Finding Respect for Hillary

Hillary Clinton has pulled out of the primary race, leaving Barack Hussein Obama a clear path for nomination for the Democratic Party at the Denver Convention. But in the final analysis, despite the odds from the start, Hillary endures.
I've never been a fan of Hillary Clinton. From before her husband's first term in the White House, something about her just put me off.

Before you start thinking the term "misogynist," let me put you straight from the get go. It had nothing to do with the fact that she's a woman, nor the fact that she is a strong willed, determined woman. It had to do more along the lines with policy issues and political theory.

For years, I would cringe whenever I would see Hillary on television and change the channel to something more palatable.

Bill ended his second term as President, and I hoped that we had heard the last of Bill and Hillary Clinton, but that wasn't to be the case, as Hillary went on to win a senate seat in New York. And from there she went on to enter into the run for the Presidency.

If I had had hair at that point, I would have been pulling it out by the roots. I was even seriously considering and looking into how to best make a move to Mexico for the duration of her Presidency if she won the nomination and then went on to take office next January. By the time she and Obama began to emerge at the front of the pack, I had decided that it was time to leave my years standing spot as a die hard independent and declare a party, choosing to declare as a Republican. For the first time in my life, because of two candidates, I was and am affiliated with a party.

Politics has always held a strong fascination and appeal to me, however, and so I naturally had to follow the course of both the Democrat and Republican fights for the President. My own choice for candidate, Fred Thompson, entered the race late and didn't make it to the finish line. I wasn't happy about that at the time, but in retrospect, looking over the campaigns and at the nation as a whole, it wasn't the right time for Fred to come into the Presidency.

And so I continued following along, weighing things in my mind that have yet to find their way into words that can coherently be followed by others, and I noticed a few things.

First and foremost, Bill Clinton, God love him, is a narcissistic megalomaniac. A few years back, I could almost feel sorry for Bill and it was because of my feelings about Hillary that inspired that sentiment. From the reports of their screaming matches in the White House, with Hillary throwing things at Bill during arguments, her ice water reputation, and all the bad dirty business that seems to shadow Team Clinton, I couldn't stand either of them, her moreso than him.

Watching things more closely this year and with a different approach, having political science training and practical experience in my background that I didn't have at the time of Bill's bid for the White House, I could see things profoundly differently now than I saw them then.

Bill Clinton is an albatros around his wife's neck (for those of you who have never read Ryme of the Ancient Mariner, you need to check it out here. Between his philandering and his temper, he has done nothing, really to forward his wife's campaign. Generally, an appearance by Bill on Hillary's behalf tends to be like Al Gore showing up to discuss global warming (see Gore Effect). If you're running for President, you don't want anything to have a negative impact on the campaign to be coming from within your own camp. And Bill is a definite negative for Hillary. Hillary can't even have her moment to withdraw gracefully from the campaign without the negative shadow of Bill lurking in the corner.

I have to admit, I was pretty amazed at my own reversal of thinking in taking an in depth look at Hillary's candidacy. And I have to say that despite her faux pas, despite her gaffes, despite the pushing by the DNC leadership, Hillary soldiered on and stayed the course until the final numbers came in to put Obama over the top.

That speaks volumes to a strength of character that I, personally, didn't believe possible out of Hillary Clinton until I watched her continue on, despite overwhelming pressure from the media and from her own party to drop out of the race so they could hand the nomination to Barack Hussein Obama. It speaks to her belief in her cause, and while I may not necessarily agree with her on several issues of policy, I have to say, this weekend, I am sitting here highly impressed with her integrity and her endurance to continue on until the ultimate and final decision being made; that decision being Obama reaching the required number of delegates before Clinton. She has definitely, despite my differences of opinion with her on policy matters, earned my respect.

So what next for Hillary Clinton? She's already forwarded the notion that there will be another bid for the White House. That means that she definitely plans to be working on that as a goal in the future. Let's go into total analytical mode for a moment, and put forth a hypothesis. The Democratic party is in a state of transition. They don't want to admit it, but lets be honest with ourselves here, it is. So is the Republican party. There are Democrats who have supported Clinton who are on the record that they will under no circumstances support Obama, they will support McCain instead. Honestly? I don't blame them for this position, McCain does know how to work with both sides of the aisle and break the party line. McCain is in a position where he is set to reap the rewards of a splintered tree, picking up votes from Clinton, as we draw closer to the November general elections.

There is a way McCain could secure ALL of Hillary Clinton's votes, however. Obama has made it pretty clear that he won't be asking Hillary Clinton to be his running mate for the November ticket.

That doesn't, really, if the cards are played right and the hand unfolds the way that it would need to in order for it to happen, necessarily mean that Clinton couldn't be in the running for a spot as Vice President of the United States, during a time when both major political parties are on the verge of losing members to third party movements anyway...

Just a little notion than ran through mind in sitting back and contemplating things political in discussion with a friend earlier today.


I can easily believe, that there are more invisible than visible Beings in the universe. But who shall describe for us their families? and their ranks and relationships and distinguishing features and functions? What they do? where they live? The human mind has always circled around a knowledge of these things, never attaining it. I do not doubt, however, that it is sometimes beneficial to contemplate, in thought, as in a Picture, the image of a greater and better world; lest the intellect, habituated to the trivia of daily life, may contract itself too much, and wholly sink into trifles. But at the same time we must be vigilant for truth, and maintain proportion, that we may distinguish certain from uncertain, day from night.

-- T. Burnet, Archaeol. Phil. p. 68 (1692)

Once and Always, an American Fighting Man

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