Clinton camp saying well it's not an investigation of Hillary Clinton. They are now finding out that she's sending top secret e-mails on an unprotected homebrewed server bought by a small business in Denver, Colorado, talking about drone strikes and other highly sensitive information that she knew -- that she knew was highly classified. Forget the markings. She knew. And you talk to anybody in the intel agencies and they will tell you that the presumption is on you. You have to know you're sending around classified information. She's losing to Bernie Sanders now in New Hampshire by seven points. Why wouldn't Al Gore, why wouldn't Joe Biden, why wouldn't John Kerry say we need to step in?
DONNY DEUTSCH: They would. The e-mails are just a symptom of the problem with Hillary. Americans are just tired of Hillary Clinton. There comes a point in time where she comes on the TV -- Hillary Clinton is very competent and very bright. Just Americans have fallen out of like with her. It's that simple.
JOE: Are you tired of her?
DEUTSCH: Yes. I think Hillary at this point regardless of her skill set would not be an effective leader because her fault or not, the country is polarized. She cannot lead effectively. Because she will not be able to bring this country together.
MIKA: But Donny I think that's the Trump problem. I think the echo chamber and sort of the folks who do this for a living are sick of her, I'm not sure, I'm not sure America is.
DEUTSCH: By the way, I talk to a lot of New York Democrats, blue, you would go these are automatically Hillary backers, and they go wow, there's got to be somebody else here-- you talk to these people. I have not found too many people at this point --
JOE: I got to tell you the bigger problem. She has some really tough defenders.
MIKA: I know.
JOE: But I will tell you by and large most Democrats, powerful Democrats I talk to around dinner tables or lunch tables, are just like,they know the e-mail scandal is going to get worse. They know there's more in the Clinton foundation. And they're exhausted --
DEUTSCH: Exhausted.
JOE: -- they basically have said we've been doing this for 20 years with these Clintons and this is no way to start the campaign. By the way, that's Democrats. That's not Republicans --
DEUTSCH: Yes.
JOE: -- these are around the dinner table, around the lunch table powerful Democrats saying we just can't do this.
DEUTSCH: Who automatically you think would be --
MIKA: I heard this sitting around in the hospital, sitting around in the hospital talking the past couple of weeks. Just a lot of real general talk about the election. There is a fatigue.
