Hillary will come to the job prepared. (We feel comfortable using her first name both because her campaign does and to avoid confusion with Bill.) She has been active in public life for almost half a century. She has been twice elected to the U.S. Senate and served most recently as secretary of state. And, while not an official position, her time as first lady had to have given her firsthand insight into the inner workings of the executive branch.
So, while individual policy positions are debatable, overall she will make a fine president. That is, of course, if her opponents let her. And there the principal objections seems to be that she is a Democrat and, more to the point, that she is female.
The first is simplistic, but, as far as it goes, legitimate. The second is not, and is far more complicated.
That Hillary is so often viewed negatively is unfortunate, but in some respects understandable. Unlike her husband, she is not a natural campaigner and as such her public persona too often comes off as stiff and less than fully authentic.
But Americans are not electing a backslapper in chief, and “telegenic” is not a synonym for “competent.” That Hillary has not mastered the age of reality television should not be the criterion by which voters decide their future. Neither Harry Truman nor Dwight Eisenhower were particularly cute, but both worked out rather well.
In any case, what is sometimes seen as Hillary’s paranoia or lack of transparency may simply be the natural response of someone who has been beat up, insulted and targeted for decades — as an advocate, as a first lady and as a woman. The idea that she is now being blamed for her husband’s infidelities redefines misogyny. In the face of that, who would not be defensive?
That is not weakness, however, and bullies know the difference. It is no accident that Donald Trump admires Vladimir Putin or that Putin seems to prefer Trump. The Russian knows full well that while the con man gets all dewy-eyed over dictators, were she to see Putin as a threat to her progeny, Hillary Clinton would gut him like a trout.
Besides, she is lucky. And good luck is as worthwhile in presidential politics — or in the White House — as in Las Vegas. How else to explain that the Republican Party has nominated a lunatic? The party of Abraham Lincoln and Ronald Reagan has inexplicably advanced a presidential candidate who is manifestly unqualified to handle sharp objects, let alone be entrusted with the most powerful position on Earth.
But the less said about Trump the better. The very notion that he is on the ballot is an insult to our democracy.
Vote for Hillary Clinton for president.
