Topic: Politics & Elections
The fans of Hillary Clinton—an ever-shrinking group if the polls are to be believed—can take comfort from the news that her campaign minions have drawn up a detailed plan to roll out a more relaxed, spontaneous and witty version of the Pants-Suited One. This must be said of HRC: She has debunked F. Scott Fitzgerald’s claim that there are no second acts in American life. I’m afraid I’ve lost count but the new and improved candidate shortly to be unveiled must surely be HRC V.5 or 6.
That HRC is a lousy campaigner and a maladroit politician ought not to surprise anyone. Her performance in 2007-08 was just as unimpressive. Maybe people thought that she’d learned from her mistakes. But when has she ever? Hillary Clinton has always been distant, robotic, gaffe prone, thin skinned. She manifestly lacks the sure political touch that served her husband so well. Her record as a senator was undistinguished and her record as Secretary of State is just a hole in the air. We keep hearing about her incredible accomplishments, her brilliance, her command of the issues—but how do those claims on her behalf square with the email server scandal? However powerful her intellect, HRCs sense of entitlement, her feeling that the rules don’t apply to her, seem more powerful still. And the result was a grievous self-inflicted wound that may very well cripple her campaign.
And Bill Clinton? Bubba must be beating his head against the wall. How could HRC have been married to him for all these years and not learned one single thing from the master? Indeed it’s painful in a nails down the chalkboard sort of way to watch HRC lumber through a performance of the old Clinton Two-Step. If he’s the Fred Astaire of fancy political footwork, she’s the Rosie O’Donnell of charm and personality.
What a difference a year makes! Back then HRC was the It Girl of American politics: backed by the mighty Clinton machine, her party’s favorite, on her way to a comfortable coronation. And it could still happen, I suppose, because one thing the Clintons know how to do is collect favors. Lots of people in the Democratic Party and its associated groups owe Bill and Hill—big time. Bernie Sanders may be wowing the lefties and Joe Biden might be the Dems’ sentimental favorite but HRC has the money, the endorsements and not, least, the determination to eviscerate the opposition, if that what it takes to clinch the nomination.
Still, there’s no denying the fact that people don’t particularly like HRC, now the Id Girl of her party. Oh, sure, she’s fawned over in the most obsequious manner by some in the media, by the denizens of her inner circle and by the favor seekers who buzz around powerful politicians like flies at a picnic. And who knows? It may well be that when she’s safely ensconced among her loyal retainers HRC is considerate, charming, witty, etc. But out on the campaign trail? She’s no happy warrior, that’s for sure.
Boy, I don’t envy the Democrats this time around: Voting for HRC will be like swallowing a dose of cod’s liver oil. I have to admit, though, that my enjoyment of their plight is tempered by the nagging thought that Republicans will somehow select as their standard bearer the one and only candidate who could lose to Hillary R. Clinton…
