January 2, 2014

"At some point, should she run, Hillary Clinton, who did not speak publicly at the ceremonies, will have to sort all this out."

"She will be asked to explain more precisely where she stands on issues of income inequality, economic growth, spending, taxes, entitlements and the trade-offs that will face the next president. Will she be able to be true to the New Democrat ideals that brought her husband to power and also accommodate the energy pulsing through the party’s progressive wing? The answers should begin to come later this year, as she nears a decision about whether to run."

Writes Dan Balz at the end of his column titled "Is New York’s de Blasio prompting a repositioning by the Clintons?" 

"At some point," Hillary, who hasn't spoken yet, will be asked to say something, something more precise, about all these things that she's refrained from speaking about for so long. At some point? At what point? Eventually there will be a point, and when it comes, what difference at this point does it make?

It's a style: Wait long enough and you can say the time has passed for addressing this problem. That's a conservative strategy by the way.
When you see ten troubles rolling down the road, if you don’t do anything, nine of them will roll into the ditch before they get to you.
I think President Coolidge said that.

The energy pulsing through the party’s progressive wing won't pulse forever. And when that throbbing tumescence abates, the calm steady woman will be there as ever, waiting for us all to acknowledge her rightful status as President of the United States.

IN THE COMMENTS: Tom Gallagher said: "Doesn't she need to write a book or two before running for president?" And I had to think: Has Hillary ever written a book?


Wikipedia has the full list:
Rodham, Hillary. "There Is Only The Fight...": An Analysis of the Alinsky Model. Senior honors thesis, Wellesley College, 1969. Available at the college archives.
Rodham, Hillary (1973). "Children Under the Law". Harvard Educational Review 43 (4): 487–514. Reprinted in (eds.) Rochelle Beck, Heather Bastow Weiss, The Rights of Children, Harvard Educational Review Reprint Series, No. 9, 1974, pp. 1–28.
Rodham, Hillary. "Children's Policies: Abandonment and Neglect". Yale Law Journal, Vol. 86, No. 7 (June 1977), pp. 1522–1531.
Rodham, Hillary. "Children's Rights: A Legal Perspective", in (eds.) Patricia A. Vardin, Ilene N. Brody, Children's Rights: Contemporary Perspectives, Teacher's College Press, 1979. pp. 21–36.
Complete collection of Hillary Clinton's "Talking It Over" newspaper columns, written for Creators Syndicate from 1995-2000
Clinton, Hillary Rodham. It Takes a Village: And Other Lessons Children Teach Us. Simon & Schuster, 1996. ISBN 0-684-82545-7.
Clinton, Hillary Rodham, Osborne, Claire G. (editor). The Unique Voice of Hillary Rodham Clinton: A Portrait in Her Own Words. Avon Books, 1997. ISBN 0-380-97416-9.
Clinton, Hillary Rodham. Dear Socks, Dear Buddy: Kids' Letters to the First Pets. Simon & Schuster, 1998. ISBN 0-684-85778-2.
Clinton, Hillary Rodham. An Invitation to the White House: At Home with History. Simon & Schuster, 2000. ISBN 0-684-85799-5.
Clinton, Hillary Rodham. Living History. Simon & Schuster, 2003. ISBN 0-7432-2224-5.
Aside from the Alinsky, is there anything of substance there? "Dear Socks, Dear Buddy: Kids' Letters to the First Pet"... come on! Well, there's "Living History," which I'd forgotten about — it was published before I started blogging, so I never bothered with it — and 5 years before she ran for President the first time. Absolutely nothing since then. I mentioned Calvin Coolidge in the post. They called him Silent Cal. We could call her Silent Hill. Here's the movie trailer:

61 comments:

Henry said...

"Is New York’s de Blasio prompting a repositioning by the Clintons?"

For some strange reason, I don't think Hillary Clinton is worried about losing New York City.

rhhardin said...

Presidentette of the United States.

Kev said...

(the other kev)

I've said it before: blow the bridges , shut down the airports, don't let anyone leave. The city voted for him, they shouldn't get to walk away when things go to shit. They deserve to live with their choice - good and hard.

Oso Negro said...

Ah, the inevitability of Hillary. Does it make a difference that she is a Democrat? Can the Democrats be held accountable for their actions in a fair national election?

chickelit said...

