U.S. Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton leaves a congressional hearing on Benghazi Thursday in Washington.GARY CAMERON/Reuters
Hillary Clinton, already the Democratic Party's presidential front-runner with unmatched name recognition, a huge war chest and a vast organization in all the key states, cleared three big hurdles in October.
First she won the first Democratic debate, clearly in command of a dizzying array of policy issues and unfazed by her rivals' attempts to damage her.
Then Joe Biden – her most formidable potential rival, at least for support from the centrist mainstream of the party and the legacy of President Barack Obama's successes – announced he wouldn't run, effectively conceding that Ms. Clinton had too much of a lead in support, money and organization for the Vice-President to have any hope of staging a third bid for the White House.
"The decision by Vice-President Joe Biden to pass on the presidential race confirms what would have been true even if he had entered the contest," said Kyle Kondik, of Sabato's Crystal Ball at the University of Virginia Center for Politics. "This is Hillary Clinton's race to lose."
Finally, in her toughest challenge so far, Ms. Clinton, poised and unruffled, endured a nine-hour inquisition by Republicans fervently trying to tar her with accusations of failure or cover-up in the long-running, increasingly hostile and partisan probe into the killing of U.S. ambassador Chris Stevens and three other Americans in Benghazi, Libya.
Ms. Clinton was unscathed.
If, as many of her detractors hoped, Republicans on the special congressional committee, led by Trey Gowdy of South Carolina, would deliver that gotcha moment that would wreck the former First Lady's bid to return to the White House, this time as president, they were disappointed.
"I really don't care what you all say about me," Ms. Clinton told Mr. Gowdy. "It doesn't bother me a bit." And polls show most Democrats don't care either.
At Thursday's lengthy, testy hearing, little new emerged. Ms. Clinton, never flustered, occasionally seemed disdainful of her accusers. Occasionally she delivered a withering put-down. "I'm sorry it doesn't fit your narrative, Congressman," Ms. Clinton replied when Ohio Republican Jim Jordan resurrected the accusation that White House spin doctors had massaged the message after the Benghazi killings to avoid damaging Mr. Obama's re-election effort in 2012. "I can only tell you what the facts are," the former secretary of state added coolly.
When Rep. Lynn Westmoreland, another Republican, set up a long, convoluted question with the warning that, as a Southerner, he talked "a little slower than everyone else," Ms. Clinton, whose husband Bill was governor of Arkansas before running for president, airily replied: "I lived in Arkansas a long time. I don't need an interpreter, Congressman."
Hillary haters, and they are legion, won't be swayed by her impressive performances either in the first Democratic debate or before the Republican-dominated Benghazi committee.
But in both sessions, Ms. Clinton, 67, emerged with her front-runner status enhanced by the failure of her rivals or detractors to damage her.
Meanwhile, the also-rans are giving up. First to quit was Jim Webb, the former Democratic senator from Virginia who tossed in the towel earlier this week after failing to attract any support and funding. Close on his heels was former Rhode Island Governor Lincoln Chafee, a Republican turned Independent turned Democrat, whose quixotic campaign never really got started.
"It was a good week for Secretary Clinton," Mr. Chafee acknowledged. "She did well in the debates and then Senator Webb got out, Vice-President Biden declined to join the race, she did well in the Benghazi hearing and Gov. Chafee got out," he added, referring to himself in the third person.
Eight years ago, then-senator Clinton was also the front-runner in the race for the Democratic presidential nomination. Then too, pundits asserted that her name, money and presumed backing of the party's power structure made her all-but-unbeatable. Until, of course, then-senator Obama trounced her in Iowa and went on to win the nomination and the presidency.
But there's no charismatic, younger, baggage-free rival clouding Ms. Clinton's horizon this round. Only Vermont Senator Bernie Sanders, 74, a self-described socialist, whose populist appeal to the party's far left remains strong, and former Maryland governor Martin O'Malley – the latter lagging way behind with support levels below 5 per cent in the polls – remain in the race.
"Despite Sanders' strong fundraising and appeal to the left wing of the party, Clinton still retains more than enough strength to win the nomination," Mr. Kondik wrote. "If she isn't the Democratic nominee, it will have more to do with her own mistakes and missteps than what Sanders or her other rivals do."