Hillary Clinton: Political Déjà Vu

The last few years have not been wasted by Hillary Clinton, who has been establishing contacts, collecting donations and working to strengthen her position in the party. After the Lewinsky scandal, she knew she had a chance of becoming president.

The 2016 president election will experience political déjà vu. Clinton has now made her presidential run official. In a two-minute video available on her campaign website (https://www.hillaryclinton.com), Clinton targets mainly the middle class and assures that she wants to represent regular Americans. “Americans have fought their way back from tough economic times, but the deck is still stacked in favor of those at the top. Everyday Americans need a champion. I want to be that champion.”

She has announced her presidential run on Twitter, which is the “weapon” in her campaign, where she describes herself as “Wife, mom, grandma, women+kids advocate, FLOTUS, Senator, SecState, hair icon, pantsuit aficionado, 2016 presidential candidate.” The announcement has been followed by many comments, not only from politicians, but also from stars and celebrities, and it has attracted a lot of media attention.

The Taming of the Shrew

Hillary embodies the image of a woman of success, but as far as her presidential record goes, she is exceptionally unlucky. The source of her misfortune is Barack Obama. Clinton had been preparing for her 2008 presidential run since she left the White House. She spent eight years establishing contacts, collecting donations, and working to strengthen her position in the party. After the Lewinsky scandal, she was aware that she had a chance to become president. During Bill Clinton’s presidency Americans viewed Hillary as a manipulative, career-obsessed and nosy usurper to the role of the president’s political advisor.

During the Lewinsky scandal, Hillary was no longer perceived as a threat. She became a victim who deserved sympathy. The way from sympathy to being liked is not long, and Hillary didn’t miss her chance. She shed weight, managed to find a hairstyle that didn’t provoke catty comments, let Annie Leibovitz photograph her for a “Vanity Fair” cover and wrote an autobiography. The sympathy became the asset she invested in her political career. Soon after leaving the White House she became a senator. She announced her intention to move back to the presidential residence at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue at the end of January 2007. She had the best advisors, the most abundant resources, eight years of experience as the most influential first lady and a further six years of practice as a senator.

The entire strategy failed when a young senator from Illinois joined the race. He was sensational: handsome, charismatic and not involved in Washington’s political schemes. He held all the aces. Although placing a woman in the White House was a tempting move for Democrats, it was even more tempting to place an ethnic minority there, and so they quickly abandoned Hillary.

She fought like a lioness, to the last breath and last speech. The Democratic Party presidential primaries in 2008 are considered the most brutal in U.S. history. The race was so close that Obama even considered offering Hillary the vice president’s position. This would have appeased her supporters and united the divided party. However, Clinton was too proud to accept such a charity gesture. In her eyes it would have meant an admission of Barack’s superiority. In the end, she settled for the position of secretary of state, which provided a certain amount of independence from the White House. Conan O’Brien, a comedian, was joking at the time that Obama should brace himself and be ready for Clinton to boss him around.

That was not necessary. She turned out to be a loyal, faithful and obedient, although opinionated, subordinate. She stayed out of the limelight, so any failures in foreign policy were blamed on the president, whereas successes were widely promoted — not by Hillary, but by her husband. As a result, in 2010 popularity polls she was ahead of Obama, positively rated by two-thirds of Americans. She remains ahead to this day.

When she announced her presidential run, Barack Obama said, “I think she would be an excellent president.”

Since Americans suffer from the parvenu complex, they love political dynasties, such as the Kennedys from Massachusetts, the Cuomos from New York or the Daleys, who have runn Chicago for the last half-century: families that make America at least remotely similar to the old continent. However, this American love is not unconditional; they just seem to follow the rule of “better the devil you know.”

However, the opposition reflex is equally strong. The right in particular is full of the young and angry, ready to lead deadly fights with the elite in order to take its place. After all, how long can one stand the same, aging greedy-guts ruling Washington?

Hillary had every chance to win in 2008. Her husband’s presidency seemed like an idyll when compared with what she would face, had she won: two wars, the financial crisis and the housing market crash. Obama in 2016 is going to be remembered for his failures. Any candidate, though, whose party stays in the White House for two terms in a row, will find it hard to win. So far, this was achieved only by George H.W. Bush, who took over after Ronald Reagan. A consolation for Hillary is that Americans do not like just one party to be in power and Republicans are likely to maintain their majority in Congress. However, that in itself is not a determining factor, especially since Senate Democrats keep the Republican majority from the lower house in check. In addition, the electorate may have enough of the Capitol’s permanent obstruction and stake everything on one card — the red one.

Age may be an important factor too. Hillary will be 69 in the electoral year. She will be as old as the oldest American president, Ronald Reagan, and despite “70 being the new 60,” and baby boomers’ obsessive trend to keep fit in body and mind, Clinton isn’t, after all, getting any younger.