Joe Trippi: Clinton Isn't Collapsing

In an op-ed piece for the LA Times that is sharply critical of the punditocracy, Democratic political consultant Joe Trippi writes:

In a year in which every other supposed front-runner and establishment candidate has collapsed to single digits or has already withdrawn from the race — yes, I am talking about you, Jeb Bush, and you, Scott Walker — Hillary Rodham Clinton continues to lead the Democratic field with more than 40% of the vote.

Self-labeled socialist Sen. Bernie Sanders, who caucuses with Democrats in the Senate, is 15 points behind Clinton in recent polling, and does not represent a real threat to Clinton's nomination, in Trippi's view. And noting that "no vice president who has sought his party's nomination has ever been denied it," Trippi suggests that Clinton's 20 point lead over Biden in the polls should be seen as "a remarkable sign of strength."

Trippi dismisses Sanders lead over Clinton in Iowa and New Hampshire, noting that "those states have never decided who the Democratic nominee will be." Rather the early contests "winnow" the field. "Two or three candidates emerge out of those two states to fight for the nomination across the country. Right now, it looks as if Clinton and Sanders will be those two candidates. If Biden enters the race, three will make it."

Clinton's real strength, in Trippi's analysis, is in the more ethnically diverse states whose primary fall after Iowa and New Hampshire.

Read the full article in the LA Times.

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