MT. PLEASANT, S.C. — South Carolina Sen. Lindsey Graham predicted Wednesday that Hillary Clinton will be hitched to President Obama’s flailing agenda if she runs for president, but also raised the stakes for his own party in 2016.
Speaking at a breakfast of Republican women on the deck of a creek side bar and grill, Graham made three separate references to the next presidential race during a 45 minute talk that largely focused on the situation in Syria, immigration reform and defunding the president’s health care law.
“We need a Winston Churchill, Ronald Reagan, George W. Bush. In 2016, I believe Americans are going to be focused on experience, not just speeches,” he said, in one of his repeated critiques of Obama. ”I believe by 2016 the economy is going to be so screwed up because of Obama economics, that Hillary Clinton is going to own everything he did. She’s likely to be the nominee.”
His biggest applause line of the morning came next when he unloaded what’s become an obsession for him:
“I believe Lindsey Graham is not going to stop talking about Benghazi until we understand what the heck happened.”
In what could only be seen as a veiled dig at Kentucky Sen. Rand Paul, the leading voice in opposition to a Syrian strike, Graham reminded his audience, “How many of you miss Ronald Reagan? Now Ronald Reagan wasn’t a libertarian, folks.”
Calling immigration reform “the defining issue of the GOP,” Graham laid out the dire political ramifications for failing to address the flood of undocumented Hispanics residing in the country.
“Let’s figure out how to be conservative and grow the vote. I think we can but it’s going to take an effort and it’s going to take an honest evaluation of who we are in 2013. Because in 2016, if we don’t win it then, I don’t like our chances for the rest of this century. But in 2016, I like our chances because after eight years of Obama, don’t you think people are going to be looking for something new?,” he asked, capping his train of thought with a hopeful assessment.
While most of the questions in the audience directed to Graham centered around military action in Syria and immigration, the Palmetto State’s senior senator fielded one inquiry about protecting the country’s conservative culture, which one attendee described as “under assault.”
“I hope the Republican nominee for 2016 will embrace social conservatism in a tolerant way and tell America without any hesitation, ‘The problems we have in this country are not because of social conservatism, it’s because the destruction of the family,’” he said.
Follow Dave’s blog at TheRun2016.com
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