Finley: Loss in Michigan exposes Clinton’s vulnerabilities

Losing Michigan won’t much damage Hillary Clinton on her slog to the Democratic nomination. But her failure in a state that has always belonged to the Clintons does reveal some serious weaknesses in her candidacy.

Michigan is not someplace the Clintons are used to losing. Bill Clinton won the primary here in 1992, and considered Michigan so important to his presidential ambitions that he tapped former Gov. Jim Blanchard to chair his national campaign.

Hillary Clinton ignored the threat of Democratic National Committee sanctions and placed her name on the 2008 ballot in deference to her state supporters. She won a primary Barack Obama skipped.

All Michigan super delegates are committed to Clinton, and nearly all Democratic officials and officeholders.

But Bernie Sanders beat her here, taking nearly every county, and doing so with fewer resources and a much smaller organization.

What’s it mean? Not much in terms of delegate count — the close finish means Clinton gets about as many delegates as does Sanders.

But Sanders has now won four of the last six primaries. Michigan is his largest prize to date, and the victory justifies his continued presence in the race.

Clinton will have to keep campaigning against him instead of turning her attention to her Republican opponents, which means she’ll have to keep running the race Sanders dictates.

In trying to stem the Sanders insurgency, Clinton has lunged ever leftward, abandoning her once moderate positions on trade, energy and other issues and joining his anti-Wall Street tirade.

But voters know who Clinton has been, and this isn’t it. The flip-flopping fuels the perception that there’s nothing genuine about Hillary Clinton.

The more she chases Sanders, the harder it will be for her to find the middle in the general election campaign.

Democratic turnout Tuesday was huge, largely thanks to Sanders’ appeal to young voters. If he’s not the nominee, can Democrats coax those Millennials out of their futons on Election Day to vote for Clinton?

She’s running for history. And yet electing the first woman president didn’t matter Tuesday to young and even middle-aged women voters, who went for Sanders.

Turnout is everything in an election, and a lot of Democrats are just not enthused about Clinton. Faced with the lack of excitement, Democrats seem to be counting on Donald Trump to do their job for them.

They hope Trump, who like Sanders is drawing in hordes of new Republican voters to the primaries, will also motivate to the polls Democrats intent on stopping him from becoming president.

They bet mainstream Republicans will abandon their party if Trump is the nominee.

But if it’s not Trump — and that chance still exists — then Democrats have a problem, and maybe they do even if it is Trump.

They’ve got a candidate who isn’t thrilling their voters and who is narrowing the party’s philosophical appeal.

While everyone is studying the GOP implosion, Democrats are dealing with the reality that Hillary Clinton is a flawed candidate who, after Michigan, looks very beatable.

nfinley@detroitnews.com

Nolan Finley’s new book, “Little Red Hen: A Collection of Columns from Detroit’s Conservative Voice,” is available from Amazon, iBooks and Barnes & Noble Nook.