This may seem like great news for Hillary Clinton, but I’m not sure this is all that wonderful for the rest of us.
But not because I have anything for or against the former senator and secretary of state. This issue is not her — or the various political names listed in this Quinnipiac poll — but the fact that we are running polls like this in early March 2013, with the next presidential election still three years and eight months away.
The problem is that polls like this contribute to a degradation of our politics by turning every question into one about the White House. They take the focus away from the other two branches and state-level races. They make it seem like the only important question in politics is who resides in the White House.
We have four years ahead of us before that can change. Barack Obama is president now and has a long agenda he wishes to carry out. Whether Clinton or Jeb Bush or even Chris Christie will be running to replace him is not particularly relevant.
What is relevant, however, is who is sitting in Congress, working on the legislation or stalling it; what is important is how the courts function and who sits in the statehouses and city halls around the country
Hillary Clinton may become president in four years, but she isn’t now.
Send me an e-mail.
Hank Kalet 