Why do we assume Hillary Clinton is as politically skilled as Bill?

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last updated 8 January 2015

Based on her stumbles of the last couple of weeks, more than a few people have begun wondering if Hillary Clinton might have a harder climb to the presidency than is widely expected. Along those lines, the Washington Examiner's Philip Klein argues that Hillary's problem isn't that she's rich, it's that she's an overrated politician:

Because the Clintons are often viewed in tandem, a lot of people have mistakenly transposed Bill's political acumen onto Hillary. But in reality, her political career has involved winning a Senate seat in New York over a weak Republican opponent in a year that Al Gore carried the state by 25 points — and squandering a massive lead against candidate Barack Obama in the 2008 Democratic nomination battle. [Washington Examiner]

Nobody is suggesting that Hillary Clinton isn't smart or talented or accomplished, but Klein has a point: We tend to assume that Bill and Hillary share the same instincts and attributes. But this doesn't really make sense. We don't do this in other industries — we don't assume that the husband of a virtuoso performer could replicate his partner's musical performance. Likewise, political instincts aren't transferrable by marriage.

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Matt K. Lewis is a contributing editor at TheWeek.com and a senior contributor for The Daily Caller. He has written for outlets including GQ Politics, The Guardian, and Politico, and has been cited or quoted by outlets including New York Magazine, the Washington Post, and The New York Times. Matt co-hosts The DMZ on Bloggingheads.TV, and also hosts his own podcast. In 2011, Business Insider listed him as one of the 50 "Pundits You Need To Pay Attention To Between Now And The Election." And in 2012, the American Conservative Union honored Matt as their CPAC "Blogger of the Year." He currently lives in Alexandria, Va.