Hillary Assumes the Position(s) for 2016

If there is one thing we know about Hillary Rodham Clinton, it is that she owns the world’s largest collection of pantsuits.

If there is one other thing we know about her, it is that there is nothing she would not do to attain the title of President of the United States.

Her entire life is a testament to this fact. From working hard to get into a good school, to marrying Bill Clinton, to staying with Bill Clinton after Gennifer Flowers, to staying with Bill Clinton after Monica Lewinsky, to running for Senate in New York, to continuing to stay married to Bill Clinton . . . there is no hardship Hillary is unwilling to endure.

By 2008, she had paid more dues than perhaps any American President in the past two centuries, and the general consensus seemed to be that she was entitled–if not qualified–to hold the job.

But somehow her résumé as a morally-questionable woman with a background in the legal realm came in second to Barack Obama’s résumé as a morally-questionable black man with a background in the legal realm. As Obama confidently read the words, “Yes we can,” from his teleprompter, Hillary could be heard shrieking, “How did this happen?”

Hillary Rodham Clinton, once the de facto 2008 Democratic nominee and First Lady to “for all intents and purposes the first black President of the United States,” became a victim of the same style of politics she had practiced all her life. Her argument for entitlement to be President of the United States was structured around the idea that she was a woman and everyone should be excited to vote for her on that basis alone.

What was more, anyone who didn’t vote for her would be labeled a sexist for not doing so.

Unfortunately, her strategy was derailed by someone whose social status trumped her own: a minority candidate with a superior entitlement complex. Of course, it didn’t help Hillary’s case that John Edwards was also trying to out-girl her; it may be that Joe Biden was the only contender in that primary who was actually running on his credentials!

At the end of the day, the Democrats decided they would rather be “sexist” than “racist,” and Hillary was soundly defeated. Worse yet, she herself was temporarily branded a racist by the more extreme elements of the party for daring to keep her campaign alive and competing against a black man rather than immediately stepping aside. For the Clintons, whose primary tactic during the 1990′s was branding their own political enemies as racists, this must have come as quite a shock.

Politics makes strange bedfellows, and Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama both prescribe to the theory that you keep your friends close, your enemies closer, your birth certificate inaccessible, and your rival for the Democratic nomination firmly where you can plant a knife in their back.

Thus, Obama asked Clinton to give up the cushy role she had just been reelected to as the manliest Senator from New York to become his underling as Secretary of State, and Clinton accepted.

Hillary’s willingness to do this shocked a lot of people, but really shouldn’t have. In the Senate, she was just one of a hundred people who put their slacks on one leg at a time and came to work desperately scrambling for a way to stand out from the crowd.

As Secretary of State, she has a high-profile post within the Obama administration which allows her to cultivate political connections throughout the world, wield power on an international level, and show the nation she can be humble even in defeat. Besides which, occupying a position under Barack Obama was at least a change of pace from being one of the handful of Democratic women NOT to occupy a position under the previous Democratic President.

However, Hillary did not simply smile politely and go with the flow for Barack as she had done for Bill.

For once in her career as a mislabeled feminist with a mind of her own, she demonstrated publicly that she was her own person and not just an extension of a man. Sure, she went where Obama told her and she worked to advance the policies of his administration, but when she disagreed with his handling of international issues, she let it be publicly known.

And given Obama’s tendency to bow to murderous dictators, apologize for America’s success, and generally botch every international incident which came along, even a renowned leftist like Hillary was left with no shortage of issues to criticize.

So successful has Hillary become in distancing herself from Obama within his own administration, that even as his approval numbers reach record lows, her own popularity has never been better. By the time Obama began his “kinetic military action” in Libya, little more than two years into his presidency, Hillary announced that she was so frustrated as his Secretary of State that she would not be part of his administration even if he should be reelected in 2012.

This latest development is a reminder that Clinton is as patient and methodical as ever in her desire to attain the presidency.

There has long been a suspicion that Hillary might rise again to challenge Obama in 2012, but to do so would be unwise, and she is politically savvy enough to realize it. True, Obama has lost approval since ascending to the presidency, but the Democratic Party is still firmly behind him. What approval he has lost among Democrats is primarily on the far left, because he is not as radical as they had hoped he would be.

The far left knows Obama is still more in line with their agenda than Hillary, and so the dynamics have not shifted from the last time they faced off in a primary. Her approval has risen among independents, but Obama is still the champion of the Democratic Party. If she were to run against him in a primary, she would again be defeated, her stature would be further diminished, and everything she has done since 2008 would have even less meaning than the wedding band on Bill’s finger. If she ran in 2012 against an Obama seeking reelection, she would destroy any chance she currently has at ever being President.

2016 is a different story altogether. If she leaves the Obama administration early in 2013, she will have nearly four years to distance herself from his disaster and promote herself for her own campaign.

In the more likely scenario, Barack Obama will be defeated by his Republican opponent and the healing can begin in 2013.

While things would undoubtedly get better, the fixes will not come overnight. Things were looking bleak when Obama took office in 2009, and they have already gotten much worse. By 2013, the Republicans will be looking at a monumental mess to clean up, and it will take substantially longer for things like our national debt to be paid off than it took for Obama to accumulate it.

Even if we are on the right track, the memory of the American voter has proven to be remarkably short, and their patience matches their memory. These factors, coupled with the Democrats’ willing accomplices in the media, could allow for another competitive presidential race, which Clinton would be poised to exploit.

The other scenario is almost too horrible to contemplate: Barack Obama might actually win reelection.

In this case, if the country still exists in 2016, Hillary will be able to avoid running against an incumbent from either party, and the country will theoretically have been satisfied of the compulsion to vote for a candidate based on his race; they may even feel inclined to vote for a candidate based on her gender.

In this instance, despite her party having held the White House for the previous eight years, Hillary will be able to use the strategy John McCain employed in 2008, effectively running against her predecessor as much as against her challenger from the other party.

When the Republican nominee talks about how bad things got under Obama and how his policies failed the nation, Hillary can simply agree and point out that’s why she abandoned the Obama administration. Doing so would allow her to look comparatively reasonable, forward-thinking, and go a long way toward establishing credibility and integrity in the minds of the common voter.

With the media again on her side and armed with an appeal that escaped McCain entirely, she could succeed where he failed. Hillary would then be able to sweep into office, building upon the rubble left by Obama and shaping the country to her desires by exploiting a desperate populace willing to accept any change; ironically, exactly what Obama himself did in assuming office after Bush, and precisely what got us into this mess!

Clinton winning in either of these scenarios is far from a certainty, but both her strategy and her intention to enter the race are clearer than ever. Conservatives need to keep this in mind as we work to defeat Obama. 2012 is just the next battle.

Another socialist is waiting in the wings, her declaration to seek office is just four years away, and the wheels of her campaign bus are already turning.

Travis Sedars
Mason City, Iowa

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