America and Hillary’s Malaise

After certain Republicans’ idiotic (redundant) remarks claiming that Hillary Clinton’s health problem was really a diplomatic illness to avoid having to testify before Congress about the incidents leading to the death of the U.S. ambassador in Libya, everyone found themselves embarrassed when tests showed that the secretary of state had a clot between her brain and skull. But, beyond the embarrassment felt by some, there was something else more unclear and profound.

Hillary’s status has changed over the years. As first lady, she was prodigiously irritating with her sense of self-importance and moral superiority. Now — first after winning election to the New York Senate, following in the footsteps of Bobby Kennedy and then launching her White House candidacy in 2008, where she was not too far from victory — American opinion of her has completely changed.

Her health problems reveal this change in status. In a country where, thanks to conservatives, political chaos rules, Hillary personifies stability. In a dangerous world, citizens are reassured by the sight of her at the helm of American diplomacy. Pakistani extremists or Chinese rulers are not going to distress them. Neither is Hamas or Netanyahu.

Particularly, Hillary is the adult in a political class that behaves like a group of preteens. She is not the type of person who would tell her detractors, “Go f— yourself” as John Boehner did to his Democratic colleague in the Senate, Harry Reid. Hillary, who everyone agrees recognizes what it takes to be secretary of state, reassures that there is at least one institution we can count on. For 17 years, she has ranked at the top of the lists of the most admired women in America.

Even those who don’t always agree with Hillary care about her. They know that they can count on her and that she does the work. John Kerry will have his work cut out for him.