OPINION:
Politicians live in a fantasy world of their own invention, where it never rains and the skies are not cloudy all day. There’s always an aide available to fetch and carry, to hold a trembling hand when the wind rattles a window, ready with assurances that the sun is shining at midnight, if that’s what the boss wants to hear.
Republicans are equally susceptible to this, but this year it’s the Democrats who seem intent upon ignoring reality at every turn. Their party’s presidential front-runner is primed to reassure Democratic fundraisers and party officials that her campaign is in great shape. They shouldn’t worry that her poll numbers are tanking, the FBI is tracking her every move, and they shouldn’t pay any attention to what they read in the newspapers. What should they expect from the Republicans, who are terrorists, anyway, just like those bad guys in the Middle East.
Fantasies abound everywhere. The inspector general at the Defense Department suggests that the department is fudging the facts that make it like “the allies” are kicking the stuffing out of ISIS when those particular Islamic barbarians are getting stronger by the day. We’ve heard this sunshine song before. A generation ago Robert McNamara, the secretary of Defense, assured everyone that the North Vietnamese and the Viet Cong were on the ropes. Some ropes.
And not just in Washington. When a racist crazy man — black, this time — killed two ex-colleagues on live television the president of the United States emerged from his bubble to blame not the shooter’s mental health or racism for what happened, but the easy availability of guns. The president urged “sensible” gun control laws. Within hours it turned out that the shooter bought his pistol, not an assault weapon, legally from a legal gun store, passed the required background check and didn’t use a “high capacity magazine.” He didn’t even own a Confederate flag.
Politicians cling to their fantasies, but the approach of elections sometimes persuades them to put away childish things. Hillary Clinton will soon be dragged out of her fantasy world by federal agents, but her enablers will probably stick with her for a little while more. A Suffolk poll of Iowa Democrats finds that 70 percent of Iowa Democrats polled say her email scandal is no big deal, so they don’t worry about it.
The reality, of course, is that it is a very big deal, ISIS won’t vanish because the White House says we’re winning and gun regulations espoused by Mr. Obama and Virginia Gov. Terry McAuliffe would not have prevented murder on live television.
Mr. Obama won’t have to face voters again, so he is free to live out his fantasies. Hillary can’t. She can continue to blame her problems on Republican terrorists and a hostile media. She will sooner or later have to emerge and deal with reality. Robert Shrum, a well-regarded Democratic strategist, now retired, was asked the other day what he thinks Hillary should do now. “I don’t know what they can say that puts the story behind them.”
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