So, it looks as if Hillary is sniffing the not-too-subtle winds of US politics and checking out if she should run in the next presidential race. RICHARD LUTZ checks out the landscape.
Let Barack handle the Afghan retreat, the bloodbaths of the Arab world, the snail-paced economy and that most American of whacko issues- the right to carry an assault weapon.
Once he trips over at least one of these and finally wrestles himself free from The White House, Ms Clinton (shadowed closely by Mr Hillary), will have to decide if she wants to clamber aboard the Democrat Express to the White House.
It’s already on record that the Grand Old Dame of the Republicans, Newt Gingrich, has said if Hillary Clinton makes a big bid in four years time, the Right might as well pack up and start thinking of…well, not much. Maybe buying a couple of AK-47’s guns and stacking canned goods in a Montana survivalist cabin. He thinks she’s a natural.
She’ll bring baggage though. Obama never came up with the Guantanamo pull-out that he promised; he seems to have a deep liking for pilotless drones that can kill terrorists allright, but whole slices of wedding parties as well; and, he has a yen for curtailing civil liberties. Kinda conservative if you ask me.
If she does throw her make-up into the ring- and wins- it’ll be a breakthrough in American national politics. President after president- except for Jack Kennedy -have been whitebread Protestants. But along comes Obama with his Kenyan roots and tough lady Hillary and, all of the sudden, the White House boss profile changes in a snap of a 21st century finger.
Dumdum
The Republicans may just be caught out again, never really figuring out that half the voting population are women and a noticeable minority are not white anymore. Yet they drag out dubious dumdums like Mitt Romney (who nastily didn’t even attend the Presidential swearing-in bash) and really oversized dumdums like Sara Palin, last seen shooting moose as she gazed out of her triple glazing onto the Russian wilderness.
Four years is a l-o-n-g time. But so is a Presidential run for the White House. Watch this space and, interestingly, watch who she may grab by the lapels to be a possible Vice President. Maybe a white Midwest hunk in pinstripe suit with a rictus grin slapped over his gob. After all, you gotta cater to the new minorities.