Daily Meme: But What Does It Mean for 2016?

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  • We all knew it was coming. It is a truth universally acknowledged, that a political battle in possession of much media attention must be in want of presidential election analysis.
  • Even if said election is still years away.
  • As CNN says, "The vote to end the shutdown took place in October 2013, but it may provide some clues about the 2016 race for the White House."
  • Or, as MSNBC puts it, "Listen to the would-be candidates' rhetoric and look at their positions, and you'll see the outlines of each man's "story" beginning to emerge."
  • Sigh.
  • Not that the Republicans candidates' behavior is helping temper the media's election-happy nature.
  • So, what does the shutdown mean for 2016? CNN seems to think that by being completely absent from the shutdown issue (because, you know, she wasn't involved) Hillary Clinton comes out of this a total winner. In fact, political prognosticators seem to think all the potential candidates outside the mechanics of the beltway were the biggest winners of the shutdown. Interesting.
  • Also faring well-those potential candidates who were at the Capitol, but tried very, very hard to make sure everyone forgot that for the last two weeks. Paul Ryan, for example.
  • Ted Cruz, on the other hand, was badly bruised by the fight. It turns out that helping to orchestrate the complete failure of a nation's government is not a good way to prove you're capable of running it.
  • Any unknown candidates were neither helped nor hindered by the shutdown, apparently.
  • Some reporters offered advice. For example, don't be Bob Dole.
  • In short, we still have no idea how the 2016 election will turn out. Return to your regularly scheduled programming-there's nothing happening on this front for a long time yet.

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