HILLARY'S JUGGER-NOT?

Ken Blackwell


“I’m ready for Hillary,” read the bumper
stickers in fashionable Georgetown, the
swankiest part of Washington, D.C. These
messages are juxtaposed with many a tattered
“2012” bumper sticker with the fading Obama
logo. Are these plugged-in liberals telling us
their dream has faded, too? The never-quite-
retiring Barbara Walters spoke to their
disillusion when she wistfully sighed: “We
thought he was going to be the new Messiah.”
So, buoyed by public opinion polls showing
her the most popular politician in America,
Hillary Clinton launched her latest “listening
tour” with a new book. It was supposed to be
a non-campaign rollout. But it turned out not
so promisingly.
Liberal journalists have panned her
performance on the stage . Her first stumble
was in announcing to Diane Sawyer that she
and Bill had left the White House in 2001
“dead broke.” She tried to gain sympathy and
show empathy through poor-mouthing. Not
since Mitt Romney announced he “likes firing
people” in the midst of 10% unemployment
has a supposedly serious politician so badly
gauged the popular mood. Hillary was hit
with unfavorable stories recalling the fact
that she left the Executive Mansion with a
paltry $8 million book advance. And Poor
Boy Bill would soon snag another $15 million
for his book. Then, of course, there were the
speeches, lots of speeches, at $200,000 a pop.
Determined not to let her role in the
Benghazi affair dominate her “rollout,” the
former Secretary of State went to what she
presumed would be friendly interviewers.
But she had to “walk back” her poor little rich
girl comments to Diane Sawyer. That’s never
a good thing when you are supposed to show
mastery and competence. That stumble
prompted a spate of stories about how rusty
she was on the hustings.
Then, rather unexpectedly, she ran into a
buzz saw on NPR, of all places. Terry Gross of
“Fresh Air” put Hillary on the spot. First, she
pressed her on her vote as a U.S. Senator in
2003 to authorize President Bush’s use of
force in Iraq. In time, she said, she became
disillusioned by Bush’s actions in Iraq. She
explained:
I did not believe that it was in the best interest
of our country, and it was not something that
I any longer wanted to be associated with.
How does that work? You are one of a
hundred Senators tasked with deciding
whether the United States goes to war or not.
You vote to go to war. And when the war does
not go well, you no longer want to be
associated with it? Isn’t that the definition of
irresponsibility? Isn’t it the adult thing to take
responsibility for your actions, especially
actions that were debated seriously and
heavily documented before, during, and after
the decision was made?
Then, Hillary was hit by a question out of left
field: “You made LGBT rights a priority,”
reporter Gross began. You included
“transgendered people in your advocacy.”
“LGBT includes the T,” Clinton answered.
Many foreign leaders, she said, did not want
to include these people in their human rights
laws.
“You made it easier for Americans to change
their sex on their passports,” reporter Gross
asked, “but you did it quietly.”
“It was not a big secret,” Clinton answered. “I
had responsibility for the 70,000 employees
of the [State Department] around the world.”
“I did not support gay marriage when I was
in the Senate and when I ran for president in
2008, as you know,” Hillary Clinton added.
But when Terry Gross ventured to suggest
that she failed to support marriage for
homosexual couples out of political
calculation, Hillary pushed back. “I think you
are reading it wrong,” she rejoined.
“The [Defense of Marriage Act] was signed by
your husband,” Terry Gross probed. “My
husband was first to say [he was wrong about
DOMA], she answered.
“The vast majority of Americans were just
waking up to this [marriage] issue. It has
been an extraordinarily fast legal and social
transformation,” Hillary exulted. “Marriage
equality is solidly established, except for
Texas.”
“Your opinion changed,” Terry Gross tried to
get Hillary to say. “You changed your mind.”
Hillary: You are playing with my words. I
repudiate it. It is not true that I privately
supported marriage but publicly opposed it.
Then, from her public record of opposition to
couples of the same sex marrying, and her
“repudiation” of Terry Gross’ question that
she may have privately favored it, we can
only conclude that as recently as 2008, Hillary
Clinton was against this proposition.
So she now vigorously maintains she was
wrong on Iraq and wrong on marriage. And
this is a qualification?
Would-be challengers to “Hillary the
Inevitable” can only be inspired by her
troubled launch of her book tour. Long-time
observers already recall the stumbling debut
of Sen. Ted Kennedy in 1979. Every poll that
year showed Kennedy would blow away the
beleaguered Jimmy Carter.
Every poll, that is, except the poll of primary
voters of 1980. Kennedy’s inability to answer
the simplest questions from friendly
interviewers had him tripping over his own
tongue at the starting gate. He never fully
recovered.
Might Hillary’s “inevitability” prove similarly
jinxed? Might her irresistible JUGGERNAUT
become a JUGGER-NOT?