The more I read about this de Blasio guy, the more I see him as just a well-meaning person populating a great office. He may well be in over his head. This may be a time for New Yorkers to re-evalute their city politics.

cubanbob said...

Assuming there are no serious challengers Hillary will run as the Great White Hope for the progressives. The competent progressive who will get it right. The question is how can the economy survive a third Obama Administration?

traditionalguy said...

Will Huma bring her WeinerMan into the White House too. Think about Anthony Weiner having NSA tools for spying on women.

MadisonMan said...

The trick is knowing beforehand which of the nine are going into the ditch!

Obama is spectacularly poor at this skill, IMO.

Must we deal with Hillary!! again? Should I name this Hillary!!II?

Unknown said...

Rightful? It amazes me how the media/pop culture are able to hypnotize so many.

Wince said...

At some point? At what point?

When she's done filling her coffers with Wall Street money.

rehajm said...

It's going to be three long hard years for her base.

She may not matter.

Mitch H. said...

Progs liked to make mock of Coolidge by noting that the president who spent so much of his very limited stock of rhetoric on paeans to private enterprise spent almost his entire adult life in public service. But the man who, when he was president of the Massachusetts State Senate, declared that it was more important to kill bad bills than pass good ones, was a different type of conservative than simply a "temperamental" one.

Hillary Clinton's conservatism, if it is correct to characterize her as such, is more that of a Warren Harding than a Calvin Coolidge. That is to say, she possesses the cultivated conservatism of the palm-greaser, the chiseler, the positioner and maker of small deals. She is the exemplar of the new mandarin class, a dealer in leverage and self-dealing. She will not again break her back on grandiose utopia-building foolishness like the first, failed attempt at government takeover of what remained of the private healthcare market. For one thing, another clutch of morons broke the ice on that, and the lucrative patchwork of recovery, repair, and reform that this catastrophe will spawn like maggots from a table heaped with entrails - that lifetime of paydays stretches in front of her client-base like the prospect of the promised land before the heirs of Moses.

rehajm said...

It's a style: Wait long enough and you can say the time has passed for addressing this problem.

In Hillary's world there are only two periods of time: We need to wait until we have all the facts rolls immediately into What difference, at this point, does it make?

Unknown said...

..or you can just bump your head.

BarrySanders20 said...

Hillary would have been a far better president than Barry. That's a pretty low bar, but over 60 million people voted for Barry for Four More Years because of the bang-up job he did in the first four. The level of incompetence did not matter. How do you convince these people not to go with Ms. Inevitable this time around? At least she is competent relative to Barry. But competence -- at this point, what does it matter?

Bob Boyd said...

The point is to keep Hillary on the front page of American politics. I expect we'll see a piece like this every couple of weeks.
What would Hillary do about X?
How does Y effect Hillary? Doesn't Hillary look incredible? And such energy! Why America needs Hillary.
Hard-hitting journalism like that.

Insufficiently Sensitive said...

her rightful status as President of the United States.

The hopes of Mrs ex-President, she who has no executive experience other than kibitzing Bill's term, her disastrous health plan failure twenty years back, and her cloaked non-accomplishments as SOS. If ever there was a self-centered entitlement baby, she's it.

Retch. If she's a serious candidate, the Republic is in big trouble.

Shouting Thomas said...

And when that throbbing tumescence abates...

I was going to take exception with this statement, Althouse, on the grounds of sexism. Seems that you are attributing tumescence to the progs, an attribute that I once thought to be entirely masculine.

That was before I learned the secret to giving women squirting orgasms. Now, I see that tumescence can go both ways.

I am enlightened, Althouse.

Original Mike said...

I've always try to take to heart the quote attributed to Winston Churchill - "When I look back on all these worries, I remember the story of the old man who said on his deathbed that he had a lot of trouble in his life, most of which had never happened."

James Pawlak said...

"What does it matter?"

Unknown said...

Do you want an incompetent socialist or a competent socialist?

Think hard.


lemondog said...

Silent Cal: "Four-fifths of all our troubles would disappear, if we would only sit down and keep still."

damikesc said...

Yes, let's discuss inequality.

The richest area of the country, by far, is DC and Northern Virginia.

It is SOLELY due to the government.

Anybody not advocating cutting spending and government size advocates ever-increasing inequality.

