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Hillary Clinton and Jeb Bush are dealing with the baggage of their political histories even before their 2016 campaigns officially begin.

For the former secretary of state, the new scrutiny of Clinton Foundation donors especially foreign governments and wealthy non-U.S. citizens is bringing back memories of Whitewater and the selling of the White House Lincoln Bedroom to political patrons.

Revelations about the Clinton Foundations donor list causedThe New York Times to editorialize that someone needed to reinstate the foundations ban against foreign contributors, who might have matters of concern to bring before a future Clinton administration.

Much attention was given to Jeb Bushs speech this week in Chicago in which he paid due deference to his father and older brothers achievements but added, I am my own man. In a question-and-answer session that immediately followed the speech, he also acknowledged that there were mistakes made in Iraq, for sure.

The focus on their histories, and that of their families, is enough to make the assumed frontrunners dwell on William Faulkners famous words, the past is never dead. Its not even past.

Still, some observers argue that, just as the duos decades in the public eye have given them records on which they can be attacked, it has also tempered them so they are better able to withstand the heat.

Tony Fratto, who served as deputy press secretary to President George W. Bush, said that while people will be interested in the pasts of Clinton and Jeb Bush, they're both skilled in getting people to see past that.

The difference with [Bush and Clinton] is that they've got a lot of experience in having to answer these types of questions, having to deal with unfortunate situations, Fratto added. They have what you might not expect from other candidates and campaigns who will overreact, try to hide it, not have a clear answer. With both of these candidates, they've been around it for so long and know how to deal with these situations.

Terry Shumaker, a former U.S. ambassador who co-chaired Bill Clinton's New Hampshire campaigns and is involved in Ready for Hillary in the Granite State, argued it was unrealistic to expect anyone who can entertain realistic hopes of entering the White House to have lived a blank, unblemished life.

When people get to the high level of running for president, they've lived interesting, complicated lives in the private and public sectors and have done a lot. But I think voters are going to look beyond that stuff. They're more interested in whos going to be the best president. Elections are about the future not the present or the past.

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Hillary Clinton, Jeb Bush and the problem with baggage

Feb 21, 2015 3:08pm

Lisa Lake/Getty Images

This week, we asked Amy Chozick, national political reporter for the The New York Times, whocovers Hillary Clinton, about when the former secretary of state might announce her 2016 intentions, her possible competition and one thing that surprised Chozick about Clinton.

Read our conversation below before Chozick appears on the This Week roundtable Sunday.

1]Hillary Clinton has not said she is running for president, although obviously many people assume she will. If she does, what do we know about when she might announce?

Amy Chozick:The conventional wisdom is that she would establish some sort of exploratory committee to begin raising money in April. She could then do a splashy public rollout of an official campaign later in the spring or early summer. But the exploratory committee would give Clinton the legal apparatus to begin to raise and spend money for a political campaign.

2]Clintons Twitter account has been closely watched since she started tweeting. Do we know who is in control of that account and the strategy behind it?

Amy Chozick:I think we might be overanalyzing. Clinton, apparently, handles her own Twitter account and enjoys the medium. Just look what it did for her with the Texts from Hillary meme.Tweeting allows her to comment (albeit in 140 characters) on events of the day in a very controlled, but heavily disseminatedway. That beats the unpredictability of a press conference, at least for now.

PHOTOS: Hillary Clinton Through the Years

3]The New York Times reportedClinton met with Sen. Elizabeth Warren in December. Do they [team Clinton] perceive her as a threat to a possible Clinton candidacy for president? And if so, how large? Also, is there a specific Republican that team Clinton perceives would pose the biggest challenge to Clinton should she decide to run and secure the nomination?

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One Thing That Might Surprise You About Hillary Clinton

Almost everyone who covers politics thinks Hillary Clinton is a cinch to win the Democratic nomination in 2016. Or if not a cinch, a heavy favorite.

Which leaves all of us to feverishly searchfor a vulnerability -- any vulnerability -- that could make this an actual contest. This most often leads to hypotheticals about someone (mostly Elizabeth Warren) running to Clinton'sleft and exposing lingering liberal unhappiness with the Wall Street-friendly former first family.

All except there has been almost no evidence of such unhappiness.In fact, poll after poll has shown Clinton does just fine-- if not better -- among liberals.

Until now (but only kind of).

A new Field Poll of the California electorate asked Democrats in that state whom they favor in the 2016 primary. And yet again, Clinton leads Warren by a huge margin -- 42 points. No surprise there.

But! For once, apoll actually shows something of a liberal defection to Warren. It shows Clinton leads the Massachusetts senatorby a much-smaller 11-point margin among those who identify as "strongly liberal" -- 46 percent to 35 percent.

At the same time, this is a pretty small piece of the Democratic pie -- less than one-third-- and the sample size is just 116, which means there's a huge margin of error. The rest of Democrats, by contrast, favor Clinton 64-10.

Field poll

There's also, of course, the matter of Warren not actually running for president, and the fact that she still trails Clinton. Oh, and this is California, which has a different brand of liberal than the rest of the country does. If there's one state besides Massachusetts whereWarren could catch on, California would probably be it.

Indeed,the fact that this small sub-sample is possibly the first real polling evidence of a liberal openness toa non-Clinton candidate shows precisely how dominant she is in the early part of the 2016 campaign.

See the rest here:
The Fix: Here is your sliver of evidence that Hillary Clinton could lose a primary

Shock poll: Warren leads Clinton in Iowa, N.H.
Populist groups cheering "Run Warren Run," today released 2016 election polls from Iowa and New Hampshire showing Sen. Elizabeth Warren ahead of dominant Democrat Hillary Clinton.

By: The Washington Examiner

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Shock poll: Warren leads Clinton in Iowa, N.H. - Video

To Fox News, The Brian Williams Scandal Is About Hillary Clinton
Hillary Clinton has nothing to do with the controversy about Brian Williams #39; fabrication(s) and how it has rocked NBC News. But that hasn #39;t stopped Hannity a...

By: newshounds

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To Fox News, The Brian Williams Scandal Is About Hillary Clinton - Video