Will Hillary ever get to run for president in her own right? The scary\u00c2\u00a0noun of the past week is “co-presidency”. Bill is not really helping with that impression\u00c2\u00a0as he\u00c2\u00a0chews the scenery, sometimes\u00c2\u00a0slipping into speaking about the\u00c2\u00a0presidential race in the first-person.<\/p>\n
Thing is, I think this may be the moment for her. I should be clear. I am totally undecided on who I personally will vote for. But let’s look at candidate Clinton. She has a lot on the ball.\u00c2\u00a0A\u00c2\u00a0quick tally:<\/p>\n
I\u00c2\u00a0actually find\u00c2\u00a0the term\u00c2\u00a0“co-presidency”\u00c2\u00a0a bit ironic. It was a criticism applied to\u00c2\u00a0Bill Clinton’s administration\u00c2\u00a0once it became clear that Hillary was no wallflower first lady. There were murmurs then of a two-for-one package and complaints that she was not the one elected president and that she had too much influence.<\/p>\n
I have had my own misgivings about Hillary. For one thing, we are facing the distinct possibility\u00c2\u00a0of the dynastic presence of\u00c2\u00a0a Bush or a Clinton in the White House\u00c2\u00a0for\u00c2\u00a028 years. Then, after two Billary terms, Jeb Bush could always jump in.\u00c2\u00a0Eight years after that Chelsea would be ready to go.\u00c2\u00a0My grown and married kids (born starting in 1980) have already never known a time when there was not a Bush or a Clinton in the White House or Number One Observatory Circle\u00c2\u00a0 (the Vice President’s residence at the Naval Observatory).\u00c2\u00a0 Their kids could grow up thinking that “Bush” and “Clinton” are honorifics that are used interchangeably with President.\u00c2\u00a0<\/p>\n
However, this race is\u00c2\u00a0about who is qualified to lead this country regardless of the\u00c2\u00a0last name.\u00c2\u00a0I have been impressed with\u00c2\u00a0Hillary in the debates. While the other candidates often strummed the single string on their stick-to-the-message guitars, Hillary would give bigger picture answers. For example, in the ABC debates, the candidates were asked about their stand on pulling\u00c2\u00a0the troops from Iraq… with predictable results. Each candidate parroted the standard script. Then Hillary laid it out: we can’t just leave precipitously because:<\/p>\n
I think she\u00c2\u00a0made a couple of other intelligent points. But there were several issues like this\u00c2\u00a0where\u00c2\u00a0she\u00c2\u00a0demonstrated a grasp of the big picture complexities, where emotion-based decisions could create disastrous consequences. I was also\u00c2\u00a0impressed when she finally responded to the double-teaming of Obama and Edwards. I\u00c2\u00a0respected her somewhat annoyed response that she didn’t just talk about change, she had been actively doing it for 35 years, even acknowledging that she had pushed a bit too hard for change in\u00c2\u00a0 health-care such that she had not been able to make it happen 15 years ago. But she said she had learned some lessons in the process. And I believe she has.<\/p>\n
Her initial support of the war and her unwillingness to completely disavow that decision has hurt her with many voters. But I remember the day Colin Powell made his presentation to the United Nations. I had been uneasy about the prospect of losing our focus in Afghanistan. Though I was irritated at Saddam, I figured we were too thin on the ground and the economy needed some time and distance from 9\/11.<\/p>\n
It has been six and a half years. But remember what it was like right after 9\/11? In fact, it wasn’t just 9\/11.\u00c2\u00a0The anthrax attacks happened\u00c2\u00a0almost immediately afterward,\u00c2\u00a0placing a magnifying glass on the threat of biological weapons. That coupled with the fact that Saddam was known to have used such weapons on the Kurds made the notion of a preemptive strike much more palatable to a lot of Americans in the patriotic fervor following 9\/11.<\/p>\n
I suppose we should consider\u00c2\u00a0electing\u00c2\u00a0a psychic president.\u00c2\u00a0Edwards recanted his vote for the war.\u00c2\u00a0Obama\u00c2\u00a0says he was always against it but he was in no position to vote\u00c2\u00a0because he\u00c2\u00a0was not\u00c2\u00a0in the Senate at the time.\u00c2\u00a0Considering that the\u00c2\u00a0target of the anthrax attacks was\u00c2\u00a0civilian legislators,\u00c2\u00a0candidates who are\u00c2\u00a0staunchly anti-war\u00c2\u00a0now may have been a little\u00c2\u00a0less adamant about\u00c2\u00a0their opposition at the time. After all, the vote passed both houses with an overwhelming majority.<\/p>\n
I think it’s clear now that some in the\u00c2\u00a0Administration\u00c2\u00a0engineered the selective focus on intelligence to support a predetermined course toward war. A lot of smart people\u00c2\u00a0were fooled. Everybody (well, almost) wants the troops to come home.\u00c2\u00a0We want to get on with being a peaceful economic engine with friendly ties to other countries.\u00c2\u00a0\u00c2\u00a0I still respect the\u00c2\u00a0fact that sometimes we do have to show our teeth and I think that is one reason that\u00c2\u00a0Hillary refused to join Edwards in stating flat out that the war votes were a mistake. Given the facts presented and without the benefit of seeing how it all turned out\u00c2\u00a0she might have made the same decision. I very much respect that. The next president should not be so gun-shy that we get bullied. It’s a balancing act.<\/p>\n
Hindsight is for historians. Foresight is what makes presidents great. I am not sure I see\u00c2\u00a0a “great”\u00c2\u00a0president in this field. But I\u00c2\u00a0do feel like there are some qualified candidates on both sides of the aisle. Hillary\u00c2\u00a0has been in the environment of governance for nearly 30 years and not as an idle bystander. That counts for a lot. If she has a voice of experience whispering in her ear is that really so bad? Her husband had one.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Will Hillary ever get to run for president in her own right? The scary\u00c2\u00a0noun of the past week is “co-presidency”. Bill is not really helping with that impression\u00c2\u00a0as he\u00c2\u00a0chews the scenery, sometimes\u00c2\u00a0slipping into speaking about the\u00c2\u00a0presidential race in the first-person.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[5,10],"tags":[14,15,13,35,16],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.fiveminuteorator.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.fiveminuteorator.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.fiveminuteorator.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.fiveminuteorator.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.fiveminuteorator.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=7"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/www.fiveminuteorator.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.fiveminuteorator.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=7"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.fiveminuteorator.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=7"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.fiveminuteorator.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=7"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}