Michael Goodwin has nailed Hillary Clinton:
She came, she cried, she conquered, proving it will take more than a
lethal terror attack on her watch to sink the unsinkable Hillary Rodham
Clinton.
Clinton sailed triumphantly through Congress last week on her way out
the State Department door, shredding expectations she would face a
tough grilling. The cooling breezes from Democratic punkahwallahs and
the fearful quaking from Republican wimps turned what should have been
riveting revelations about the Benghazi slaughter into a day of air
balls.
The highlights of her appearances — Clinton’s teary eyes over the
deaths and furious “What difference does it make?” outburst — mattered
only because she showed emotion. Otherwise, she was forced to give up
nothing except a few hours of her time.
She was all smiles and chipper the next day when she went back to the
Senate with her nominated successor, Sen. John Kerry. Her glide out of
government, and almost certainly into the 2016 campaign, reached its
climax Sunday night when she and President Obama appeared together on
“60 Minutes.” There was mutual slobbering praise as the former rivals
linked arms in their interview with CBS's Steve Kroft to the permanent
profit of both.
The
choreographed Hillary Farewell Tour is the latest reminder that
Republicans have no answer for the Democrats’ potent brew of identity
politics and the cult of celebrity.
The choreographed Hillary Farewell Tour is the latest reminder that
Republicans have no answer for the Democrats’ potent brew of identity
politics and the cult of celebrity.
No longer a test of performance and results, the political game now
is about building a following based on race, gender and other identity
markers that are immune to traditional standards of accountability.
Barack Obama wins re-election with one of the more dismal Oval Office
records in memory, and Clinton is hailed as a great secretary of state
without actually having done anything great.
Obama belongs on Mount Rushmore. If you don’t agree, you’re a racist.
Clinton was a brilliant diplomat. If you don’t agree, you’re a sexist.
The heads-I-win, tails-you-lose nature of Democratic politics these
days snuffs out honest debate and competition, but in the short run,
it’s an election juggernaut.
And it’s not just Republicans who should worry. As the Democratic
Party loses more white men, white male Dems increasingly will face an
uphill climb against female and nonwhite primary competitors.
Vice President Joe Biden and Gov. Cuomo, for example, are likely to
seek the Dem presidential nomination in four years. If they do, they
will be instant underdogs against Clinton. No matter their records and
history of pandering to the base, they have no built-in constituency the
way Obama did or Clinton does.
Oddly, Clinton concluded soon after losing to Obama in 2008 that she
could not challenge him in 2012 because even if she won the nomination,
black voters would not show up for her in the general election.
So she traveled the world and kept her mouth shut if she ever
disagreed, and is now rewarded with a send-off that smacks of departing
royalty. With Obama helping propel her into orbit, she instantly becomes
the front-runner for 2016.
But now, while the record is fresh, is the time to apply some
inconvenient facts to her tenure at State. A fair reading of the last
four years is that America is weaker around the globe, largely by her
and Obama’s choice.
Start with the twin terrors of Iran and North Korea. Both are
marching toward what they insist will be confrontations with America.
While Obama and Clinton tried to stop their nuclear programs with
sanctions and, in the case of Iran, sabotage, the policies failed. The
confrontation is closer than when the dynamic duo took office.
The Mideast is more of a mess, too, and the policy of turning a
smiley face toward the Muslim Brotherhood in Egypt and elsewhere is a
first-rate disaster in the making. The abandonment of Iraq and the plan
to quit Afghanistan undercut hard-won success and risk calamitous
defeat.
Syria and Libya prove that leading from behind is not leading at all.
Al Qaeda groups are rising throughout Africa. China and Russia show
they neither fear nor respect the United States.
As for our friends, important ones like Israel, Poland and Colombia
are alarmed. The Saudis are turning to China, and even Canada wonders
whether we are reliable.
Finally, this: Can anyone name a country that Obama and Clinton
turned from an adversary into a friend? No, you can’t, because there
aren’t any. Not one.
But, as Clinton said about Benghazi, what difference does it make?
Absolutely none, and that’s her real legacy.
-------------------------------------------
I absolutely believe that Hillary will run for president in 2016 .
And what's even scarier is that I think she will win.
Here's a thought: How many of today's illegal aliens will be registered Democrat voters by 2016?
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