I am watching Democrat and Republican pundits handicapping Hillary Clinton's chances of being the next president of the United States. Everyone is on the same page about her slipping popularity.
One pundit blames her high-flying lifestyle being juxtaposed to claims that she and Bill "struggled" after leaving the White House.
Another claims that it is her perceived insincerity which accounts for her slide in popularity.
While both characterizations have merit, I think the pundits have underestimated the determination of certain Americans to have a female president at any cost. This is the same group of people who voted for President Barack Obama (twice) because it was, to them, most important to have a non-white president at any cost.
I think it is plain to everyone that we are not, under the Obama administration, in an era which stands any chance of being called "America's finest hour." The economy lags. Jobs for young people are rare or non-existent. African-Americans are suffering more than ever. Foreign policy is a complete mess. The countries of the world have lost a great deal of respect for America and don't hesitate to say so. It seems that everyone is glad to see America get its Obama "comeuppance."
Which brings me back to Hillary. She's much smarter than the pundits would like to admit. She's too smart, in fact, for her own good. Having been upended and outmaneuvered in the 2008 elections by Barack Obama and the Utopian dreamers who invented him, she thought that her best chance of being president was in taking the Secretary of State job. This would be the type of experience that would give her depth, gravitas, and the aura of being a 'great lady.'
Except for Benghazi, that might have worked. Given the widespread American disinterest and large-scale ignorance of foreign policy, that might still have worked.
Hillary lately assailed Barack Obama's mess of the Middle East--Syria, Iraq, and also Afghanistan (not an ME country but same incompetent drift). This is reflective of her knowledge of having made a mistake and a wish to separate herself from the Obama mess.
This is a big problem than cannot be resolved no matter how many public media appearances Obama and Mrs. Clinton make to hug it out . Hillary should have sat it out and baked cookies (meaning she could have maintained a clean public persona by engaging in humanitarian affairs) and waited for 2016. She would have been better off.
So 2016 is a good opportunity to put the country right except that Republicans have a habit of forming circular firing squads. That Rand Paul, that Libertarian version of Hillary, stacks up well statistically against her is an indication of American confusion.
