Weigel

The Wrong Way to Do Mindless Hillary Clinton Speculation

Photo by JEWEL SAMAD/AFP/Getty Images

Les Kinsolving asks Jay Carney if Hillary Clinton will primary Barack Obama. “You’d have to ask her,” says Carney. That’s our cue for pages of baseless speculation about whether or not Hillary Clinton could primary Barack Obama. (My favorite offering in the genre – Andrew Malcolm’s long take that consults the sources in his mind, who are easier to get on the phone than real sources.)

If we’re going to be this lazy, we need some insta-data. We need someone to do a poll testing Clinton against the Republican candidates. One poll showing her doing better than him against Romney, or beating Palin by such a large margin that we need to invent another number to describe it, and we can engage in some seriously baseless speculation. But who can do it?

I called Tom Jensen of Public Policy Polling, because they’ve been known to test some odd questions.

“We haven’t done it and we don’t think we will,” said Jensen. “Putting out stuff there suggesting that it would be good to primary Obama is not really our M.O. It’s a guaranteed traffic bonanza, if that’s what a company’s goal is. That’s not our goal. It’ll surely come if he stays below 40 percent in Gallup.” He offered a suggestion: “Maybe it’s a job for Rasmussen?”

I’ve asked Scott Rasmussen that question; the most recent result at Rasmussen Reports is “38% Agree With Perry’s Goal of Making Washington, DC Inconsequential, 34% Don’t.” So, we’ll see. In some parallel universe wherein Clinton did not join the Obama administration, this is an interesting question. In this universe?