Posted on 02/06/2014 11:42:10 PM PST by Cincinatus' Wife
When I left the 2012 campaign trail, I was exhausted and hoped the next presidential election would slowly creep back into the news. More than a year has passed and 2016 is unfortunately done waiting.
Much of the 2016 speculation currently revolves around a single person: Hillary Clinton. Will she run? Who can beat her? Is Hillary unstoppable?
Democrats experiencing buyer's remorse want her to run again after regretting their votes for Barack Obama the first time around and Republicans aren't quite sure yet how to combat another historic campaign theme. Members of the media already have their Clinton pompoms out.
But what Democrats and the media are forgetting about is the dramatic personal and political baggage another Clinton presidency would bring back into the White House. And the election of Hillary Clinton as the first female president would put Bill Clinton back in the Oval Office.
In a recent CBS-Vanity Fair poll, Americans named Bill Clinton the country's most forgivable liar. The key here is the determination by voters that Bill Clinton is, in fact, a liar. His wife is no different.
In 2008, columnist Dan Calabrese interviewed Democrat Jerry Zeifman, who served as chief counsel to the House Judiciary Committee during the Watergate years. During the interview, Zeifman revealed that he fired a young Hillary Clinton after her work on the Watergate investigation because she was “a liar” and an “unethical, dishonest lawyer.”
On the issues of leadership and accountability, Clinton fails miserably. Her last year in public office proved to be a disaster and she left the State Department in shambles. Her own dabbling in unethical behavior throughout her career paved the way for her to ignore the unethical behavior of others, including diplomats preying on young women and girls overseas.
Under Clinton's watch, a State Department security official stationed in Beirut was accused of engaging in multiple sexual assaults. Many members of Clinton's security detail were accused of regularly hiring young female prostitutes during official State Department trips in countries around the world. U.S. Ambassador to Belgium Howard Gutman was accused of routinely ditching “his protective security detail in order to solicit sexual favors from both prostitutes and minor children” in a nearby park. In 2013, a U.S. Embassy official was removed for allegedly trading visas for sexual favors. Punishments for the abusers were swept under the rug.
Then there's Benghazi, an issue Clinton seems to think makes a difference only when the sympathy cameras are rolling. On Sept. 14, 2012, the day the bodies of the four Americans killed in the 9/11 anniversary terror attack came home, Clinton stood in front of their flag-draped caskets and lied about a video. During the ceremony, Clinton gave a hug to the mother of slain Information Officer Sean Smith and promised her the killers would be brought to justice. One year and five months later, the terrorists responsible are still on the run and nobody seems to be looking for them.
The Clintons might be popular now but when the bright light of campaign scrutiny starts to shine on them again, America will be reminded of the drama they don't want to vote back into the White House.
Katie Pavlich is the news editor of Townhall.com. This is the first of her exclusive Trib columns, which will appear the first and third Fridays of each month.
Reagan himself in his prime would not be able to straighten out this mess. Not in eight years or even sixteen.
One of the things I find most distressing about the current state of America is that so many seem to buy into the myth that Slick Willie was one of our greatest presidents.
That's why I post my essay on pretty much every FR thread that mentions Bill Clinton.
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