The more I read about this de Blasio guy, the more I see him as just a well-meaning person populating a great office. He may well be in over his head. This may be a time for New Yorkers to re-evalute their city politics.

Well-meaning? Don't agree with that in the slightest.

And, shocker, he isn't very open with the press.

What is it with Progressives and their open contempt of the press...and the press' continued love affair with them anyways?

I've been Stockholm Syndrome sufferers more rational.

Gahrie said...

The energy pulsing through the party’s progressive wing won't pulse forever. And when that throbbing tumescence abates

Did she just call the Progessives a bunch of dicks?

Gahrie said...

The energy pulsing through the party’s progressive wing won't pulse forever. And when that throbbing tumescence abates

The original Progressive movement burnt out pretty quickly, but we are still cursed with their legacy. Hopefully the damage from the current Progressive movement won't last as long.

Levi Starks said...

Oh yes, please say something precise.
Something that will make us all marvel at her truthfulness when talking to the American people.
Something that the MSM can declare a complete lie 5 years after she says it.

NCMoss said...

Doesn't she need to write a book or two before running for president? I mean, the story about how her dedication held her marriage together and by extension, can hold the nation together would be riveting. Bill who???

chickelit said...

Well-meaning? Don't agree with that in the slightest.

I didn't expect you to agree. De Blasio is the sort of guy who looks at unequal outcomes and sees easy "fixes" rather than addressing real causation.

DrMaturin said...

People are describing Hillary as a "competent" Progressive. Where is the evidence of this competence? Please be specific, I can't see it. I see a woman who has failed at every governmental task she's been given.

Oso Negro said...

We have evolved from Blue Dog Democrats to Blue Dress Democrats.

damikesc said...

De Blasio is the sort of guy who looks at unequal outcomes and sees easy "fixes" rather than addressing real causation.

For me, that's more laziness than well-meaning.

He's over his head, that is clear. And NYC deserves what it's getting.

Unknown said...

In Hillary's case, "competent" is the special sauce you get when "cunning" combines with media hype.

RAS743 said...

It's time! Hillary in 2016! Because ... vagina! What a concept: Deciding to vote for someone based on her/his genitalia.
What has she done? Nothing except marry a sociopath who as given a pass on a crime that would have sunk any Republican even *accused* of the same thing.
What has she run?
A cabinet department -- very badly.
I can't wait for the swells to explain her election to the military that have to follow her commands. Good luck with that.

DrMaturin said...

De Blasio says he will battle inequality. I predict inequality will win.

Unknown said...

De Blasio may be foolish enough to try to enact his platform, which will be disastrous. Hillary knows that. She'll nod politely to the Progs, but she knows that they will vote for her anyway. For the most part she'll keep quiet, or pander for now.

Her problem is Obamacare. Notice that the President is running away from his "signature" program, but there is no place to hide. Hillary knows that, too.

She'll run as a quasi-left centrist--in other words, a New Democrat, hoping that by summer the economy will be modestly better, but Obamacare will be tanking all. She'll run on Republicanesque fixes for Obamacare; she'll genuflect piously toward the poor and the children, and hope that her record will remain whitewashed by the lapdog press.

Unfortunately for her, the Republicans will win the Senate and the House,the most heinous parts of Obamacare will be repealed--the individual mandate--and Chris Chris Christie will super-size the Oval Office.

lemondog said...

Will she be able to be true to the New Democrat ideals that brought her husband to power...

New ideals?

Wasn’t Bill Clinton’s win due primarily to GHW Bush ineffectively addressing the recession and in persuading the public that the economy was in recovery?

TosaGuy said...

I see that DeBlasio has already outlawed horse-drawn carriages in Central Park.

I didn't know that the guy who drove that carriage, and the folks who fed those horses were millionaires.

Tyrone Slothrop said...

The liberal fixation with income inequality bespeaks small--mindedness and jealousy. What matters is absolute wealth, not relative wealth. The poorest Americans have material advantages that the richest could not have dreamed of fifty years ago. Who brought these improvements to us? People who wanted to get rich. The whole liberal doctrine is aimed at de-incentivizing the risk-taking necessary to make true progress. That's why the term "progressive" is a pure Ministry-of-Truth fiction.

YoungHegelian said...

