Hillary Fatigue

If Hillary Clinton runs for President, we know she will compete against other Democrats to get her party's nomination and if she wins it, a Republican foe to be the first woman elected President of the United States. But in a candid interview with Salon.com, Meet the Press moderator Chuck Todd indicates that Hillary will have another competitor to deal with - the media. You see, according to Chuck Todd, the media is just gosh darn tired of the Clintons:

Scott Porch: I already have Hillary fatigue. 

Chuck Todd: The biggest problem she has is that a ton of people in the media have Hillary fatigue. I don’t know if the grass-roots Democrats do; eight years ago they did, which is why they looked to Obama. People had Hillary fatigue — really Clinton fatigue — and were looking for a new direction. Now in the grass roots there’s some Clinton nostalgia, especially as Obama’s presidency looks shaky. But the Hillary fatigue in the press corps is going to be a challenge. (emphasis mine)

Now in fairness to Todd, it was the author of the interview who brought up "Hillary fatigue," but the fact that Todd not only acknowledged it as a thing that exists, but that the media "suffers" from it, is really quite astonishing. Mind you, Todd has railed against personality-based politics, but here, he is essentially saying that the media is not going to give Hillary a fair shake because they are tired of dealing with her. These are the people who are supposed to be the gatekeepers of democracy, the ones who ask the tough questions of those we are going to elect to run our country, but apparently that all goes out the door if the candidate has been in Washington, D.C. too long or the media is bored with them. 

And if Todd were just some random journalist who appeared on your TV from time-to-time perhaps this would not matter as much, but he is the political director of NBC News and the host of one of the most venerated political shows out there - in other words, what you hear and think about politics is impacted in a very meaningful way by the Chuck Todds of the world and you should know that he, and the group of journalists who cover Presidential politics really really do not like Hillary Clinton and are really really going to make it hard for her to win the Presidency. 

You can read the entire interview here and draw your own conclusions:

http://www.salon.com/2014/11/29/chuck_todd_i_wish_we_didnt_focus_on_the_individual_personalities_of_journalists/