She would be fine. She is extremely capable and would do a much better job than the current guy. As my mom has said, it will take a woman to clean up his mess. As Bill Maher has said, the hatred and venom spewed at Sen. Clinton is baseless; she did nothing wrong during Bill's presidency. All true. I loved her as First Lady and think she has been a superb Senator from New York.
However, my criticisms come from two basic areas. First, I believe - sincerely - that if the Democrats nominate her, then the party is broken. While I think she would be a half way decent president, the main point of the nominating process is to pick someone who can win against the Republicans in the fall. With her ice-princess personality and her nails-on-chalkboard speech delivery, the Democrats would once again take us down the path of John Kerry and Michael Dukakis should they nominate Sen. Clinton. We would prove to the country that we can't seem to break ourselves out of this losing loop.
Fair? No. Reality? You bet. And the Party should start dealing a lot more with the reality of the political climate than in the Clintons' political paybacks. For some dumb reason Americans will not vote for someone whose personality makes them want to change the channel or leave the room.
Second, the primary campaign she has run thus far has been appalling. Negative, vial, and, yes, even racist. (Even as recently as yesterday the Senator was saying that Louisiana's recent contest didn't really count because the primary electorate was overwhelmingly African-American. What the fuck, Hil?)
In a superb NY Times column this past Sunday, Frank Rich makes my point on the absolutely horrible Karl Rove-like campaign the Clinton camp has been running. Key point:
Clinton [is] so ruthless that [she risks] shredding three decades of mutual affection with black America to win a primary.For some, health care trumps all other issues. For others it's the economy. Still others, the war in Iraq. All important, yes. But when you go so far as to divide your party during the primary campaign, then you're heading into the general election with no chance of winning. And at that point the nomination is about as worthless as the nominations of John Kerry or Michael Dukakis.