Since we here tend, with a few honored exceptions, to lean right, I think we tend to overplay HRC's "progressivism" & her general appeal to the left wing of the Democratic Party. The left-wing of the Democratic Party has no love for the Clintons or their machine, which is heavily financed by the left's favorite boogie-man, Wall Street. There will be strong pressure to mount a challenge to Hillary by the left, probably in the person of Elizabeth Warren (I know, I know...).

Remember, HRC was the heiress apparent in 2008, and got defeated by a more-liberal dark horse candidate. It could easily happen again, as the Democratic Party primary results are "weighted" in a way that favors challengers.

Michael K said...

"that of a Warren Harding than a Calvin Coolidge. That is to say, she possesses the cultivated conservatism of the palm-greaser, the chiseler, the positioner and maker of small deals."

This is a slander of Harding. He was the architect of the 1921 recovery from a post war depression of serious magnitude. It doesn't matter that Mellon was the financial genius who designed the fix. Coolidge kept Harding's agenda and the economy boomed. The slanders of the Roosevelt crowd survive 80 years later but they are still slanders.

The Panic of 1929 was caused by the policies of a leaderless Fed after Benjamin Strong died of tuberculosis. Interest rates were at zero while the stock market rocketed up on speculation. Sound familiar ?

There were no examples of dishonesty by Harding. The scandals of Albert B Fall and the VA head were small change compared to the actions of GE and Solyndra.

Michael K said...

"that of a Warren Harding than a Calvin Coolidge. That is to say, she possesses the cultivated conservatism of the palm-greaser, the chiseler, the positioner and maker of small deals."

This is a slander of Harding. He was the architect of the 1921 recovery from a post war depression of serious magnitude. It doesn't matter that Mellon was the financial genius who designed the fix. Coolidge kept Harding's agenda and the economy boomed. The slanders of the Roosevelt crowd survive 80 years later but they are still slanders.

The Panic of 1929 was caused by the policies of a leaderless Fed after Benjamin Strong died of tuberculosis. Interest rates were at zero while the stock market rocketed up on speculation. Sound familiar ?

There were no examples of dishonesty by Harding. The scandals of Albert B Fall and the VA head were small change compared to the actions of GE and Solyndra.

RecChief said...

You're kidding right? I still run into liberals who think "It takes a Village" is some sort of heaven sent wisdom on raising children

Skeptical Voter said...

Hillary Clinton "a calm steady woman"? Sometimes Ms. Althouse you wander into an alternate universe where I just can't go.

But you're right about the "throbbing tumescence" of the progressive wing of the Democrat Party. I might argue that they're just a bunch of nasty p@#%ks with a "premature legislation" problem. See Obamacare.

Lnelson said...

Classy entertainers understand that you leave the audience wanting more.
There is zero mystique left.
Someone once said "Hillary is America's ex-wife".

Anonymous said...

I notice that when it's the Democratic Party whose outer wing is in the ascendant, journalists somehow manage to report the fact without using language implying that some sort of coup d'etat has taken place.

William said...

I don't think that there's any preK program that can compensate for growing up in a chaotic, single parent household. But perhaps I'm wrong, and DeBlasio is right.......Bloomberg, for the most part, restricted his Utopian visions to bike lanes and low salt diets. He was a good mayor. Crime is down and property values are up since he took office. The only speaker at DeBlasio's inauguration who who had the grace to acknowledge Bloomberg's service was Bill Clinton.....There's not much inequality in Detroit. Everyone is poor and getting poorer. The people there don't have to suffer the indignity of having to live with rich people, and gangbangers are not afraid to walk strapped on the streets they live in. Maybe DeBlasio can bring his dreams to fruition and NY will become Detroit on the Hudson.

Ann Althouse said...

"Hillary Clinton "a calm steady woman"? Sometimes Ms. Althouse you wander into an alternate universe where I just can't go."

It's the world of humor. Try it!

Michael K said...

"Wasn’t Bill Clinton’s win due primarily to GHW Bush ineffectively addressing the recession and in persuading the public that the economy was in recovery?"

Actually, Bush was a victim of timing as the recession was ending about the time of the election. Clinton got the benefit. Timing is everything. If the Israelis take out the Iran nuke plants, will Hillary benefit ?

Bilwick said...

The classic Hillaryism "We're going to take things away from you for your own good," pretty much tells you all you need to know about "Nurse Ratched."

Gahrie said...

