This week, Hillary Clinton sat through the most recent round of activity from the House Select Committee On #Benghazi, and after watching her persevere in the face of -- well... whatever that was? -- we wouldn’t be at all surprised if a desperate Martin O’Malley demanded equal time in front of Trey Gowdy’s Rowdies for the sake of his own poll numbers.
Let’s face it: Clinton’s 11-hour endurance test really makes her mettle shine a wee bit brighter, when you compare it to the guy who leads the GOP field, butterscotch mountain mining accident Donald Trump, who recently made news whining and carping about having to be one-tenth of a debate for three hours.
And Clinton's confident demeanor obviously put the fear into Lincoln Chafee. Not 24 hours after the Benghazi committee quit for the day, leaving even Gowdy feeling pretty “¯\_(ツ)_/¯” about the point of it all, Chafee was scrambling away from the race. Perhaps he realized that America wanted the 3 a.m. call to be answered by someone whose response was more substantial than, “Look, guys, I am really going through some stuff right now!
Still, it’s funny: The post-debate narrative devolved into a civil war about whether Clinton had won. Now, after her all-day ordeal, you see a lot of presumptive coronations floating in the social media transom. It’s just October, everyone. Winning the nomination is still a challenge. And there are still ways Clinton could lose this thing. Though maybe not many? On this week’s First To Last, we are acknowledging, and ranking, the pitfalls that remain.