Thursday, CNN released new poll numbers for the Iowa Democratic Presidential Caucus -- Vermont Senator Bernie Sanders was now leading over former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton by eight points. To some in Hillary's camp, these numbers were a surprise. To everyone else, this was history repeating itself.
In the beginning of the 2008 Presidential race, Hillary had a strong upper hand than many of the other candidates. Her position as both a Senator and First Lady gave her an edge over less experienced politicians. She had the sympathy vote as a woman who stood strongly beside her husband, Bill Clinton, as he went through and was eventually acquitted of impeachment hearings for an extramarital affair during his time as president.
Hillary was also able to use her role as a woman to capture one of the largest voting groups: young, single women. Clinton seemed unstoppable —until she wasn't. Midway through the election, she was overtaken by a younger, black man by the name of Barack. His promises of change ignited previously non-voting groups across the country, including many minority groups. And just like that, Hillary was out of the running.
Just eight short years later, Hillary is running the same campaign and encountering the same problems. Her initially strong debut into the campaign has slowly eroded away as anti-establishment passions increased across the country.
Americans began to turn towards unlikely and unconventional candidates, such as businessman Donald Trump, for new policy ideas and a rebuke of the lack of progress in government. On the Democratic side, that candidate is Bernie Sanders, an older, whiter, more socialist version of Obama. Sander's radical ideas to chase healthcare and eliminate college tuition appeals to many younger voters and citizens generally upset with growing wealth inequality and stagnant policy changes.
It was clear Hillary did not view Sanders initially as a serious force, but as he has consistently drawn record crowds and has been climbing, slowly but surely up in the polls. Perhaps the only fact on Clinton's side is that many of Sander's supporters have lower voter turnout.
Hillary may have strong policy ideas, but in order to capture the Democratic nomination and the presidency is to change her tactics because recently she has done a poor job of doing so. Sending her daughter out to attack Sanders was a poor choice.
Calling Sanders out in the Democratic debate for flip-flopping on the gun immunity law is a good one. Hillary can no longer sit by and hope Bernie Sanders will go away. He's not — and Hillary needs to step up her game or risk getting Bern'ed.
