By the time of the 2016 Presidential election many of the scandals within the Obama administration will be forgotten, but one issue has been indelibly imprinted on the public consciousness: Utter incompetence.
Whether Hillary can escape this stain will depend, in large part, on who the GOP nominates. It would be a big mistake for them to nominate a young sitting Governor whose main appeal is to social/religious conservatives, since this would play into Hillary's plan to portray herself as being the "moderate" candidate.
At this point, Mitt Romney would seem to be an ideal candidate to defeat Hillary. RomneyCare will be a dead issue, and his demonstrated competence will be in stark contrast to Obama and Hillary. His two main hurdles will be his age and his religion. The former can be dealt with by comparing him to Reagan. The latter may be trickier, since many women and minorities will find it offensive. Hopefully, his two previous runs will have defused this issue, just as Reagan's divorce was forgotten by the voters by 1980.
Whether Hillary can escape this stain will depend, in large part, on who the GOP nominates. It would be a big mistake for them to nominate a young sitting Governor whose main appeal is to social/religious conservatives, since this would play into Hillary's plan to portray herself as being the "moderate" candidate.
At this point, Mitt Romney would seem to be an ideal candidate to defeat Hillary. RomneyCare will be a dead issue, and his demonstrated competence will be in stark contrast to Obama and Hillary. His two main hurdles will be his age and his religion. The former can be dealt with by comparing him to Reagan. The latter may be trickier, since many women and minorities will find it offensive. Hopefully, his two previous runs will have defused this issue, just as Reagan's divorce was forgotten by the voters by 1980.