A Portrait of Hillary

J. R. Dunn has written one of the best psycho-biographical shapshots of Hillary Clinton, so I will quote it liberally, without adding much commentary.

After a quick run-through of Clintonian corruption and amorality, Hillary and her husband’s ability to get away with things that would destroy any other politician, Dunn arrives at the present day.

As a presumptive presidential candidate, Hillary has not been doing well. In fact, she has been doing rather poorly.

Dunn explains:

No, the simple fact of the matter is this: Hillary is tired.

It’s hard work being corrupt. We see this in the rulers of the high medieval period and the Renaissance -- prematurely aged kings, doges, and electors retiring to country palaces and whiling away the days while ignoring their domains because they just didn’t have it in them anymore.

I first noticed this during the Benghazi hearings. Most took her infamous outburst as a blast of pure venom, the words of a Messalina who was going to have these people in the arena facing barbarian gladiators by this time tomorrow. But it didn’t strike me that way. I saw it instead as an outbreak of petulance, the words of someone pushed past the point of endurance and simply too weary to control herself any longer. I still think so.

I, among others have suggested that Hillary will not be the Democratic Party nominee. Dunn adds a nuance. Even if Hillary runs she will not be running a full-on campaign.

For one, she is tired.

For another, she believes that the country owes her the presidency. Why should she have to struggle to win it.

In Dunn’s words:

Hillary is not going to run for president. Oh, she may put her name up. But run, as in the sense of actually campaigning, that’s another story altogether

There have been times that I’ve felt serious pity for Hillary. All of her efforts -- all the bullshit, all the lies, all the public posturing -- have been so plainly carried out to make up for an empty life. A life spent with a man who simply could not control himself and valued her not at all. Consider how many times she picked up the phone only to hear a hangup, how many strange perfumes she smelled, how many stains she found on Bill’s clothing. Consider what such knowledge -- particularly knowing that it would never end -- would do to a normal woman. Then think for a moment of what it would do to someone like Hillary. It would touch a heart of ice.

Because it’s over. She will “run,” in the vaguest sense of the word. But it will all be half-hearted, pure theater and nothing more. She will slough off debates, perhaps even skipping them altogether. She will isolate herself, attempting a kind of Garbo campaign, hoping that her “stature” will do the job for her. She will trudge on, expecting that the presidency will be given to her. Because she deserves it. Because she has suffered for it. Because she is Hillary.

What then, you ask? What will happen if we (again) make someone who is manifestly incompetent president because we want to feel good about our purified souls?

Dunn takes the measure of the situation:

At a critical time the chickens unleashed by Obama over the past two terms will be homing in -- war in the Middle East, Iranian nukes, the inevitable Obama recession. She will be in no state to handle it. Not any of it. The sine wave tracking American politics over the past half-century is clear: Democratic presidents take office only to drive the U.S. up against the wall and are succeeded by Republicans who act to repair it, only for a new Democrat to appear to resume demolition. With no repair work accomplished and a tired, embittered, and beaten old woman in office, we will be in for some real history.

Eeeks.