As the OP here lists, she repeatedly had a problem putting it away against a real contender who was not afraid of What If I Piss Off The Clintons (the Senate seat was a relatively safe one). As I also mentioned in another thread, her campaigns tended to turn into campaigns not so much to win, but To Not Lose. That’s not a recipe for smashing successes. Even when you are ahead you must play to win.
Curious how you come the conclusion that she’s very capable? You then go on to describe she was marginal in her two high profile roles.
I’ve known Hillary since her days as the First Lady of Arkansas, when she worked at the Rose Law Firm. She wasn’t that great of an attorney and was prized for her access to the Governor, her husband. Her primary focus has always been gaining power. She even used her leverage in regards to Bill’s extra-marital affairs as power over him. I personally am glad to see this train ride over.
Which makes her different from every other would-be Head of Government, or for that matter billionaire CEO, how? (don’t get me wrong, she still went about pursuing it… less than smoothly, let’s say)
Hillary strikes me as the kind of person who is very hard-working and moderately intelligent but lacking in judgment, insight and imagination. This is a type which often does well in university but struggles in real life. Hillary’s leadership of health reform in the early 90’s was one of the epic screwups in American political history. She showed poor judgment over the Iraq war and doesn’t seem to have learnt anything from that experience. She badly misjudged both the 2008 and 2016 races, which she blew despite enormous advantages.
I suspect her real issue is what I’ve seen described in books by people who actually know her. She is an intensely private person who does not like to show her real self to those she doesn’t know and trust. That’s incompatible with seeking high office.
Clinton didn’t do anything that Michelle Obama couldn’t do. Except Michelle Obama has the good sense to not do it, because she knows that her name recognition alone would give her a very good chance to win a Democratic primary.
if Clinton wanted a political career, she should have sought office earlier in life. If she’d run for Arkansas Senator back in the 80s she would have learned how to appeal to red state voters the way her husband did, and would have a lot more practice looking sincere while doing it.
HRC is a cartoonishly bad politician. I was apoplectic when she was nominated.
In debates and speeches, she emits a persona of being aloof, robotic, out-of-touch, and smug. I concur with others who describe a lack of charisma.
She moved to New York state and ran for the US Senate seat as a tourist in a race where her main opponent (Giuliani) dropped out reportedly due to health reasons. She may have won anyway especially after becoming a phony new Yankees fan.
Both of the Clintons stink of sleazy elitism especially with perceived influence peddling with the Foundation and high paid speeches to wealthy honchos in high finance.
She has been accused of mishandling classified documents.
Her vote in the Senate to support the Iraq War has outraged many Americans. I give her credit for admitting regret for that decision, though.
The Clintons’ arm twisting of Democrats (especially superdelegates) behind the scenes really pissed off a lot of people in her own party.
I thought that she would lose in the 2008 presidential primary, and I thought that she would lose again in the 2016 primary. I was wrong in 2016.
I have the same background as well but am not as thoroughly reformed. I recognize that the Limbaughs, FNCs and Drudges take it too far and sensationalize stories. I avoid them these days…well, not so much these last few days
However, I think that there is enough to the Whitewater, Travelgate, Benghazi, Email Server, etc stories to have disqualified other Pols. Her allies in the media propped her up all these years. That hasn’t helped in the long run.
Clinton would be on hundred times better a PResident than Donald Trump will be, of that there is no doubt, and she’s smart and capable. But it’s lunacy to think she’s a particularly good politician. She got as far as she did because she was married to a great politician, and it’s kidding oneself to think otherwise.
The contrast between her and the hideous Trump makes her look awfully good by comparison, but causes people to go a little overboard; on this normally fact-based board we’ve had people repeat the ridiculous line that she “the most qualified candidate in history.”
The USA has made a really terrible choice. Frighteningly terrible. But it was a choice, on a scale of 0 to 10, between a zero and a 5.
What I won’t buy into is the notion Bernie Sanders would have won; Sanders, in my honest opinion, would have been an equally weak candidate, and would almost certainly have lost, albeit perhaps with a different-looking map. What happened, at least in my opinion, is that the Democrats anointed Clinton the nominee so long ago no talented politician wanted to run against her, and the only person willing to do so was the not-really-a-Democrat socialist outsider who didn’t have any loyalty to the party anyway and so had little to lose.
Given how terrible Trump’s Presidency will be, you better believe a lot of Democrats are already planning their next 2-3 years to take a run at him. By the time the primary process gets underway, the economy will likely be a disaster and Trump may face a significant challenge in the GOP primary. It’ll be like 2008, a White House ripe for the taking.
That always bugged me about HRC - how she waited patiently for her husband to finish before she started he own political career. How could she be the first choice for president in the entire country, if she wasn’t the first choice for president in her own home? Oh well.
So fuckin’ what? This thread is about Hillary. The point is that for most people to reach US Senator and Sec. of State they usually have to worl their way up through small time elections then some larger ones and so they get experience in dealing with the dirty campaigning. Hillary’s only campaigning before the 2008 was basically putting her name on registration forms.
Again, she didn’t really have to campaign for that. Just sign up. And when she did campaign in 2008 she lost a primary she should have won. Primary 2016 and it was handed to her.* So going into the general she had only ran one competitive campaign and she was 0-1.
*No I’m not saying it was rigged. I’m saying all of the other Dems stepped aside so it was non-competitive.
