Hillary Clinton "owns" the Obama administration, no matter how hard she tries to divorce herself from it, says Larry Sabato, director of the University of Virginia's Center for Politics and author of the "Sabato's Crystal Ball" blog.
"I have heard many times from Hillary supporters and even some of her staff members that she'll be able to separate herself from [Barack] Obama because she's going to say, 'I'm going to be more like that president you had in the '90s. You may know him, he's otherwise known as my husband,''' Sabato told "The Steve Malzberg Show" on
Newsmax TV.
Story continues below video.
Note: Watch Newsmax TV now on DIRECTV Ch. 349 and DISH Ch. 223
Get Newsmax TV on your cable system – Click Here Now
"That really doesn't work," he said Tuesday. "The whole history of presidential elections tells us when people are voting for a successor, they retrospectively review the record of the incumbent president. If they want to continue that president's record, say, with Ronald Reagan, they elect George H. W. Bush.
"If they don't . . . as with George W. Bush, they elect the opposite party's candidate, Barack Obama. I don't think she's going to be able to change history.''
Because Clinton, the presumed Democratic candidate for president in 2016, served for four years as secretary of state under Obama, she "owns the Obama administration no matter what she says,'' Sabato said.
"She could say, 'Oh, I would have done that differently, I would have done that differently.'
"Then the Republican nominee, whoever that turns out to be, can turn and say, 'Well, why didn't you resign? If you felt so strongly about that, why didn't you resign? You could have made a difference if you'd done that.'''
See "The Steve Malzberg Show" on Newsmax TV each weekday live by clicking here now.