New York Democratic Senator and 2020 hopeful Kirsten Gillibrand had a campaign event scheduled with South Carolina State University students last night. Being one of the early voting states in the primary, that’s a natural choice and plenty of candidates and potential candidates have been prowling around the state. But as people gathered and waited for her to appear, at the last minute Gillibrand’s team announced that she wouldn’t be showing up and everyone could just go home. (Free Beacon)

Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand (D., N.Y.) canceled a campaign event in South Carolina less than 30 minutes before it was set to begin. The Democratic presidential candidate was supposed to meet with South Carolina State University students…

Gillibrand announced the formation of a presidential exploratory committee last month. Soon after entering the 2020 race, she faced questions over conservative views she formerly held on immigration and gun rights.

That’s a great way to alienate the college student segment of the base, a group generally relied on to hit the streets and do a lot of the nuts and bolts work of a state campaign. But Gillibrand also managed to tick off the media. AP reporter Meg Kinnard seemed to be particularly peeved over the cancellation.

JUST IN: Literally 27 minutes before it was set to begin, @SenGillibrand’s campaign sends out notice her event here at @SCSTATE1896 has been canceled. pic.twitter.com/tzn55H4Wic

— Meg Kinnard (@MegKinnardAP) February 8, 2019

As the Free Beacon noted, Kinnard went on to post a batch of other, increasingly critical tweets which she then deleted. But the internet has a long memory and the FB captured them. Kinnard went on to say that Gillibrand appeared to not have a campaign strategy and was “light years” behind the other 2020 candidates in terms of staffing up and deploying resources in South Carolina.

Kinnard might as well have left the tweets up since they seem accurate enough. Gillibrand’s campaign has thus far seemed to consist mostly of late night comedy and cable news appearances where she has been forced to repeatedly apologize for all of the conservative positions she endorsed while serving in the House of Representatives. She’s also been held to account for her early legal work for Wall Street firms and big tobacco interests. Rather than talking about the agenda she would bring forward if elected, these appearances are simply educating more and more people about the massive flip-flops she’s executed on virtually every policy point currently under debate.

And then there’s this.

https://twitter.com/ArthurSchwartz/status/1094220327503257600

Why shouldn’t Gillibrand’s former legal work and policy positions be on the table? If we’re going to hold elected officials accountable for yearbook photos taken 35 years ago, surely the votes and political speeches a candidate delivered barely ten years ago are of interest. She was in her forties by then and should have fully formed many of her world views. Candidates need to be looking to the future but Gillibrand is spending all of her time apologizing for her past. That, combined with the obvious chaos enveloping her campaign staffing efforts don’t make for a promising candidacy.