Serving the Flathead Valley & Montana since 2006. A reality based independent journal of observation & analysis. © James Conner.
If elected President in 2016, Hillary Clinton will be 69 years old when she takes the oath of office. Only Ronald Reagan was older upon entering the White House. So, reports the New York Times, she’s hired a personal trainer and is practicing yoga to get in shape for the campaign. Although she has yet to formally announce her candidacy, Talking Points Memo reports the most members of the news media have no doubt she’s running. There’s even a website, Ready for Hillary, that’s a front for her campaign.
A lot of Democrats are jumping for joy that she’s running. It’s time for a woman in the White House, they babble; nothing else matters. All is forgiven, even her botch of health care during her husband’s administration. And much is forgotten, especially her bungled, cash burning campaign in 2008 which resembled a tour by a profligate rock musician, and her love for Wall Street. All that matters to millions of Democrats is that she has two X chromosomes.
Don’t expect anything new. She’ll run the same kind of campaign she ran in 2008, probably with many of the same people, although perhaps not with Mark Penn. This time, she believes, she’ll win because Barack Obama won’t be on the ballot.
Well, I’m not ready for Hillary. She bungled health care. She thought she’d been elected co-President. She cozies up to Wall Street. She supported Bush 43’s war of aggression in Iraq. She plays identity politics. She has a history of health problems, including blood clots. Her ambition has become an obsession that’s not far from a psychosis. I don’t trust her judgment.
Despite all of her disqualifications, she’s the Democrat’s presumed front-runner because younger, smarter, more liberal Democrats are apparently afraid of challenging her for the nomination. Unfortunately, she may be the Democratic nominee, and the choice in 2016 might be Hillary Clinton or Rand Paul or Paul Ryan or Ted Cruz or another Republican who wants to dismantle the New Deal and return us to the halcyon days leading to the Great Depression.
I’m not ready for Hillary. And I’m not sure whether I could ever get drunk and stoned enough to vote for her.