{"id":672,"date":"2014-08-20T13:48:40","date_gmt":"2014-08-20T20:48:40","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/r9f.352.myftpupload.com\/?p=672"},"modified":"2014-08-20T13:48:40","modified_gmt":"2014-08-20T20:48:40","slug":"ready-for-hillary","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/shrinkrapped.com\/?p=672","title":{"rendered":"Ready for Hillary?"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"https:\/\/d1qodaktuuv1h7.cloudfront.net\/sites\/readyforhillary\/files\/ReadyPoster.jpeg\"<\/a>My first thought was, \u201cI guess she\u2019s running,\u201d when I heard about\u00a0Hillary Clinton\u2019s highly publicized criticism of President Obama\u2019s foreign policy in The Atlantic<\/a>.<\/em><\/p>\n

My second thought was of Dick Cheney\u2014not that Hillary’s\u00a0comments are in\u00a0the same league as Cheney\u2019s relentless attacks. But there\u2019s the same failure to take responsibility for a mess both\u00a0helped create in launching war against Iraq. Plus\u00a0a knee-jerk hawkishness and reliance on the illusion of American exceptionalism. This dismays me about Hillary even more than her dissing of the President.<\/p>\n

My third thought was to wonder if Joe Biden is really too old, his candidacy truly unviable.\u00a0 Or if a bid for the presidency by Elizabeth Warren would make Nixon\u2019s 1972 rout of George McGovern look like a cliffhanger.<\/p>\n

I want to be pragmatic, to bank on winnability. That\u2019s why I was not an early supporter of Obama, believing that a black man whose name rhymed with Osama bin Laden could never be elected President. Gradually I saw how this view was less pragmatic than borderline racist and certainly self-defeating, enabling the very views I abhorred. I became a fervent admirer of Barack Obama, and worked hard for his 2008 and 2012 victories. I thought highly not only of his policies, but also of his intelligence, calm demeanor, decency, and capacity for nuanced thinking and self-reflection. Most of all, I loved that Obama appealed to the better angels of our natures.<\/p>\n

Now I am not so confident that the better angels of our natures can prevail. It is a futile endeavor, but one I undertake anyway, to wonder if President Hillary Clinton might have succeeded where President Barack Obama has been stymied. Mostly I think not\u2014the economic and foreign policy disasters are too immense, the virulence toward Hillary almost as strong as the virulence toward a black man. Perhaps there would have been no difference.<\/p>\n

But the one thing I reluctantly come back to again and again is that Hillary might have done better because she is more hard-nosed. She would not have wasted time and energy trying to make friends with a Republican Party hell-bent on destroying her. She might\u00a0also have more room to maneuver as a white woman than as a black man in a country that is arguably more racist than sexist.<\/p>\n

Pragmatism counts, and Hillary is nothing if not pragmatic. She\u2019s smart, hard-working, dedicated, and, unlike faux feminist candidates like Sarah Palin, a true champion of women\u2019s issues. Some of her personal qualities, however, give me pause as well as hope.<\/p>\n

I\u2019m not sure I\u2019m ready for Hillary. But what are the alternatives?<\/p>\n

*<\/p>\n

How do you feel about Hillary and the presidential prospects for 2016?<\/em><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

My first thought was, \u201cI guess she\u2019s running,\u201d when I heard about\u00a0Hillary Clinton\u2019s highly publicized criticism of President Obama\u2019s foreign policy in The Atlantic. My second thought was of Dick Cheney\u2014not that Hillary’s\u00a0comments are in\u00a0the same league as Cheney\u2019s relentless … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"nf_dc_page":"","_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[3],"tags":[224,225,226,227],"class_list":["post-672","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-political","tag-hillary-clinton","tag-the-atlantic","tag-barack-obama","tag-presidential-politics"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p2F8Ch-aQ","jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/shrinkrapped.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/672","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/shrinkrapped.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/shrinkrapped.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/shrinkrapped.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/shrinkrapped.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=672"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/shrinkrapped.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/672\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":680,"href":"https:\/\/shrinkrapped.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/672\/revisions\/680"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/shrinkrapped.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=672"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/shrinkrapped.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=672"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/shrinkrapped.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=672"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}