Video - Rendell on MSNBC: Hillary has already "earned the nomination"

In a way, you really have to hand it to Ed Rendell. The former District Attorney, Philly Mayor and two term governor has managed to keep his hand in the politics game consistently, even after leaving elected office. This includes his gigs at NBC News and MSNBC as a political analyst. I suppose they feel he’s a valuable property for such witty insights as this one, (via RCP) when a cable host asked him if Hillary being coronated as the Democrat party nominee in 2016 would be “a good thing.”

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Well, it’s not necessarily a coronation; a coronation is when somebody hasn’t earned it. I think for all of the things that Hillary Clinton has done in her career, she has basically earned it. When George W. Bush ran, he had some competition, but he hadn’t done the things that Hillary Clinton had done.

I’m just saying whether it’s a good or bad thing, as a practical matter, the vice president who has done a great job as vice president, but his people are Hillary’s people. His fundraisers are Hillary’s fundraisers and when you look at the poll that was just released, with Hillary having a 61% point advantage, I’ve never seen anything like that in presidential politics.

It might be a tough sell to convince people of either the idea that this wouldn’t be a coronation or that she’s somehow “earned” the nomination already. We’re talking bout the same woman who has held exactly one elected office on the American stage in her life. And in that one the word coronation cropped up pretty frequently also. With nothing on her resume other than having been married to a successful politician, she carpetbagged her way into New York, had the DNC drive all of the native Dem talent off the stage and dumped enough money into the race to scare off most of the GOP competition. (All of this in a challenging environment where she still would have enjoyed a 12 point generic ballot advantage even if her name had been Hillary Smith.) And of course, in terms of qualifications as a successful politician / candidate, in 2008 when she made her only other, truly challenging run at an election – the Democrat primary – she lost.

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During her one full and one abbreviated term in the upper chamber she was perhaps best known for her polite way of “keeping her head down” while she learned the ropes, didn’t create any waves and didn’t author any successful legislation of note. Granted, she had a fairly good attendance record until she decided to run for president, but just showing up isn’t exactly the type of resume on which one builds a legend.

She was handed her position of Secretary of State (as they all are, to be clear) essentially as a consolation prize and to keep the PUMA crowd from continuing an open revolt against the new president. While serving as the nation’s face of foreign affairs, her only significant achievement was to rack up more frequent flyer miles (at taxpayer expense) than any previous holder of the office. (Unless you want to count Benghazi as “an accomplishment” that is.)

So remind me again, Governor Rendell… how exactly has she already “earned” the nomination?

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