Why Attacks on Hillary's Age Will Never Work

The GOP's new plan of attack against Hillary Clinton, assuming she runs for president in 2016: Go after her age. A New York Times article revealed the strategy yesterday, with Karl Rove explaining the basic idea: "We're at the end of [Clinton's] generation and ... it's time for another to step forward." But over at the Daily Beast, Michael Tomasky scoffs at the idea. While the strategy is not without its valid points (Clinton would turn 70 nine months into her hypothetical presidency), the bottom line is that young voters are never going to be sold on the idea that the Republican Party is the "with it" party—no matter how young the Republican candidate is.

Clinton will, after all, be the candidate who supports gay marriage, a path to citizenship, lower student loan rates, and more issues young people care about—"and she’ll be the candidate of the party that is not the comfortable home to America’s bigots and racists," Tomasky writes. Yes, there will be age-related questions for her to answer, especially after her concussion last year. But ultimately, all Clinton needs to do is "be who she is"—that is, "our country’s most admired woman in 17 of the last 20 years." Republican attacks on her age will backfire, and if the GOP really wants to become "the forward-looking party of young people," it will need to consider some wildly unlikely policy changes. Click for Tomasky's full column. (More Election 2016 stories.)