By Kollengode S. Venkataraman
e-mail:Â Â ThePatrika@aol.com
Hillary Clinton has an unmatched, long record in public life — as the wife of a small-state two-term governor of Arkansas, the wife a popular two-term US president, a two-term US senator of New York State, and as the powerful Secretary of State and President Obama’s foreign policy spokesperson and negotiator on the global stage.
She was also in the grueling and vicious primaries during 2006-08 seeking the Democratic nomination, which she had to concede to Obama.
In the White House as President Clinton’s wife, she took the unusual step for a First Lady in spearheading Clinton’s healthcare initiative on the Congressional hearings, which went nowhere in the US Congress with GOP majority in both chambers. Over the years, she has created for herself a large base of political support, advisors, and donors within the party.
While Mrs. Clinton is ambitious, her track record is long, but contentious. She is now mulling over whether to seek the Democratic nomination again. She is guaranteed to get the Democratic nomination with no primary challenger with gravitas yet in the horizon. However, in the rough-and-tumble of American presidential politics, primaries help candidates to hone their rhetorical skills and burnish their images to prepare themselves for the fall campaign. So, not having serious primary opponents may not be a blessing either for Mrs. Clinton or the Democratic Party.
Also, the same characteristics of Mrs. Clinton that endear her to liberal Democrats also arouse passion against her among Republicans. So, Clinton may be vulnerable if she can not rally the entire Democratic Party around her and then some independent voters as well.
Republicans, now controlling the US Congress, will continue to do so for the next several election cycles. And with President Obama leaving office after his two terms, Republicans will work hard and be energized to win the White House to have complete control of the government.
So, Mrs. Clinton, if she should seek and get the party’s nomination, will have an uphill task ahead in the 2016 fall elections.   The End.