In an appearance on MSNBC’s “Now w/Alex Wagner,” former DNC head Howard Dean said that Democrats and Hilary Clinton face an “uphill climb” in 2016, and that nobody was going to “walk into the White House.”
WAGNER: When we talk about the landscape for 2016, the conventional wisdom is it is a much better map for Democrats. But in terms of getting another Democrat into the White House, history would suggest things are not as cut and dried as perhaps some on the left would think. To succeed a two-term president from your own party is a kind of a difficult thing… Do you think that 2016 could be more of an uphill climb than Democrats have imagined?
DEAN: I think definitely it is going to be an uphill climb. Look, the Republicans clobbered us in an election. Actually, I take that back: we clobbered ourselves, because everyone seemed to think it would be a good message to run with no message what so other, other than ‘Oh gee, I don’t like President Obama either…’
You have to take this seriously. Hillary Clinton I think is not going to have a big problem getting the Democratic nomination. But this is going to be a tough election in 2016 for president, and nobody should think that anybody is going to walk into the White House. We have to see who they nominate. They have the wingnut wing of their party; if they nominate one of them, Hillary is the perfect candidate, because she is steady, a known quantity, people can already see her as president. They nominate a more centrist person, then we’ve got quite a race on our hands, and it will be all hands on deck.