"Hillary Clinton "a calm steady woman"? Sometimes Ms. Althouse you wander into an alternate universe where I just can't go."

It's the world of humor. Try it!


It is only a world of humor until Hillary actually gets elected.

However, i think the hard Left is going to reject her again, and the democrats will end up nominating Warren.

Mitch H. said...

There were no examples of dishonesty by Harding.

The man was a lifelong philanderer of the most squalid variety - one who pressured at least one of his mistresses to have an abortion. Before becoming the Republican candidate in a particularly repugnant swirl of back-room horsedealing, he was a Senator of absolutely zero stature, being known almost entirely for his collegial amiability rather than for any legislative acumen, strength of character, or quality of intellect.

But I grant you that Harding is perhaps a poor parallel to Coolidge. Maybe I should have cited his vile attorney general, Harry Daugherty.

I'm not saying that Harding didn't do good things in between salting the federal departments with men on the make. He shut down the First Red Scare, terminated many of Wilson's economic and political abominations - the worse for being so very well-intentioned - and generally operated as he had campaigned, making virtues of indolence and insincerity, which are in federal policy as laudable as sincerity and activity are problematic.

Thus we moved from the indolence of Harding, to the rectitude of Coolidge, to the catastrophic hyperactivity of Hoover.

mtrobertsattorney said...

Earnie, owner of Ernie's Bar and Grill on the South Side of Milwaukee, says the Clintons were set up by de Blasio.

This is the way Earnie sees it: With Hillary tongue-tied and unable to comment on de Blasio's plans to knock the "haves" down more than a few notches, Big Bill has created an opening for his own presidential ambition. He has great street cred with the underclass and the democrat left can't get enough of him. And what these leftists lack in intelligence, they make up for with energy.

Earnie is seldom wrong about politics.

mtrobertsattorney said...

Earnie, owner of Ernie's Bar and Grill on the South Side of Milwaukee, says the Clintons were set up by de Blasio.

This is the way Earnie sees it: With Hillary tongue-tied and unable to comment on de Blasio's plans to knock the "haves" down more than a few notches, Big Bill has created an opening for his own presidential ambition. He has great street cred with the underclass and the democrat left can't get enough of him. And what these leftists lack in intelligence, they make up for with energy.

Earnie is seldom wrong about politics.

cubanbob said...

lemondog said...
Will she be able to be true to the New Democrat ideals that brought her husband to power...

New ideals?

Wasn’t Bill Clinton’s win due primarily to GHW Bush ineffectively addressing the recession and in persuading the public that the economy was in recovery?
1/2/14, 10:47 AM

Ross Perot. Ever heard of him? Most of the people who voted for him would have voted for Bush if he hadn't run in 92.

glenn said...

"She will be asked to explain more precisely where she stands on issues of income inequality, economic growth, spending, taxes, entitlements and the trade-offs that will face the next president"

No she won't. Hillary will mouth a bunch of Lefty platitudes which boil down to "Vote for me and I'll give you some of his" Lefty pundits and her allies in the media will repeat everything she says at length and it's all good. Ask a tough question and no soup for you, newsie boy.

Greg Hlatky said...

Do you want an incompetent socialist or a competent socialist?

Do you want to be shot or guillotined?

The Austrian Empire was called "absolutism tempered by incompetence." Competent socialism would be even more catastrophic.

damikesc said...

As P.J P'Rourke notices with her autobiography, she held Chelsea Clinton upside down while breastfeeding her.

You know, breastfeeding --- not really that difficult to pull off.

Smilin' Jack said...

Aside from the Alinsky, is there anything of substance there?

If you regard "It Takes a Village" as insubstantial, you obviously haven't priced Prest-O-Logs lately.

NotWhoIUsedtoBe said...

Too old, too senator.

GT said...

I am surprised that only a few commenters noted the reference to "throbbing tumescence" (and none to Hillary's role of waiting for it to " abate[]." This seems to be a not-too-subtle reference to Hillary's sexlessness -- an affliction she has long sought to vector to her husband, and now the progs must catch it too. Include me out!

GT said...

I am surprised that only a few commenters noted the reference to "throbbing tumescence" (and none to Hillary's role of waiting for it to " abate[]." This seems to be a not-too-subtle reference to Hillary's sexlessness -- an affliction she has long sought to vector to her husband, and now the progs must catch it too. Include me out!