In order to become the first female president, Clinton must stay away from two strong men
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Republicans have left Clinton playing in an empty field
Analysis: As long as the 17 Republican presidential hopefuls are busy spreading poison against each other, and as long as the institutionalized Republican leadership is focused on smearing Obama and his legacy, Hillary Clinton's way into the Oval Office is almost guaranteed.
WASHINGTON – Several weeks before Hillary Clinton
officially joined the presidential race, she gave a pretty boring lecture in Washington. She appeared tired, not to mention bored. A senior American diplomat who sat next to me in the auditorium said he thought she had a problem.
The Republicans have left her playing on an empty field, and in the meantime they are passionately destroying each other. Clinton's ambitious and organized campaign is facing the greatest political circus America has ever seen, with 17 presidential hopefuls in the Republican Party – a historical record – and two debates. For a party that seeks to conquer the White House, 17 candidates are an expression of a self-destructive instinct.
"When the Americans elect a president, it's a bit like buying a car," he explained. "They want the smell of something new."
Some time has passed since then, Hillary has charged herself with new energies, but her political rivals are doing her job for her anyway. All she has to do now is avoid making mistakes, and mainly make sure that Bill doesn’t steal the show from her or create some kind of juicy scandal, in accordance with his reputation.
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It happened because the Republican leaders have been busy in the past seven years smearing President Barack Obama and presenting him as un-American and unpatriotic, a dreamer led by the world instead of leading it, so they had no time and energy left to think about the alternative and build a leader. Their activity in the Congress was also focused on warding off reforms created in favor of the residents of the United States, just because they had the president's name on them.
GOP debate. For a party which seeks to conquer the White House, 17 candidates are an expression of a self-destructive instinct (Photo: AFP)
The Republican Party hasn't had an organized leadership for the past few years, and has therefore failed to clean up the mess and set rules for the game. It hasn’t had influential institutions capable of organizing the endless list of candidates, each of whom brought along a baggage scorn and loathing towards the others.
It wasn't just Donald Trump's entry into the race which radicalized the nature of the comments and the sounds of the discourse: He simply stated, with narcissist arrogance, what they all believe in quietly, because they also hate immigrants and support the piggish economy which plays into the wealthy people.
While fighting Obama, the Republican Party leaders have forgotten that their job is to lead as well – which means presenting a team of two or three candidates, not a huge group in which each component has to spread more poison and scorn against the others in order to survive. They should have been present in order to sustain the party, but they were not there – and when the cat's away, the mice will play.
The sound of this farce is music to Clinton's ear, and it's no wonder that in recent days her smile has expanded, her steps have become more energetic and her messages have become clearer.
That doesn’t mean that victory is in her pocket. In order to become the first female president, Clinton must stay away from two strong men, each of whom has had a decisive influence on her career: Barack Obama, and her husband Bill. When Obama appointed her secretary of state, he upgraded her career, but now she is skating on thin ice because she has to explain that she is will not necessarily follow in his footsteps. The Republicans are presenting her as an integral part of the Obama Doctrine, and in some circles that could work against her.
Bill, driven by strong feelings of guilt after the Monica Lewinsky affair, built Hillary's Senate race and gave her an independent political starting point. He is still the best campaigner in America, but she must leave him in the shadow so as not to irritate voters who have had enough of him and his tricks and who will not be so happy to see him in Oval Office again, looking over his wife's shoulder.
As long as the lexicon of the group of 17 is comprised of the words "idiot," "disgrace" and "a slob," and as long as the established Republican leadership is focused on besmirching Obama and his legacy, Clinton's way to the top is almost guaranteed – even if she doesn’t have that new car smell.
