The Former First Lady of the United States Helps Donald Trump

Hillary Clinton is relaxed and confident that she will win the Democratic Party presidential nomination. Watching the latest Democratic debate, one could be forgiven for thinking that she wants billionaire Donald Trump to become her opponent in the 2016 presidential election.

While the Republican race for the U.S. presidential nomination has been rather unpredictable, the Democrats seem to have been steady in their choice of favorites. Public opinion polls regularly show Hillary Clinton leading with 50 percent of the vote. In comparison, left-wing Sen. Bernie Sanders is getting 25 percent of the vote. Support for Martin O’Malley, the former Maryland governor, is so scarce it could almost be considered a statistical error. This disproportionate power among the three candidates was clearly visible in Saturday evening’s debate in Boston, broadcast by ABC.

Listening to Clinton felt almost as if the electoral campaign has reached its conclusive stage and there were just single candidates from each party left on the scene. It also felt as if Clinton already considered her rival to be the billionaire celebrity, Donald Trump. She attacked Trump a number of times. “Donald Trump is ISIS’ best recruiter.” She commented on his proposal to ban all Muslim refugees from entering the United States. “The first line of defense against radicalization is in Muslim-American community. People whom we should be welcoming and working with. (…) I worry greatly that the rhetoric coming from the Republicans, particularly Donald Trump, is sending a message to Muslims,” added Clinton.

Clinton’s concerns are naturally understandable, but she must be aware that her statements propel Trump’s campaign. His supporters are frustrated with all professional politicians, Clinton in particular. Thus Clinton attacking Trump only encourages their support for him. Why then, has she decided to help Trump by attacking him? The answer is that Trump would be an ideal opponent for her, and if they were to compete in next year’s presidential election, the polls suggest that she would beat him decidedly.

In contrast, Marco Rubio, who is relatively young (44 years old) and makes a good impression, would be an opponent from hell for the 68-year-old Clinton. Rubio beats her by two to three percent in any of the simulated polls, although she is far more popular than he is. Luckily for her, Rubio lags behind in Republican opinion polls with only several dozen percent of votes from right-wing supporters. This is three times less support than Trump receives. Also Ted Cruz, who is extremely conservative, has more support than Rubio, and Cruz would not stand a chance against Clinton.

Therefore, all goes exceptionally well for the former first lady. Even the terror attacks in Paris and California seem to have happened at the right time for her, as the main subjects of the debate were U.S. security and foreign policy, which is a blow for Sanders, who made social inequalities the main theme of his campaign, and who promises that he will challenge the privileged millionaires and billionaires. With people currently fearing potential terror attacks, his manifesto seems somehow less significant.

It is really no wonder that during the debate Clinton was in great spirits and relaxed as never before. Her final words at the end of the program were clearly inspired by “Star Wars,” the world premiere of which took place the same weekend as the debate. “Thank you, good night and may the force be with you.”