In the flurry of UNGA activity, I have not been updating the blog with posts about the groundswell out here in America calling for Hillary Rodham Clinton to run for the top office in 2012. There was one major op-ed making the rounds on the internet this week, and a second, not quite as popular, but worth addressing.
Brett M. Decker, at the Washington Times, went viral with this from Thursday.
DECKER: Hillary Clinton’s last chance
Obama is vulnerable to a 2012 primary challenge
Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton speaks during a joint news conference with Czech Foreign Minister Karel Schwarzberg (not shown) at the State Department in Washington on Thursday, June 2, 2011. (AP Photo/Jose Luis Magana)The debate in Orlando Thursday night put the spotlight on Republican contenders for president. However, there is another primary race developing behind the scenes that promises to be even more interesting: a rematch between Barack Obama and Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton for the Democratic nomination. Mrs. Clinton would be the stronger candidate in 2012 and is much more likely to keep the White House in Democratic hands.
President Obama is damaged goods. Polling data released by Gallup last week show a shocking 88 percent of Americans believe the country is heading in the wrong direction. Flip that number around and it means a tiny 12 percent are happy with the way things are going under the Obama administration. That’s outside the margin of error but definitely within the margin of stupidity. Numbers so low forewarn of almost certain doom for an incumbent.
Mark Whittington's contribution at Yahoo requires a few disclaimers, however. For one thing, given the current situation, he sets his parameters a bit too narrowly. This effort is not about saving the Democrats. I do not know any Hillary supporters who give a fig about what happens to the Democratic Party after what they engineered in 2008. It is about saving the country and scaffolding the middle class that was built by and on Democratic Party principles and legislation.
Can Hillary Clinton Save the Democrats?
Mark Whittington, Yahoo! Contributor Network
COMMENTARY | Politico reports an unfolding story of the rise of Clinton nostalgia among Democrats. This is coupled with the continuing death spiral of President Barack Obama's approval numbers, even among his liberal base.
My main gripe about Whittington's piece comes at the end.
In any event, Clinton has not demonstrated even the slightest desire to run for president. Her tenure as Secretary of State has proven frustrating. The mauling she got at the hands of Obama in 2008 seems to have scared her off of any future attempts of electoral politics. So if the Democrats expect for someone to save them from what's surely coming, they will have to look elsewhere.
1. No one - and I mean NO ONE - is expecting the Secretary of State to mount a challenge against the president in whose administration she currently serves. That is absurd political suicide.
2. The word "scared" does not belong in any sentence with "Hillary Clinton" or any pronoun referring to her in the text. If there is a fearless, courageous member of this administration, it is Hillary Clinton. Nothing scares her! We fear for her when she travels to dangerous places or makes bold statements that could incite actions harmful to her person, but Hillary fears no one and nothing ... except the dismantling of the social structures that have made this country great. That, I think, might strike some fear in her - enough to consider running if the trainee-in-chief decides to call it a term.What are we ordinary Americans saying? We Hillary supporters? I want to end tonight, not with a post from the media, but with an eloquent comment from a Facebook friend who supports an HRC run. My friend Allyn speaks for so many of us.
We just have to keep reminding people, make sure that people stay focused on what is really important...not the jeremiads from the Oval Office, not the stupid gotcha debates on FOX news, not the polls, not Michelle Obama's wardrobe or Sarah Palin's reality TV shows. The stakes are too high, and what Barack Obama, Rick Perry, and Sarah Palin are banking on is that people continue to slumber like the president, and accept things as they are...The problem is that we haven't four more years to waste playing games. The moment is made for Hillary, even more than in 2008....everything she prophesied in that campaign has come true, and the very definition of leadership is to be able to anticipate what is coming and prepare your people for it. The futures of millions truly hang in the balance .... it really is quite possibly the most consequential election of our lifetime, and the only person suited for the moment, the only person able to rise to this challenge and put the country on a different path is Hillary Clinton. We just have to keep reminding people, because forgetting carries a serious, irredeemable price.He is correct. She is the only one equipped for this task.
