GIRLS DON'T STICK TOGETHER
Younger women just don't seem all that interested in helping HILLARY CLINTON shatter the glass ceiling as she makes a second run for the presidency. During her first bid in 2008, Clinton seemed unsure whether to stress the historic nature of her campaign or downplay it. This time around, she's gone all in on trying to connect with women voters, playing up her support for abortion rights, equal pay, affordable childcare and family leave.
But despite campaigning as a champion of women's rights, the response from younger female voters has so far been flat. Numbers from the Iowa caucus vote reveal that 84 percent of women under the age of 30 voted for Vermont Sen. BERNIE SANDERS, Clinton's rival for the Democratic nomination. In New Hampshire, a CNN/WMUR poll released a day before the vote showed Sanders receiving 87 percent of the vote among women age 18 to 34. The gap has generated some gaffes from Clinton surrogates. Feminist icon Gloria Steinem was forced to walk back comments suggesting that women support Sanders to meet boys. Clinton had to explain former Secretary of State Madeleine Albright's remark that "there's a special place in hell for women who don't help each other."
Explanations for the gap have included that younger women are turned off by Bill Clinton's infamous philandering, and that Sanders' proposals for a more expansive welfare state are more attractive to them. (JAKE THOMAS)
TEDSTRODAMUS
Two years ago, Inlander Publisher Ted S. McGregor Jr. published his election predictions for 2016. Today, his predictions are looking pretty good. While he didn't predict BERNIE SANDERS' surprising success, he did anticipate the Democratic establishment trying to quash any of HILLARY CLINTON'S opponents' chances. "I'd love to see some new blood — not just in the White House, but all over Congress," he wrote. "But the Dems won't allow it."
He knew that the old attacks against Clinton would continue to be a drumbeat of criticism. "We can expect a steady anti-Hillary diet of Benghazi along with a side of Lewinsky," he wrote.
McGregor didn't foresee the rise of DONALD TRUMP — he's not a satirist. But with impressive foresight, he anticipated the underlying ideological forces that would propel Trump to prominence and leave well-funded establishment Republicans floundering in the sickly single digits.
"By fanning the anti-immigration flames, the GOP is turning its back on JEB BUSH and CHRIS CHRISTIE, perhaps the only candidates who could actually win," McGregor wrote. As for his final prediction that Hillary would win the presidency? Perhaps that's just a matter of time. (DANIEL WALTERS)
