The US presidential race became a tale of two parties on different trajectories after a pivotal week: former US secretary of state Hillary Rodham Clinton tightened her grip on the Democratic nomination while Republican concern is reaching new heights, with some officials considering an effort to stop Donald Trump — with no fallback option.
Clinton was cheered by excited Democrats a day after her strong performance during an 11-hour Republican-led probe of the 2012 Benghazi attacks. The former secretary of state’s high marks for the congressional hearing capped a week in which three of her five Democratic rivals bowed out of the race — none more important than US Vice President Joe Biden, who said he would not be getting in.
“She’s gone in the course of two weeks from being a wobbly front-runner to the almost-certain nominee,” former New Hampshire Republican Party chairman Fergus Cullen said.
The Republican field, Cullen said, is more splintered than ever.
As Democrats showered a confident Clinton with fresh praise, one-time Republican front-runner Jeb Bush announced deep cuts to his campaign staff. The former Florida governor slashed the payroll by 40 percent and downsized his Miami headquarters in a move that sounded alarms for Republican officials, who long assumed Bush would shake off his slow start and ultimately emerge as their party’s nominee.
The new evidence of Bush’s struggles only darkened the clouds of uncertainty over the party’s field.
Calls are growing from some Republicans for an organized campaign to take down their dominant candidate, Trump, fearing the tough-talking reality TV star is doing lasting damage to the party’s standing among women and minority voters — Hispanics in particular — heading into next year.
The Club for Growth, an influential Washington-based group focused on fiscal conservatism, seized on fresh polls in Iowa suggesting that Trump’s front-runner status could be in jeopardy.
“Trump loses when voters know the truth about him,” club president David McIntosh said on Friday, adding that his group recently spent US$1 million on anti-Trump TV ads. “He’s not a conservative, and he’s really just the worst kind of politician.”
Yet, Trump remains atop most Republican polls. And with Bush’s struggles, it is unclear who would take the billionaire businessman’s place, should he fall. Several candidates have been stuck for months in the single digits of polling — among them, Florida Senator Marco Rubio, Texas Senator Ted Cruz, New Jersey Governor Chris Christie and Ohio Governor John Kasich.
“At this point, there’s no singular alternative to Trump,” Republican donor Fred Malek said, adding that the state of affairs is “very concerning” roughly three months before the Iowa caucuses.
Malek’s hope: “Someone will have a breakthrough moment and catch a little bit of fire and get that bounce in support. When we have one clear alternative to Trump, that person will go on to win.”
Despite no political experience, retired neurosurgeon Ben Carson is making an argument to be that person. His campaign manager, Barry Bennett, on Friday told reporters his campaign raised US$10 million this month alone — a new mark of fundraising success that makes Carson the envy of many Republican rivals.
And as Republicans fight among themselves, Clinton appears to be getting stronger.
Supporters who met with her privately during a Friday appearance at the Women’s Leadership Forum said she laughed when they advised her to go home and get some rest.
“She was glowing,” said Pamela Eakes, a Clinton donor from Seattle. “We’re grateful to Republicans for giving her the best week ever.”
The Benghazi hearing came in the midst of a major political winning streak for Clinton.
Her poll numbers in early voting states are rebounding after her commanding performance in the first Democratic debate. Biden decided against a run next year, removing a major threat. And two of her other challengers, former Virginia senator Jim Webb and former Rhode Island governor Lincoln Chafee, dropped out this week.
Clinton on Friday also won the endorsement of the 1.6 million-member American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees.
Clinton aides tried to downplay her winning streak, stressing that capturing the Democratic primary nomination will still require a lot of work.
However, her strong performance in both the debate and her congressional testimony showed off her foreign policy credentials and command of the issues for a broader audience, they said.
Clinton’s surge has resurrected dismissive Republican talk that the Democratic contest is simply “a Clinton coronation.”
Yet, there is little doubt the Republicans would love the certainty that Democrats now enjoy. And in the meantime, the intraparty divide between the Republicans’ own establishment and anti-establishment wings grows deeper.
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