Why any of the Clintons is admired stumps anybody who's not a lobotomized cow

When Hard Choices first came out, one of my Facebook nemeses, a 75-year-old artist lady with whom I actually share a strange mutual respect, having met her when I did a magazine article on her, quite some time before we found out each other's ideological orientation, crowed about what a great prez candidate and president the H-Word Creature was going to make.  Later in our exchange about the matter, I was able to provide some good skunk-at-the-garden-party fare, such as book sales dropping off precipitously, and some of the unfortunate interview moments during launch week. But my first volley in the HRC exchange was a simple question:  Can you please name a major accomplishment from her stints as an attorney, Senator or Secretary of State?  The artist lady came back with some mush about "She's had lots of accomplishments."  I repeated my question.  Someone else chimed in, a  rather accomplished folk singer and actor (several CD and tours, some TV and movie roles) who, again, is someone I see around town and in musical situations, and with whom I have cordial relations.  He could do no better at naming a HRC accomplishment.

Well, actually, in 1975, she represented an accused rapist and got him a plea-down and laughed on a tape about the ineffectiveness of polygraphs, and according to the rape victim, tried to smear her as emotionally unstable.

But anything that would qualify as bold, visionary, historic?  Just ain't there.

She does step in it with a fair amount of frequency, however.  On the heels of the "we-were-flat-broke" remark, the backlash from which would presumably make a public figure rethink any talk about her financial situation at any point, she has now let loose with this:

In an interview with Britain's Guardian published over the weekend, Clinton reignited the debate over her wealth by comparing herself to other wealthy people who Clinton said were "truly well off."

Asked by the paper whether she would represent the populist strain of her party, Clinton said, "They don't see me as part of the problem because we pay ordinary income tax, unlike a lot of people who are truly well off, not to name names; and we've done it through dint of hard work."

It's almost enough to make want one to tell her, out of pity, for the sake of a reputation above buffoon level, to put a sock in it.

Then there's Chelsea, who had brief gigs as a hedge-fund consultant and an NBC special correspondent at a salary of $600K.  Now she's at her parents' foundation.

You see, she's learned that she just doesn't care much about money.

“I was curious if I could care about (money) on some fundamental level, and I couldn’t,” she told UK’s The Telegraph, explaining why she gave up lucrative gigs to join her family’s philanthropic foundation.

So she appears ready to settle into the life of an elite symbol of do-gooderism.

Her mom may have to likewise settle.


At least Billy Jeff the Zipper has always come across as a gregarious, engaging personality.  The H-Word creature is the polar opposite:

Hillary, by contrast, never seems anything but vain and testy.  That comes across on television.  No presidential candidate in the last half-century appears so unpleasant.  Moreover, that image is pretty well fixed in the public mind, and every effort Hillary makes to counter that image has the additional problem of looking phony.

Hillary also is physically unappealing.  She was never pretty, but now she is old and tired.  While many of us may pine for the days before looks counted so much to our countrymen, it is undeniable that visual response is now the primary source of information for most American voters.  When is the last time that someone ugly won a presidential election?

Carl Cannon may believe that identity politics will trump all in 2016, but his view is the outlier.  It's June 2014, and the H-Word Creature shows nearly daily that she's not invincible, much less inevitable.

Far more likely that the three empty suits from Little Rock will spend the remainder of their days floating around the world being icons of vague feel-good-ism, and occasionally making trouble with comments that do Western civilization a grave disservice in one fashion or another, as all Freedom-Haters are wont to do.