Oh, how things can change.
Less than a month after Bloomberg Politics host Mark Halperin said Hillary Clinton was “far and away the most likely” next president, the political talking head has changed course.
Appearing on ABC’s “This Week,” Halperin told host George Stephanopolous that the former secretary of state is no longer the 2016 favorite at the moment. Halperin’s latest take comes in the wake of the email saga Clinton has become embroiled in, with the Bloomberg host saying her “lack of response” is his main reason for the sudden switch in his mind.
“I said a few weeks ago on the show that she was easily the most likely President of the United States. I now think that not only is she, because this is a symptom and a cause, I now think she’s not only not easily the most likely, I don’t think she’s, anymore, the most likely…”
“That’s a big shift,” Stephanopolous said.
“Over her emails?!” yelped an incredulous Nicolle Wallace.
“Because of what this says as a symptom. Not just as a cause, but as a symptom,” Halperin continued. “What she is doing here with lack of response, lack of a sense of what people think of her, and combined with what I thought was an extraordinarily weak performance at her Emily’s List speech the other day.”
“Her husband can get through these things because he’s a politician of a lifetime. She cannot,” Halperin explained. “If this is the way she’s going to run her operation, if this is the mindset she’s going to have, I don’t think she’s going to be president.”